One bobcat saved by Niki2

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One bobcat saved

POSTED BY: NIKI2
UPDATED: Friday, November 30, 2012 08:20
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Thursday, November 29, 2012 9:29 AM

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

This is a story from our local wildlife rehab center. I worked there in the late 70s, and experienced every
species of wildlife in our area as a result (including "playing" with a semi-adult mountain
lion that had been taken from a family who tried to keep it as a pet).

They do wonderful work there, eternally on a shoestring budget, and the stories of their work
are heartening to read/watch. At the bottom of the page is a short video of her release...even
if you don't read the story of her rehabilitation, the video is bound to make you smile.

http://www.wildcarebayarea.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Animal_Emails_
Bobcat_Story_November2012&utm_source=housefile&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyEmail#video

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Thursday, November 29, 2012 11:59 AM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

That's nice Niki, I think its cool that you did a lot of that kind of that work yourself.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Thursday, November 29, 2012 12:50 PM

BYTEMITE

Rrrrawr!

Good thing the kitty didn't get used to humans.

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Thursday, November 29, 2012 1:04 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Well, we got some wildcats around here, what's ironic is how DNR up till now insisted rather passionately there was no-such-thing, oops.
http://www.annarbor.com/news/dnr-confirms-three-recent-cougar-sighting
-in-upper-peninsula/

They get spotted a whole lot farther south than that on occasion, in the burbs around Ann Arbor, but of course DNR treats it like a bigfoot sighting, which is prolly for the best cause the DNR around here are a useless bunch of Monsanto corporate cronies anyways - serve em right if they got ate by one!

Any word on Journey the wolf ?
I figure he won that pass, which I told ya he would - how much you wanna bet he ditches the tracking collar/tag (unless it's internal) too ?

People who try to measure animal intelligence by human standards are idiots, most animals are very good at being what they are - which does not seem to translate well into the halfassed human concept of intelligence.

Case in point, Dumbass - the semi-domesticated Raccoon which is a regular source of amusement and annoyance on my rounds, is much smarter from a "human" perspective than the other Raccoons, sure - but from the aspect of a RACCOON, he's a freakin moron, no woodcraft, no stealth, no situational awareness worth a damn... if it weren't for his girlfriend being an actual wild critter he would be all but doomed, WHAT she sees in him I couldn't tell you.

Oh, and a rare moment of detente on the post-thanksgiving feast, I figured K-ghost would wait in ambush till the Raccoons ate themselves fat and stupid and then do something awful, but instead they were sitting on top of the two park dumpsters, Raccoons on one side, K-ghost and Horatio on the other, glaring at each other - no hostilities ensued though.

-Frem

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Thursday, November 29, 2012 1:43 PM

BYTEMITE

As of May 2012, Journey is still alive and still in California.

Although as cool as it must be for Californians to have a wolf in their state, I almost think they ought to capture and release him somewhere he can find some other wolves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OR-7

Quote:
but instead they were sitting on top of the two park dumpsters, Raccoons on one side, K-ghost and Horatio on the other, glaring at each other - no hostilities ensued though.

That sounds like a proper thanksgiving with family. Somehow even among wild and feral animals the promise of food can declare a truce.

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Friday, November 30, 2012 5:42 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Just for clarity's sake, Frem, what we call a bobcat is different from a cougar, or as you said, wildcat. We have plenty of cougars around here (also known as mountain lions); from the brink of extinction, once protected they have made an excellent return to California...so much so that there are constant efforts to take them OFF the endangered list. In Marin, of course, they will always be protected...instead there are signs at trailheads where they've been seen warning people to avoid them. We've never had any problems cohabiting with them. In the East Bay they've had some problems with them attacking joggers, but I haven't heard of one in quite some time. They're sighted with some regularity down Stanford way, and of course we have all that open land from S.F. South to Santa Cruz, so I'm sure they're quite content!

Bobcats, on the other hand, have always inhabited all of California in great numbers and have never been endangered. We used to see them frequently when hiking, with their lovely tufted ears; they'll sit just a short ways away and watch us go past, totally disinterested.

Yes, Wildcare does wonderful work, but they've never gotten the hang of fundraising, so they're always on a shoestring. It's a shame, because they are always inundated with wildlife (especially, in Spring, baby birds by the thousands!) and they depend almost exclusively on volunteers. I wish they could learn from MMC, which has managed to get enormous contributions, like into the millions, and has a first-rate facility as a result.

There are places like Wildcare all over California, dedicated people who want to undo at least a bit of the damage our sharing the land with indigenous wildlife causes.

Tit for tat got us where we are today. If we want to be grownups, we need to resist the ugliness. If we each did, this would be a better reflection on Firefly and a more welcome place. I will try.

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Friday, November 30, 2012 8:20 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Well I generally use the generic term "wildcat" to avoid confusion and accidently pushing peoples freakout buttons, cause you KNOWwww how people are, bleh.

While not quite rehabilitation, Dumbass being here does kind of protect him since IMHO he's not really a proper wild animal anymore, and yet not a domesticated pet either, which is kinda sad - but he's got his niche in the local cycle of life and his offspring will merge back in via natural instincts and the guidance of the mother, elsewise they will not survive.

Funny how adaptations take place even amongst truly wild animals though - I don't have much to do with the fatass red squirrels around here since they're daylight critters, and the residents feed em even though they shouldn't...
But ever since I have been here the raccoons and squirrels have had a lair sharing policy, they both reside in a small hollow just off the path down to our boat launch, during the day the squirrels leave a lair sentry to watch over the raccoons, and during the night the raccoons leave one to protect the squirrels, it's a fascinating and entirely natural adaptation of sorts - wildlife CAN cooperate if they need to, most folk do not understand that.

-F

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