Bobcat attacks woman in Show Low, AZ

Posted: Apr 29, 2013

Posted by Phil Benson

A bobcat like this one attacked a woman in Show Low Sunday night. (Source: KPHO-TV)

PHOENIX (AP/CBS5) - 

A necropsy and rabies testing are being performed on a bobcat after the animal was seen acting aggressively near the site of an attack in Show Low.

A woman was scratched and bitten on her thigh by a bobcat Sunday at about 10:30 p.m. behind a Lowe's store, the Arizona Game and Fish Department said in a press release.

She was given rabies vaccines and anti-rabies serum as a precaution. A bobcat was spotted nearby by a Navajo County deputy sheriff, who killed it.

"Bobcats rarely attack people, but when they do, the animal is often rabid," said Bruce Sitko, department spokesman. "While we don't expect a larger outbreak of the virus in the local area, we want to err on the side of caution in alerting residents to watch and report any abnormal behaviors in other wild or domestic animals, as this bobcat may have had contact with them."

Rabies is a viral disease that attacks the central nervous system and is always fatal once symptoms appear. The virus can be transmitted to people or animals through bites from infected animals or exposure to infected saliva through open wounds or mucous membranes, the department said.
The department said the last case of a bobcat testing positive for rabies anywhere in Arizona was a single incident in 2011.

Health Services and department officials recommend the following to protect individuals and pets from rabies:

• Do not pick up, touch or feed wild or unfamiliar mammals.
• If someone is bitten or scratched, or has had contact with an animal, report it immediately to animal control or health officials and consult a physician as soon as possible. 
• When enjoying outdoor activities, such as hiking or camping, avoid wild mammals, especially those that are behaving abnormally. Such behavior from the animal might include showing no fear; unusual vocalizing; staggering and/or acting sickly; and nocturnal mammals active during daytime.
• Campers should keep pets under control and maintain a clean camp to discourage visits from unwanted wildlife. Do not leave uneaten food out when retiring for the evening.
• Keep pets on a leash and do not allow them to wander.
• Vaccinate dogs and cats against rabies.
• Do not disturb roosting bats. 

source

Tiger walks into Nandankanan Zoo in Odisha

PTI : Bhubaneswar, Tue Apr 30 2013

 

In a rare incident, the authorities of Nandankanan Zoo have been successful in capturing a wild Royal Bengal Tiger (RBT) today as the animal walked into its safari on its own.

The tiger had recently set panic in the Zoo near here as it was freely roaming in the adjacent sanctuary area for the last few months.

"The animal was trapped in the tiger safari by tracking its movement through CCTV cameras", Sudarshan Panda, the director of Nandankanan Zoo said.
Some of Zoo staff had earlier reported the presence of a wild tiger in the forest adjacent to the zoo.
"We had also got pug marks of a feline near lion and tiger safari areas. We had fixed trap cameras to monitor its movement and had fixed a CCTV also," an official said.

The Zoo authority had set up a 20 member team to capture the tiger.
"Our team members found through the CCTV camera when it entred the first gate of the tiger safari at about 12.30 am yesterday. Immediately the gate was closed from behind," the official said.
Later, the Zoo staff closed one gate after another by finding its movement in the tiger, said C R Mishra, deputy director of the zoo.
"It is a healthy male tiger of about 7-years-old,¿ he added.

According to the chief conservator of forest (wildlife), J D Sharma, the tiger might have sneaked into Nandankanan Sanctuary area from Satkosia Tiger Reserve.
"It could have come in search of food," Sharma said.
Asked about the next course of action, Sharma said the Zoo authority would draw attention of the National Zoo Authority and National Tiger Conservation Authority regarding rehabilitation of the animal.

"We do not know whether the captured tiger will remain in Nandankanan. Presently, it is inside the tiger safari," Panda said adding that there are 24 tigers in Nandankanan zoo.
Sources said a tigress from wild had entered into Nandankanan zoo in 1967 and kept in captivity.

source

Psst. Wanna Play Pool?

Image of the Day

Luva proudly standing in the snow, a photo by Tambako the Jaguar on Flickr.

