Lynx rufus, Week 1

Bobcats (Lynx rufus) are North American cats that have a wide range from Canada throughout the United States. These small cats are about 20-40 lbs and have short, stumpy tails for which they are named. Powerful hunters, bobcats in Montana prefer snowshoe hares and red squirrels but are opportunistic hunters like most cats and will eat small rodents, birds, and fawns. Bobcats are often confused with Canadian lynx, but these are not the same cats, as bobcats are smaller than lynx and have different features. These cats range from shades of brown to gray and have various light solid spots throughout the coat, though not as prevalent as the spots on a serval or snow leopard. Bobcats have been legally hunted during the trapping season in Montana for their pelts, which are still considered an agricultural commodity (I do not support the fur industry no matter the species. We can talk fashion later). These cats have plenty of "cattitude," and although they can fall prey to wolves, coyotes, and mountain lions, these cats do well in the Montana forests.

This photo belongs to Roberta Newbury, the PhD candidate I am working for through the University of British Columbia. Most photo credits will go to Roberta (aka Bobbie) because her camera is way cooler than mine. This is one of the collared cats we are monitoring. Photo was taken when animal was trapped for collaring and prior to release. Collars do not hurt the animal.

The work I am doing this summer involves lots and lots of hiking. Bobbie and I are working in Flathead National Forest studying bobcat habitat selection as well as energy expenditures of these cats. We are also evaluating the presence of snowshoe hares and red squirrels (the main prey of bobcats) to determine where bobcats might travel through. Finally, we are taking vegetation surveys of sites to determine the density of areas for both rabbit and bobcat presence.

The reason I am developing hiking legs is because we use GPS to select sites in bobcat habitat. Although there is a lot more that goes into the process, each day involves traveling from one "site" to another using a compass and distance measurements. The good thing to note here is that if you ever get lost with me, I now know how to use a compass and navigate the wilderness using utm coordinates. I assist Bobbie with counting the steps from one site to another and count bunny pellets and squirrel middens (pellets are waste and middens are the remnants of pine cones. Squirrels are brutal to a pine cone, and the bunnies are eating well). I have learned a variety of scat identification as well as developed the sixth sense required of hikers in Montana if one hopes to survive. The forests are thick, busy, and full of black bears; grizzly bears; mountain lions deer and mule deer; moose; and a variety of small critters and hundreds of beautiful birds. The moose and bears are the most dangerous, followed by the elusive mountain lion and my general clumsiness on cliffs. Bobbie, however, has proven extremely knowledgeable and patient as I learn to climb over fallen trees and not fall down a lot. The hiking doesn't sound difficult in theory; however, long hours in mature forests with varying slopes and tough terrain are difficult to travel through without experience.

I've just finished week one of this new job. It has been a blast! The first day was very rough because we hiked through very mature forest with lots of fallen trees. It was a 13 hour day! Bobbie and I have become fast friends and we've enjoyed our combined squeals over the many wildlife sightings we've had in such a short time:

Day 1 included some very adorable mule deer fawn twins.

Day 2 involved having to climb a very steep little cliff. There were moose tracks up the dirt. I wasn't happy.

Day 6 involved FOUR bear sightings! We saw a bear that we thought was deaf, but it turns out she was focused on her yearling cubs just up the road, both of which we saw not five minutes later!

Mama bear is the first bear. Her yearling cubs (only one pictured, below) were quite curious about our truck. This guy stood up to get a better look. How cool!

The BEST part of this week, however, was when we rounded a corner on Day 3 and saw one of our bobcats sitting on the side of the road! Most wildlife sightings are by chance, as these guys do not like people. We know that this cat was one of ours because of the radio collar around his neck (they don't sport fashion on their own, these cats). The collars help us know where the cats are in the some 250,00 acres of forest, relatively. Bobbie has been teaching me about telemetry use:

Looking for bobcats can take all day, but it has been a nice break for our legs. I'm learning a variety of Montana plants as well as what to do to protect myself out in the wilderness. Montana is a beautiful state, and I'm having a beautiful time stretching my new hiking legs and chasing around my favorite species: cats!

Bobcats! In Montana!

Hello everyone!

