Osceola reserve will soon be home to lions, tigers, cougars. Right now, the plot of land along an empty stretch of US 441 doesn't look like much. But soon, the tigers are coming. "Our
31 tigers are the largest number of tigers of any facility in Florida,"
said Central Florida Animal Reserve senior vice president K. Simba
Wiltz, standing amid the empty shells of the buildings that will one day
echo with growls, roars, and — if all goes well — cougar calls.
Right now, about 15 barns are going up at the site — once the location of a private owner's tool shop, as confirmed by the many car parts and debris they keep digging up. Each building will contain one to two large enclosures, complete with concrete dens and pools provided as in-kind donations by companies like Cemex. And just like non-feline Central Florida residents, the cats will be a mix of singles and roomies. "Some of the cats do cohabitate," Wiltz said. "Each enclosure is 1,000 square feet, and the largest enclave in our current facility is smaller than the smallest enclosure here."
The Brevard facility currently holds 39 cats, Wiltz said, including "lions, tigers, leopards and cougars."
"Oh my!" added spokeswoman Kathy Pierson. "Sorry."
"Someone always adds that," joked Wiltz.
The Reserve began in 1996 with just a few cats, Wiltz said, growing over time "through rescues, cats that didn't have homes, and breeding projects." The staff is all-volunteer, including Wiltz, a full-time pharmacist from Oviedo. That includes all veterinarians, office staff, and even retirees willing to lend a hand.
Zoos have only about 15 percent of the big cats in the country, he said, with the rest mostly in these kinds of private sanctuaries. Many cats were owned by private individuals as unlicensed pets, something now discouraged by state laws across the country such as Florida's law that labels them as Class 1 predators. "There's been a big shift over the last ten years," he said,. "As recently as 2006, people could easily take big cats to birthday parties."
Still, he said, many responsible owners have been forced to give up their cats as well. "It's hard to find a home, and places like this are where cats end up," Wiltz said. "But if a private owner helps place the cat in our habitat, it's a better situation than law enforcement confiscating it."
It costs a lot to house big cats, who eat between 7 to 12 pounds of food per day at a cost of $7,000 to $8,000 per month for all the animals combined. "And they're still cats, so they're finicky, picky eaters," Wiltz said. "Every one of them has unique dietary preferences. One day, they'll like beef; the next day, they'll eat only if they have chicken first."
The facility will include private and educational tours, something the Brevard site was never built to do. "The ones that like people will get plenty of stimulation," Wiltz said. "The ones that don't like people will get plenty of rest." One hope, he added, is that cougars will call out to their wild counterparts — "notoriously difficult to track", he said — making it easier for scientists and conservationists to track.
The area is surrounded by wilderness, including the 4,700 acres of the eco-tourism attraction Forever Florida next door. The hope for the next phase is to build an entire on-site animal hospital, Wiltz said.
In the meantime, though, the Reserve is "65 percent" of the way toward the $1 million it needs to complete the facility — including the cost of transporting the animals, which has to be contracted out to specialists who lightly sedate the animals for the 50-plus mile trip. "It's not like domestic cats," Pierson said. "The process of moving them takes a little coordination."
The hope is to be open by October, Wiltz said. Anyone willing to donate to the Reserve can visit cflar.org, or even pitch in as some local Girl Scouts did in Brevard by helping landscape the facility or help with habitat construction. "It's going to be something else," added Wiltz.
His name, by the way — Simba? A nickname from childhood. It came before the cats. "But I've always had a passion for big cats," he said. "(Like) our oldest cat, an 18-year-old cougar. … Now that she's older, she's every bit as dangerous. But she's still the same feisty cat we've learned to love."
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