Big cat baby boom: German safari park celebrates bumper birth of rare white lions and tigers

• Since their discovery, white lions have been forcibly removed from their natural habitat
• The last white lion was seen in the wild in 1994

By Tara Brady
PUBLISHED: 29 April 2013 

For centuries, white cats have been considered sacred and are said to embody the light of the gods because of their colouring. 
But their rarity has counted against them and they are now technically considered extinct. 
However, one safari park in Germany is celebrating a bumper year of youngsters being born. 

Playful: These lions and tigers at a safari park in German mess about

Tyler, Muck, Nandor and Masai, all white lions, arrived at the Schloss Holte-Stukenbrock safari park, in July last year. 

The cats are now busy enjoying the great outdoors in their enclosure along with the rest of their family including father Kimba.

Meanwhile white tiger trio, Arturo, Ketama and Flores were born in December. 
Despite being taken away from their mother, they were hand-reared by keepers instead. 

Fighting extinction: Uschi Griese feeds three white tigers at the specialist safari park in Germany

Pride: Young white lions relax at Schloss Holte-Stukenbrock safari park

Obedient: Young white lions with their father Kimba at a safari park in Germany which is celebrating a bumper crop of youngsters

A white tiger baby being fed by keeper Uschi Griese. Although they still enjoy a bottle, the animals are being weaned and will soon be allowed to explore the great outdoors

Although they still enjoy a bottle, they are currently being weaned and will soon be allowed to explore the great outdoors. 
It is estimated there are only 500 white lions in the world and all but a handful are in captivity. 

The rarity of white lions means that a single white male can sold for up to £80,000.
The greater Timbavati region in eastern South Africa is the only place on Earth where white lions have been found. 
Europeans first recorded them in the Thirties, but they have been associated with the region for centuries.

Young white lions at Schloss Holte-Stukenbrock safari park which is Europe's largest breeder of white big cats

Getting a telling off: Father Kimba puts the young white lion into place at the safari park in Germany

source 

Leopard vs. Piñata! Ole!

Excited cheetah grazes face of Botswana president

Posted at: 04/29/2013
By MICHELLE FAUL

(AP) JOHANNESBURG - An overexcited cheetah jumped up from behind a fence and scratched the face of Botswana’s President Ian Khama, causing minor injuries, the southern African leader’s spokesman said Monday.

It was "a freak accident, not an attack," spokesman Jeff Ramsay told The Associated Press by telephone.

He said Khama did not go to the hospital but saw a doctor who gave him two stitches to his nose for the "minor wounds."

Khama, 60, was asked about it when he appeared at public meetings in southeast Botswana with a plaster on his nose.

The cheetah is part of a menagerie kept by soldiers at the Botswana Defense Force barracks at Mogoditshane in Gaberone, the capital.

Ramsay said Khama went to watch the cheetahs being fed early last week, as he often does. "One of them got excited and jumped up at him" with its claw reaching above the enclosure, Ramsay said. Khama is well over 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall.

"The president was scratched a bit on the nose and elsewhere ... the claw basically grazed his face."
He said it all happened very swiftly, catching the president and his aide by surprise. Cheetahs are the fastest land animals in the world, a vulnerable species with little more than 7,000 adults remaining in Africa and Iran, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Khama’s attacker was at the Botswana Defense Force Animal Awareness Park, which the president himself established in 1989 when he was a lieutenant general in command of Botswana’s armed forces.

He began the park to teach wild animal behavior to soldiers who were being deployed to fight poachers killing rhinos and elephants. The park, which has been opened to the public and is a favorite outing for school children, now holds lions and leopards, crocodiles and snakes, monkeys, baboons and zebras.

Khama, whose father was the first president of independent Botswana, was elected president in 2008. He’s known as a no-nonsense, straight-talking leader who drives himself around. He is known for his criticism of his neighbor, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who was elected in 1980 but has clung to power recently through elections marked by state-sponsored violence and torture to intimidate voters, according to human rights groups. Khama’s government has suggested that southern African countries should close their borders with landlocked Zimbabwe to force Mugabe to hold free elections.