I am excited (and a little exhausted) to type from my new apartment in Whitefish, Montana. I have been accepted to work the summer field season as assistant to PhD candidate Roberta Newbury studying bobcats in Flathead National Forest. Roberta's research focuses on bobcat movements within home ranges as well as investigating the prey species in northwest Montana. The summer field season consists of surveys in Flathead National Forest to estimate the presence of bobcat prey as well as the factors that contribute to habitat selection. I made the cross-country trip twice to move from North Carolina to Texas (my parents live in Houston), and then from Texas to Whitefish. Yes, those are a lot of miles and a lot of the USA! I have to thank my parents and my close friends for helping make this possible; without you I would probably still be lost on some back road in Idaho without half of my things and none of my hair.

I arrived in Whitefish five days ago and started my new job. I am adjusting to new and difficult work, so unfortunately I don't yet have time to recount what I've experience or learned in this short time. Please stay tuned in the next week, as I have time off from work and will devote a few posts with pictures! I can report that I have not yet seen my first moose, or grizzly bear. Montana wildlife is nothing I've ever experienced, and trekking this beautiful forest is the next step in my developing a niche in exotic cat conservation.

Isabella Tiger and the Wobbly Sister

Carolina Tiger Rescue's oldest and very special tigress Isabella passed away at the end of May, marking a long life and an example of an ideal life in captivity with compassionate veterinary care. Isabella was born with epilepsy, a disease that causes seizures. Having been on phenobarbital for her entire life, Izzy's seizures were suppressed as best as possible. Because this medication does not cure the condition in animals or humans, Izzy was housed alone for concern that a seizure would trigger the prey drive in an enclosure partner and cause injury or worse for Izzy. As one of the friendliest tigers at Carolina Tiger, Isabella received regular showers in the summer (a pool would risk drowning were she to have a seizure) as well as tons of affection from the entire family at Carolina Tiger Rescue. Always ready for a visit, Izzy enjoyed going on "tiger walks" along the fence with friends and has long been considered the sweetest of the tigers at the sanctuary. At nineteen, she was old for any tiger in captivity and especially old compared to the liefespan of tigers in the wild. She suffered a severe bladder infection in December and pulled through, in addition to another scare in March, where she was almost humanely euthanized because she was so ill. However, she recovered from both illnesses and continued to be a happy and elderly lady. With summer fast approaching in hot North Carolina, however, Isabella's health gradually deteriorated in addition to her appetite disappearing. Carolina Tiger Rescue staff found need to humanely end her suffering. Necropsy results showed utera pyometra, which is an infection in the uterus. She had infectious tumors in her uterus that, if they ruptured, would cause a painful death for Izzy. Luckily she did not suffer this. She also was lacking fluid in her pericardial sac (around her heart) and the wheezing it caused would have only worsened and contributed to a painful end. Animals in captivity can suffer lonely and unhealthy lives, or they can enjoy the best accepted practices available. Izzy was one of those tigers because she called Carolina Tiger Rescue home. She was one of my favorite cats at the sanctuary and although I mourned her death, I recognize that death is not unwelcome in the animal world. We as humans are able to offer relief from suffering with medicine, and sometimes euthanasia. Isabella Tiger will remain one of the tigers who was at the sanctuary that helped start my career. I hope that adoptive parents, volunteers, interns and staff continue to care for each animal in the same manner that Izzy was loved at Carolina Tiger Rescue.

Nenya Caracal, affectionally known as one of the two Wobbly Sisters, also passed this moth. Nenya and her sister, Scylla, have a condition called cerebral hypochondroplasia. This condition affects the cats' ability to balance, and as a result they walk in a wobbly manner. This condition is the result of a virus that the mother was probably exposed to when the cats were in vitro. Nenya lost the ability to walk and after a few days the decision was made to humanely euthanize her. Her back legs gave out, and at ten years old, she lived a long and healthy life; just a little wobbly. The Wobbly Girls were in my assigned areas during my internship with Carolina Tiger Rescue, and I enjoyed trying to come up with new ideas for enrichment for the pair. Although Nenya (and Scylla) were physically disabled, they both were still very capable of sticking a paw through the fence to try to tag you (and not in the childhood game fashion). Cats form bonds like humans, so her sister Scylla probably has had to adjust to the absence of her sister, but Carolina Tiger Rescue has reported that she is doing fine (still wobbly).

Carolina Tiger Rescue is one of two legitimate wildlife sanctuaries on the east coast (the other is Big Cat Rescue). Although other facilities house recsued exotics, Carolina Tiger Rescue is one of the models of excellence in exotic animal care. I am thankful to have worked with a facility with such high standards and such amazing animals.

Please continue to follow this blog, as I am beginning the next chapter in my career: bobcat research in Montana!

