For the past 6 weeks there has been a new resident at Lions, Tigers & Bears - a mountain lion. Many of you may not realize that LTB is often approached to help place big cats on behalf of other organizations or individuals. When and where we can, we help.
This time the call came from the Redlands Department of Fish and Game. You may have heard about this on the news a few weeks ago. Two young mountain lions had come dangerously close to an elementary school and even attacked a neighborhood dog. Fish and Game captured one of the cats and asked if we could find a permanent home for the mountain lion, also known as a cougar or puma, and we agreed. In this case, the cat was lucky. Very often authorities are forced to kill a cat like this on sight or remove it and quietly put it down later. Special thanks to the Redlands Fish and Game for choosing to contact LTB and letting this cat live.
Officials said that while the mountain lion is healthy, it is too young to be safely released into the wild and hasn't even developed its adult teeth. "Typically, mountain lion cubs remain with their mothers until they are about 18 months old", said Kevin Brennan, a wildlife biologist with the Department of Fish and Game. "Being raised in captivity, the animal will not be releasable into the wild even once it reaches adulthood", said Brennan.
During this time, LTB has cared for the male mountain lion while we tried to find a permanent, suitable home for him. We can only grow so fast due to funding constraints, so she needed to be placed. LTB will only give a cat a permanent home, if we can promise to provide that cat, and all our current cats, the same high quality care that we always have. Unfortunately with the growing problem with urban sprawl and even wildfires the mountain lion situation is only getting worse. With more lions being captured there is little room left and we have not found a home for him.
No home until now that is.
Yes, he will be staying at LTB.
We have made the always difficult decision to accept another cat which we will provide lifetime care for.
His name?... 502. When Fish and Game captured him they put a large "ear tag" on him with the number 502. We did not name him for fear we would start to get too attached. That did not work. He is adorable and scared. He has been kept in our quarantine area, a smaller enclosure with fencing and a cement pad.
502 needs a permanent enclosure, he needs to be neutered, he has worms, and he needs a name. And we need your help. The name part may happen at our spring fundraiser, remember the lion cubs? First we need some cash donations; anything no matter how large or small will help. Click here to donate now. We need to pay the vet for the care he is currently getting. Long term we need his enclosure. More donations will help us get the fencing needed, perhaps a small pool, and things for him to climb on. We need ideas too, how can we raise the money we need? Who might have fencing and other materials to donate? Is there a donor willing to contribute a large amount of cash who would become an angel to 502? Our focus for fundraising recently has almost exclusively been earmarked for our exercise area for the big cats, a truly needed cause. But now we need help for a different reason. We need help for 502. Will you help him? Click here to contribute to the 502 fund.