More recently, Khama was in the news last month with stringent criticism of Chinese enterprise in his country. In an interview with South Africa’s BusinessDay newspaper, Khama said Botswana had had bad experiences with Chinese companies and called their construction work "not the best." He blamed one for chronic power outages in his usually efficient country and said his government is giving special scrutiny to any Chinese contracts.

Khama also complained to BusinessDay about perceived excessive Chinese migration. "We accept China’s goods. But they don’t have to export their population to sell us those goods," he said. "They will crowd us out."

source

Image of the Day

Kuvam posing in the sun, a photo by Tambako the Jaguar on Flickr.

11 Reasons Cats Make The Best Alarm Clocks

If you're using a non-furry alarm clock to get out of bed in the morning, you're stuck in the dark ages. Sure, cats don't always pick exactly the right time to wake you up, but you can't say they're inconsistent.  

April 24, 2013 

Community Contributor

Jack Shepherd /expresident

1. They will patiently wait for exactly the right time.

Source: devoureth.tumblr.com

2. They are willing to deploy a personal touch.

Source: bunnyfood.tumblr.com

3. They never run out of batteries.

Source: imgur.com

4. They are both timely and persistent.

Source: imgur.com

5. They will perform their role in a regular and timely fashion without getting too invested in it.

Source: amk.to

6. They refuse to accept even your best excuses for staying in bed.

Source: 

7. They are willing to take great risks in order to get the job done.

Source: internet-pets.blogspot.com

8. If you ask nicely, they may even wake you up with a massage.

Source: media.tumblr.com

9. Unless you need a more vigorous wake-up-call, in which case they are happy to oblige.

Source: i.imgur.com

10. They are fundamentally and morally opposed to the "snooze" button.

Source: 

11. And, if you're lucky enough to get your hands on a top-of-the-line model, they will wake you with a kiss.

Source: forgifs.com

source 

Image of the Day

Very big lioness yawn, a photo by Tambako the Jaguar on Flickr.

'New reports every week' says big cat hunter

A big cat hunter claims to be receiving reports of new sightings every week. 

  

Image courtesty of Tambako the Jaguar on Flickr

By Claire Duffin

26 Apr 2013

Jonathan McGowan has been seeking to prove the existence of big cats in Britain since 1984, when he saw what he believed was a puma.

He has been collecting what he claims is evidence and has been urging people to report any sightings to him.

Mr McGowan, from Bournemouth, said he was now being contacted on a weekly basis.

"Every week I get reports, some of which are cats seen by multiple witnesses, or cats seen by several people in different vehicles, for example, in a traffic jam," he told the BBC.

"It is good just to speak to the witnesses just to relax them and let them know that they are not unique, they are not mad."

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  28 Aug 2012

The existence of big cats in the British countryside has been debated for decades.
Most of the alleged sightings have come since the Dangerous Wild Animals Act of 1976 made it illegal to keep untamed pets. Some said this led to owners of exotic cats, such as pumas or lynx, simply freeing their animals into the countryside.

Although the sightings are often dismissed as hoax and fantasy McGowan is convinced of their existence and has been collecting what he claims is evidence for 12 years. During this time he has amassed a variety of fur samples, footprints and bones, which he believes have come from big cats.
He said: "People are sceptical because big cats are iconic. People think that Britain is so cold and rainy and boring that we could not have big animals like leopards and pumas here. But once you start looking for evidence it all falls into place."

Mr McGowan's claims come after scientists revealed on Thursday that a predatory Canadian lynx, more than twice the size of a domestic cat, prowled the British countryside a century ago.
They studied the animal's skeleton and skin, which had been donated to Bristol Museum at the time of its death and kept in its stores for decades, and concluded that it has been roaming fields in the south west of England in 1903 before being shot after attacking two dogs in Devon in around 1903.
Tests also found that the lynx had probably spent some time in captivity before escaping or being set free.

source

Cheetahs in race to survive

JOHANNESBURG (April 28, 2013): The cheetah, the world's fastest land animal, survived mass extinction during the last ice age 10,000 years ago.
But it has taken just the last few decades for man to place the hunter on the endangered species list, with experts warning it could disappear from the wild by 2030.