Deworming and Vitamins

Medical care is not just treatment of illness, but also prevention of illness. Like domestic cats and dogs, we deworm the animals at Carolina Tiger Rescue to prevent internal parasites. I've been sent on deworming runs a few times since being an intern, and here is the run-down:

For binturongs, we use a liquid dewormer that is injected into a mouse or a banana (no living prey of course). Because binturongs are also carnivores, we use mice because it is a welcome treat. However, because bananas are a binturongs favorite fruit in the whole world, we like to give them options.

The dewormer is measured based on the weight of the binturong and administered once monthly. Deworming is also a good time to monitor the health and behavior of the individual animal, and a great time to have a little visit and give them some attention.

We also use liquid vitamins once a week for our cats. These liquid vitamins are injected into chicken once a week for each cat depending on size. In the wild, carnivores consume a variety of prey and absorb their vitamins and minerals from consuming the intestines or blood supply of their prey. While we offer our cats a whole carcass diet, the chickens we receive from the processing plant do not completely cover the nutrient needs met in the wild. Our cats are not traveling as they would in the wild, so additional nutrients absorbed from the dirt or grass (exotic cats will eat grass too) is not really accomplished in captivity. The vitamins provide those necessary and vital organic compounds for physiological function. A lot of zoos and sanctuaries do not feed whole diets- meaning they do not offer bone or instead of real meat use commercial kibble diets. While commercial diets may be USDA approved, the whole carcass diet most closely resembles a diet in the wild because carnivores need to consume bone and internal organs in addition to meat to get vitamins such as calcium and taurine. This is why exotic cats make poor pets- it is difficult to meet their nutritional needs. Domestic cats are adapted to commercial kibble diets, and exotic cats are not the same in their dietary needs.

Injecting a whole chicken with liquid vitamins for one of our tigers with volunteer Robin Thomson.

See Lucky Run

Although Carolina Tiger Rescue strongly opposes the owning of exotic animals as pets, we do not ignore that these cats can also be a lot of fun to interact with. Because the majority of our animals come from situations where they were raised by humans, a lot of the animals at Carolina Tiger Rescue are social and enjoy human-animal interaction (with a fence between them, always). This is called protected contact. A lot of zoos are switching from a method called free contact (where animals keepers work alongside animals to clean, feed, etc) to protected contact to avoid injury or worse (think of cleaning an elephant's foot, the danger of working with raptors, or being mauled by large predator... not fun). Carolina Tiger Rescue takes every precaution to ensure happy lives for both animals and volunteers. That being said, we really enjoy visiting and interacting with these cats! If you haven't visited or volunteered, you definitely should so you can See Lucky Run. Lucky is one of our largest male tigers who was rescued from a private owner during a routine traffic stop (imagine your flashlight coming to rest on a fifty pound tiger cub in the backseat of a car). He lives with Carmelita Tiger and their enclosure has a shift that sits on a small hill. I discovered on accident in my first months as an intern that Lucky is a bit of a prankster. Always being careful when changing water, I almsot came out of my skin one day when out of nowhere a giant orange tiger throws himself against the fence. Once I re-learned how to breathe, good old Lucky was stalking me in true wiggle-butt fashion. Neither aggressive nor irritated, Lucky just wanted to play Hide and Seek.

Seriously.

One of my favorite pastimes while working as an intern has been to hide behind one of the metal shift doors and wait for Lucky to come careening down that hill to scare me. My response is to always jump up and pretend that I am found, or to jump up and yell "Boo!" When I yell at this tiger like he is a four year old, Lucky turns and sprints back up the hill because it is his turn to be scared. This could go on forever, but usually lasts around five minutes until Lucky gets winded and plops down by the fence (which is really good,  because if a tiger is winded, I'm probably ready for an oxygen tank). Lucky never tires of planning his next mock attack. The only way to get him to change his plans is if the food truck comes around, and since that only happens once a day, we settle for entertaining him as best we can.

I got lucky with this shot! No pun intended. We were playing hide and seek and I clicked the camera just as he came full speed.

