Having received one orphaned female
bobcat kitten to raise May 14, Lake Metroparks was awarded
custodial care of a second female bobcat kitten Thursday.
This second female kitten arrived from
Noble County whereas the first female bobcat kitten came from
Muskingum County.
Both counties have some of the state's
highest bobcat populations though by no means is the species common
anywhere in the state.
It will become the goal of the staff at
Lake Metroparks' Kevin P. Clinton Wildlife Center in Kirtland to
raise both bobcats so the animals will have the best opportunity to
survive on their own in the wild.
Asked by the Ohio Division of Wildlife
if it is up to the unique requirements necessary for rearing a member
of the solitary bobcat clan, the Center's staff harbored no doubts
about its capabilities.
After all, over the past decade the
accredited Center has cared for representatives from 46 different
wildlife species, including any number of which are either state or
federally listed threatened or endangered.
Among the species having
received care at the Center have been American bald eagles, river
otters and a host of others.
But few species demand the requirements
imposed by raising and preparing a bobcat for its eventual return to
the wild.
The first kitten was less than one
month old when Lake Metroparks took temporary possession of the
animal, the bobcat coming from Muskingum County as a confirmed
orphaned.
“We got the call from the Ohio
Division of Wildlife about the first kitten,” said Tom Adair, Lake
Metroparks' Park Services' director “We were told that a couple
found the kitten and began to care for it. At the time they didn't
realize it was an orphaned bobcat and not just the offspring of a
feral house cat.”
When the family understood a few days
later this was no ordinary kitty-cat it contacted the Wildlife
Division which then confirmed the animal was orphaned and needed
long-term care.
A little underweight when the Center
took in the first kitten, the staff has since begun the arduous task
of caring for the bobcat.
The second bobcat kitten was even
younger with the best guess being that animal was no more than three
weeks old, Adair said as well.
In this case a Noble County property
owner was mowing his lawn when he very nearly ran over the tiny
kitten, Adair said.
“The property is very close to a busy
highway so it's assumed the kitten's mother was struck by a car,”
Adair said. “The Wildlife Division made the determination at that
point to rescue the kitten and have us care for it until it can be
returned back into the wild.”
When this small wild feline was
delivered late in the day on May 23 it was severely dehydrated and
weak, Adair said.
Thus the for the first several hours it
was touch-and-go as the center's trained staff of professional and
volunteer wildlife care specialists began round-the-clock care, Adair
said.
Following oral and subcutaneously
feedings the kitten responded and began to perk up by the next
morning, Adair said.
Since each of the kittens are small and
demand constant care, members of the center's staff have been taking
the bobcats home.
A big part of the reason for this, says
Adair, is because the kittens need to be fed every two hours.
“It's a lot of work,” Adair said.
Yet having a second bobcat to raise
likely will help ensure a grater chance of success of raising both
animals, says Paul Palagyi, Lake Metroparks' executive director.
“This way the two bobcats will have
the opportunity to interact through play the role they'll have once
they are released,” Palagyi said. “It will be a great way for
them to exercise, learn how to defend themselves through play as well
as learn from each other.”
Already the first kitten is
demonstrating it's a handful to raise, says Palagyi also.
“It has very, very sharp teeth that
can actually bite through the leather gloves our staff members must
wear when handling her,” Palagyi said. “The only time it even
comes close to being okay to handle is when it's being fed with a
bottle, but even then it once bit off the bottle's rubber nipple.”
Up ahead is the chore of helping the
animals better take on the demands of life in the wild yet without
being dependent or accustomed to human intervention.
“The bobcats will be fed a variety of
food depending on the stage of their development,” said Tammy
O'Neil, the Wildlife Center's manager. “We will provide live mice
and chicks along with supplemental food like cat food, eggs, and
bugs.”
In order to better mimic how a bobcat
experiences living and eating in the wild, the Center's staff will
incorporate real-life cat-hunting strategies, O'Neil says.
“We'll hide the food so the bobcats
have to look for it, using their senses,” O'Neil said. “And we
won't provide the food at the same time each day. Along with
minimizing human contact as much as possible, of course.”
This last element is to force the
bobcats to become hunters and not beggars.
Consequently the ultimate objective is
to raise the bobcats to be as defensive and aggressive as possible
prior to being released back into the wild, O'Neil said.
Adair said too that once it's
determined the bobcats are eligible for release – likely some time
later this autumn - the Wildlife Division will decide where best to
relocate the animals.
“We're in daily contact with the
Wildlife Division about the status of the kittens,” Adair said.
Adair said also the Wildlife Division's
District Four (Southeast Ohio) will make the final call on where the
bobcats will achieve their final freedom.
Lake Metroparks is accepting donations
for the care of the male bobcat kitten. Further information is
available by contacting Adair at 440- 639-7275 or the Wildlife Center
at 440-256-2131.
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