Unlike rhinos and elephants, the cheetah is not a target in Africa's poaching bloodbath. But it is the only big cat to adapt poorly in wildlife reserves as its natural habitat is increasingly wiped out.
"Cheetahs don't do well in protected wildlife reserves due to increased competition from other larger predators, such as lions and hyenas, which thrive in protected areas," Laurie Marker of the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia told AFP.

"Most protected areas are unable to maintain viable cheetah populations," she added.
In the early 20th century, the global cheetah population was around 100,000 with populations throughout Africa, the Middle East and several Asian countries.
There are barely 10,000 in the wild today, in Africa, and a small population in Iran which is critically endangered.

According to big cat NGO Panthera, cheetahs have disappeared from 77 percent of their original territory in Africa.
The International Union of the Conservation of Nature lists the southern African species as vulnerable.

"The main limitation to the survival of the species in the wild is reduction and fragmentation of habitat as well as human wildlife conflict," said Marker.
If no special measures are taken, wild cheetah will disappear by 2030, according to Panthera.
The greyhound-like cat, with its distinctive tear-stain-like facial markings and spotted golden coat, is a consistent loser in confrontations with lions or leopards which are heavier and more powerful.

Even in a good scenario, its prey will be stolen before it has a chance to feed. In the worst cases, the cheetah will be killed.
The sprinter, which reaches speeds of up to 120 kilometres per hour (74 miles per hour) needs vast open spaces with a low density of fellow carnivores to thrive.
In Africa, it is estimated that 90 percent of cheetahs live alongside humans where they are often in conflict with livestock farms.

Another handicap it faces is natural inbreeding dating back to the last ice age when the global population plunged.
As a result, according to the Cheetah Conservation Fund, every cheetah today is as closely related as if they were twins, leading to a genetic bottleneck.

This puts the cheetah in an unenviable position. To enable the mixing of genes, they need a greater range than other animals to be able to freely migrate. But as humans increasingly encroach on its environment, this has become even more difficult.

Researchers know that isolated micro-populations of threatened species lead to rapid extinction.
So in the short-term, the easily tamed animal is being raised in captivity. Private farmers, notably in South Africa, exchange individuals to maintain a healthy population.

A pioneer of this approach is the Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre near Johannesburg, which has achieved 800 births since the 1970s.
It's an encouraging figure for the survival of the species. But what lies ahead for those in the wild?
"Our research and experience shows that even wild cheetahs that have not had at least 18 months of life with a mother in their natural habitat have a difficult time being re-wilded," said the Cheetah Conservation Fund's Marker.

"They simply don't learn the survival skills necessary to sustain themselves in the wild."
"A cheetah born in captivity, one that never has the experience of living in the wild with its mother, would have virtually no chance of success if released."
Against these odds, some game farm owners are hoping for miracles.

Damien Vergnaud is one of them. In the desert-like Karoo, a few hours from Cape Town, he owns the 10,000 hectare Inverdoorn private reserve.
"We hope to soon release three cheetahs in a totally wild environment, with minimal human interaction," he told AFP.

The Cheetah Conservation Fund would like to see the cat's range boosted -- not by traditional means of snapping up large areas of land, but through corridors that allow them to move freely.
"We'd like to see the cheetah's range increasing, with populations linked with each other through corridors, and even see cheetahs reintroduced to former range countries, like India," said Marker.


source
 – AFP

Dog brings the cat home!

The Year of the Cat

By LIESL SCHILLINGER

Published: April 26, 2013

According to the Chinese lunar calendar, the Year of the Snake began on Feb. 10. But by most other standards, 2013 is shaping up to be the Year of the Cat. In the first week of February, Hasbro, makers of the Monopoly board game, announced they were replacing one of the traditional tokens, the flat iron, with a curvaceous silver pussycat. Ailurophobes howled, blaming the “all-powerful cat lobby” (so teased a reporter on NPR), but the evidence suggests that public taste alone explains the switch.

There are 86 million cats in American households, and in a Facebook survey, the nimble cat instantly leapt ahead of the regular Monopoly retinue to become players’ piece of choice — nearly twice as popular as the Scottie Dog, and three times more popular than the Car and Battleship. Take that, cat detractors!