Thoughts From the Intern

My internship with Carolina Tiger Rescue is almost over, and I am sad at the idea of leaving the amazing family of Carolina Tiger Rescue. I have benefited in so many ways through working here the last eight months, and in ways I never thought possible. I set extremely high standards for myself, and this means that I am constantly concerned that I am not doing my best or that I am not learning enough to be the best. I have done a lot of learning while at Carolina Tiger Rescue. For example, I have learned that throwing 15 lb chickens is extremely stressful when they get stuck at the top of the fence and you have a manic tiger ready to jump that fence in order to get to you or that chicken (whichever comes first). I have also learned that if something can go wrong, then it probably will. You will forget to shift a tiger, or you will spray water all over yourself in 25 degree F weather. You will also always be the girl to get a rack of ribs hooked at the top of the fence (this was last week). You will totally forget to keep up with logging your hours (oops),  and you will most definitely be at the bottom of the compound when you need the knife or shovel you left at the top. And you will absolutely leave work every day covered in chicken guts.

I've loved it.

This organization has really shown me how humans and animals can really be a family. While these animals ARE NOT pets and would most likely eat you given the chance, the bonds between the humans and animals here at Carolina Tiger Rescue are strong as well as inspiring. I've grown to know and love each of the animals we take care of, and it has been such a joy learning with them.

I remember being in middle school and going out to eat with friends and having to choose the table we sat at was stressful... I mean, how do you pick the right table for a group to sit at when you are 14? What if you end up in a crowded corner or you can't get away from that screaming baby? How do you decide that? While that seems like such a silly concept, I compare that young insecurity to the beginning of my internship. What if I mixed up the medication between cats? Will I always forget that stupid knife? Can I really go out and feed tigers all by myself? What if someone thinks my questions are silly? Being new to working with big cats was a little daunting at first because there is so much to learn. It's hard to be independent when you don't know what you're doing, and even more frustrating when you are chomping at the bit to catch up with those who already know so much. I've grown so independent in this internship: although I still forget that stupid knife sometimes, I rarely have to ask questions and I can make a lot of decisions easily and confidently. It's a really cool feeling to graduate to that level because you know you really are capable of taking care of these animals. Obviously skill comes with practice, but I didn't anticipate that this internship would make me feel so self-assured in all areas of my life. I can now pick the table to eat at with ease!

What won't be easy is leaving. I have no desire to leave any of the animals, but in particular the ones I've had bonding experiences with, from fence chats to near-misses of being clawed to watching animals recover from serious illnesses. I'll also desperately miss the insane and fun-loving staff and volunteers I've bonded with through these cats. As summer approaches, Carolina Tiger Rescue will be welcoming eight new interns, and although I'm jealous that they will be taking over, I'm confident that they too will learn and develop new passion and skills for these animals.

I plan to return for summer as a volunteer, so I'll be around pending I don't get accepted for some research assistant positions I've applied for. So in reality I'm not leaving yet, but my days of proudly boasting the Intern title are drawing to an end. I'm finishing my intern project and have more posts to put up here, so don't quit reading on me yet! There are plenty of funny stories as well as great pictures I'll be posting soon.

I'm graduating college in three weeks and I'm looking into the next steps for my career as a cat conservationist, but Carolina Tiger Rescue will always be home to me. Check back in the coming weeks for more photos and cool stories!

New Skills?

The new bobcat at Carolina Tiger has been trying to adjust for some time in his new environment... he just hasn't gotten used to his enormous enclosure yet, mostly due to the fact that his previous living conditions were about the size of a queen bed. Collins is pretty cool, however, and we hope that in time he will become less stressed and not pace so much. In preparation for making his new dig as cozy as possible, I spent some time on top of his thirty-some foot enclosure removing old shade tarps. The tarps were obviously useful at some point for shade form the hot North Carolina sun, but some of them have become thin and tattered and need to be replaced all over the compound. Tarp removal is just one of the many components of this internship, as captive management is not just about taking care of the animals themselves... you have to maintain the facility as well! This includes all sorts of unglamorous activity, of which I would consider climbing thirty feet on wobbly fence to be one of. However, I must have proved my ability at doing this, because through the close of winter I definitely became the tarp removal girl, and volunteers could see me doing all kinds of strange acrobatics on weekends removing torn and tattered tarps from the tops or sides of enclosures. I did have one interesting experience in which Ragsdale the caracal (who is a Level 3 on aggression... meaning that only keepers clean his enclosure because he is very fiesty) came and sat right below me on a particularly low part of the fence. Anyone who says these cats aren't smart is crazy, because I swear I saw the cogs in his head turning as he contemplated taking a bite out of my backside. Humor aside, managing enclosures in captivity is a constant chore, as there is always a need for replacing wood, updating doors and screws and hinges, and the obvious: making sure an animal cannot hurt himself or escape.