In March, Grumpy Cat, a scowling feline who receives one and a half million hits a month on her Web site, grumpycats.com, further heightened the profile of her species with a multistop media blitz. On the 6th, she traveled to Austin, Tex., where she was met by her sponsor (Friskies) and her agent, Ben Lashes (who manages many memes), and attended the South by Southwest 2013 festival. Two weeks later, she flew to New York, where she appeared on “Good Morning America,” gave an interview to Forbes, and dropped by Time Magazine for her close-up as meme of the moment.

There is no word on a reality TV show: the bases on that are covered, what with “My Cat From Hell” having just begun its fourth season on Animal Planet (hosted by the tattooed “cat listener” Jackson Galaxy), and a family-friendly new program, “Psycho Kitty,” set to be broadcast on Discovery UK this fall, hosted by the Nashville-based animal behaviorist Pam Johnson-Bennett, who is the author of seven books on cat training. (Yes, apparently, you can train a cat.)

Still, Grumpy Cat nabbed a book deal, even though clowders of other cats have beaten her to the punch. April saw the publication of “Lost Cat: A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology” (Bloomsbury, 176 pp., $20), written by the amateur pilot and seasoned cat lover Caroline Paul and illustrated by her partner, the artist Wendy MacNaughton. Last year, while recovering from a bad accident in an experimental plane, in which she smashed her ankle and broke her leg, Ms. Paul suffered the further trauma of having her cat Tibia (Tibby) go missing for weeks — “waving his wild tail, and walking by his wild lone,” as Rudyard Kipling once put it.

Tormented by visions of “catnappers, vivisectionists,” Ms. Paul blanketed her neighborhood with fliers and even consulted a psychic, to no avail. Luckily, the cat came back. Upon Tibby’s return, Ms. Paul clipped a GPS tracker to his collar in an effort to reconstruct where he had strayed (seedy juke joints, she thought, or a Russian bathhouse, or Antarctica). In the book, her text and Ms. MacNaughton’s ink and wash drawings record the sometimes true, sometimes fanciful results of her sleuthing (and guesswork) in memoir form.

In a different memoir, “Another Insane Devotion: On the Love of Cats and Persons” (DaCapo Lifelong, 304 pp., $24), Peter Trachtenberg tried to figure out what motivated the various women and cats in his life (particularly his cats Bitey and Biscuit), and failed entertainingly at both endeavors. “I’m always conscious that my judgments about what a cat is thinking or feeling aren’t really judgments but projections,” he writes.

Far from frivolous, such meditations lie at the heart of the scientific quest. In her optimistically titled book, “The Cat Whisperer: Why Cats Do What They Do — and How to Get Them to Do What You Want” (Random House, 336 pp., $24), Mieshelle Nagelschneider explains that cat owners’ D.I.Y. inquiry follows the time-honored research practice of “speculative tracking.” Her findings may come in handy for Mr. Trachtenberg. And if Ms. Paul and Ms. MacNaughton had been able to read Ms. Nagelschneider’s chapters on “The Compulsive Cat,” and “Mind-Throwing: Inside the Being of the Cat,” Tibby might not have strayed in the first place.

Then again, being a cat, he might have.

source 

As Florida Bill Looks To Aid Feral Cats, Opponents Claw Back

by Greg Allen, NPR

April 26, 2013

In state legislatures around the country, lawmakers are debating important subjects — education reform, election laws, gun control and abortion. But in Florida, one of the hottest issues to come before the Legislature this term involves cats. There, lawmakers are considering a contentious bill that would offer legal protection to groups that trap, neuter and return feral cats to their colonies.

An Alternative To Shelters

Larry Wasserscheid, a volunteer with a Miami group called The Cat Network, has brought a stray cat to a church parking lot in the city's Little Havana neighborhood. "This cat was at the Hurricane Cove Marina and Boatyard, where I was working on my boat and found five cats. And this is the fourth one that we're getting fixed here," he says.

The Cat Network is here every month, offering free spaying and neutering. There are more than 40 volunteers like Wasserscheid — people who trap the strays and bring them to the group's mobile vet unit to be fixed.

The group operates a trap-neuter-return program. It's actually more than a program; it's a movement that began in England and has spread throughout the U.S. since the 1990s.
Megan Clouser, the organization's president, says it started as people became aware of all the stray animals that were being killed in shelters. "Unfortunately, we've been doing that for about a hundred years now," she says. "So why not try something that keeps the animals out of the shelter and keeps them sterilized so they aren't reproducing?"

Inside the mobile unit, a vet and her three assistants are busy. There are a dozen cats in carriers. One by one, the cats' stomachs are shaved. Clouser says they're given rabies shots, sedated and then either neutered or spayed. "In addition to the actual sterilization, they also get the ear tip, in which the left ear is clipped — it goes straight across. And then anybody who's involved in the trap-neuter-return program will know that that animal has been sterilized," she says.

Clouser calls it a labor of love: All of those involved are volunteers, doing it because they like cats and want to help.

'A Nightmare For Us'

But not everyone thinks those activities are a good thing. "It's just been a nightmare for us," Charles Hall said at a recent hearing before a state Senate committee in Tallahassee. Hall said he and his wife lived next door to a colony of 40 to 50 feral cats. The noise, the nuisance and the smell were a big problem, he said, and he worries that trap-neuter-return programs aren't helping. "We no longer have rights," Hall said. "The cats have taken over our rights."

The bill before Florida's Senate, brought forward by community cat groups, would protect and promote trap-neuter-return programs by removing an obstacle that the groups say has halted these programs in some areas: a state law against abandoning cats.

Denise Lasher works with Best Friends Animal Society, the organization that helped write the bill. "All we're doing is clarifying that, under the definitions of community cat program, [trap-neuter-return programs] would not be abandonment under the state law," she told the Senate committee.

Opponents Question Program's Benefits 

There were plenty of cat lovers at that hearing, but almost an equal number opposed to the bill. Some cited a threat to public health. But the best-organized opposition to the Florida bill comes from those with their own furry and feathered creatures to protect: wildlife groups, especially those that represent birdwatchers.

Bob Johns of the American Bird Conservancy says that although cats make nice pets, they don't belong in the wild. "Feral cats are not native to North America. And they frankly did not evolve in this environment," he says. "So wildlife never evolved any defenses against this predator."

A study published earlier this year by the Smithsonian and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that outdoor cats are the leading cause of death for birds in the U.S., killing between 1.4 billion and 3.7 billion birds annually.

What's not clear is whether trap-neuter-return programs actually reduce feral cat populations. Some studies show that, even when they're targeted by the programs, cat colonies often continue to grow.
Dozens of cities around the country and a few states have adopted laws and ordinances supporting trap-neuter-return programs. Wildlife groups are hoping to block the legislation here to stop Florida from following suit.

source

14 Cats That Belong In The Matrix

You have to see it for yourself. posted on April 23, 2013

Benny Johnson BuzzFeed Staff

Everyone knows cats kind of belong in the matrix.

14. "Welcome…to the real world."

Via: forgifs.com

13. "There is no spoon."

Via: Tumblr.com

12. "Stop trying to hit me and hit me!"

Via: Tumblr.com

11. "I'm trying to free your mind, Neo."

Via: Tumblr.com

10. "Guns.. lots of guns..."

Via: memebase.cheezburger.com

9. "It seems that you've been living two lives."

Via: icanhas.cheezburger.com

8. "Dodge this."

Via: Tumblr.com

7. "Reality is a thing of the past."

Via: Tumblr.com

6. "I know kung-fu."

Via: forgifs.com

5. "Follow the white rabbit."

Via: Tumblr.com

4. "Welcome to the Real World."

Via: youtube.com

3. "I can only show you the door, you have to walk through it."

Via: youtube.com

2. "Do you think that's air you're breathing now?"

Via: forgifs.com

1. "My name … is NEO!"

And after a long day of Matrixing it's time for a nap.

Via: gifbin.com

source 

Big Cats Like Cardboard Boxes Too

Chris Higgins

Image credit: 

YouTube / Big Cat Rescue

Everyone knows house cats love to mess around with cardboard boxes -- they make great sleeping quarters, they're good for a scratch or a bite, and they make exciting rustling noises when moved. But do big cats (think lions, tigers, and leopards) like boxes too? Big Cat Rescue in Tampa shows us a series of adorable examples in this video.

Trivia fun: try to name the species of big cats you see. I didn't recognize what "Rusty" was, so I looked him up on BCR's website. (If you want a spoiler, he's a Caracal.)

source

Orphaned Bobcat 'Chips' Released into the Wild

By Robyn Ridpath, Assignment Editor

POSTED:  Apr 22 2013

Chips prior to her release into bobcat territory. Photo courtesy of Sierra Wildlife Rescue.

HUMBOLDT, Calif. - 

  The bobcat kitten who was rescued by firefighters during the Chips Forest Fire in Plumas County last August, was released into bobcat territory in Humboldt County Friday.
"Chips," who gained national attention, was found wandering a long a road near Lake Almanor. At first, firefighters left Chips alone, but Chips followed the sounds of their voices and had trouble opening her eyes due to ash in the air. Chips' eyes were full of soot and ashes and her paws had second-degree burns.

Chips is eight months old now, but was rescued at only four weeks old by US Forest Service firefighter Tad Hair, of the Mad River Hand Crew.  The bobcat kitten was taken to Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care for medical treatment by veterinarians and rehabbers, and then transferred to a Sierra Wildlife Rescue facility in Placerville.

As a kitten, Chips was thought to be a little too “friendly,” due to necessary handling by humans to treat her extensive injuries. Early concerns were that she would not become wild enough to be released. 

However, over months in the company of other bobcats, she became cautious of any human contact, and grew up eating, playing, wrestling and competing with her den mates.

Prior to her release, Chips and and her den mate Sierra both growled and snarled at their rehabber and lunged at the camera, showing the kind of instinctive wild behavior rehabbers ensure is present in any animal prior to its release.

source

Myth About 'Big Cat' Prowling British Countryside Becomes Reality With New Discovery

By Sam Goodwin | Apr 26, 2013

Myth About 'Big Cat' Prowling British Countryside Becomes Reality With New Discover (Photo : Flickr)

Scientists have made a new discover that might confirm claims of a popular myth about a "big cat" prowling the countryside of Britain.

As famous as the myths about Loch Ness monster, Big Foot and New York City's sewer alligators, is the popular myth that a large cat roams the British country. Now, scientists have made a discovery that suggests that there might indeed be a 'big cat' that prowled the British countryside in England, or it might have in the early 1900s.

The discovery was made when a mounted Canadian lynx was rediscovered in a museum's underground storeroom. Since its entrance into the museum, it has been labelled as a Eurasian lynx, which once roamed the British countryside and became extinct around the 7th century. However, on further investigation it was discovered that the creature has been wrongly labelled and that it was actually a non native cousin of the Eurasian lynx.

A landowner in the Devon countryside had shot this Canadian lynx in the early 1900s when it killed two of the owner's dogs. The lynx is known to be twice the size of a normal household cat. The creature is originally an inhabitant of North America. Northeast, the northern Rocky Mountains, the Great Lakes States and the southern Rocky Mountains are four regions in the U.S. where this creature generally exists. The animal prefers hunting and travelling alone and is found in both young and old forests. As of now, only 1,000 lynxes exist in the U.S..

"This Edwardian feral lynx provides concrete evidence that although rare, exotic felids have occasionally been part of the British fauna for more than a century," said Ross Barnett, lead researcher, in a news release. "The animal remains are significant in representing the first historic big cat from Britain."

"There have been enough sightings of exotic big cats which substantially pre-date 1976 to cast doubt on the idea that one piece of legislation made in 1976 explains all releases of these animals in the UK," said co-author Darren Naish in a news release. "It seems more likely that escapes and releases have occurred throughout history, and that this continual presence of aliens explains the 'British big cat' phenomenon."
source

Image of the Day (Catchup post)

Diego

 
Chicago

Diego