They are cuddly and cute, weighing about the size of a plump house cat – but not for long, they are growing fast.
Meet the OC Zoo’s newest residents: two mountain lion cubs, surviving siblings found near an office building in Thousand Oaks a few weeks ago. At the zoo, the rescued pair will get care and a place to grow.
They were spotted under a picnic table with two other cubs on Nov. 29. The office building is next to an open space area. An employee called authorities and National Park Service biologists came out to assess, determining the cubs were about about six weeks old.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists told the employee to leave the cats alone in hopes they would go back into the surrounding open space and reunite with their mother. The following morning, they were found even closer to the office building, next to a recycling bin, close enough that workers were gazing at them through their office windows.
After about an hour, the kittens slowly lumbered off into the nearby open space, National Park Service officials said. But biologists decided they should find the kittens and tag them with small VHF radio collars so they could track the brood and rescue them if the mother did not return.
They found the four kittens close together under thick brush. Biologists collected samples, took measurements, did a physical exam and attached an ear tag and collars.
They were given IDs for the NPS catalog: P-100, P-101, P-102, and P-103.
They were tiny at that point, weighing between 3.5 pounds and 4.5 pounds. They were given fluids and seemed to be active, moving around and aware of their surroundings, officials said. They were put back in the thick brush in a makeshift “den” with hopes that their mother would return.
The next day, on Dec. 1, they were found huddled together, about 50 feet away from where they were previously found and there had been no sign of their mom on nearby trail cameras.
Mountain lion mothers may leave their kittens for two to three days to hunt and then return to the den. The biologists even set out bait in nearby canyons, in case she was having trouble finding food.
After another night, National Park Service experts determined mom was likely not going to return.
“We did everything we could to reunite these kittens with their mother, but I’m afraid she was likely already dead or had abandoned them,” Jeff Sikich, an NPS biologist in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, said in a press release. He has been studying the mountain population since 2002.
“The ideal situation is to keep these kittens wild and in their natural environment,” he said. “That was the goal, but unfortunately it didn’t work out in this case because the mother was not returning, and the condition of the kittens was deteriorating.”
Biologists also noticed one of the kittens, P-102, wasn’t doing too well, not following the others when they went to a new location.
The decision was made to rescue the kittens and take them to a local veterinarian, but two of the kittens, P-102 and P-100, didn’t make it through the night. The two surviving kittens, P-101 and P-103, were taken to the OC Zoo, where they are currently being cared for by veterinarians.
Due to their young age, they could not be released back into the wild, officials said.
While they aren’t yet ready for their public debut, they received a warm welcome from Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner, who visited to see the new residents.
“OC Parks and I are thrilled to welcome these newest residents of our zoo,” he said in the press release. “They’re a great present to the people of Orange County this holiday season.”
Their release from quarantine should happen around the time a large mammal enclosure is ready early next year, so the cats will have space to grow, OC Parks officials said.
“Once they’re a bit more comfortable in their new home, and our large mammal enclosure is ready for them early next year, we’ll introduce Orange County’s newest stars to what I am sure will be their adoring public,” Wagner said in the release.
The new enclosure, which has been planned since 2013, will be located within about two acres in the rear of the zoo as part of the Oak Woodlands exhibit.
The project creates two separate exhibit areas that can be adjusted to make four display spaces with natural-looking rock walls, climbing platforms, a waterfall element and secure fencing. A natural-looking bridge will improve animal viewing by zoo patrons, OC Parks officials said.
The new exhibit uses an “immersed landscape” to to recreate the appearance and sense of the animal’s natural environment.
The mountain lions will need the extra space. Since being brought to OC Zoo, they’ve put on some weight, now measuring 10.6 pounds for the larger sibling and 8.6 pounds for the smaller, as of Tuesday, Dec. 14.
At the facility, they undergo daily weight checks, health monitoring and weekly veterinarian exams. And they are feeding five times a day.
The OC Zoo, which is located inside the Irvine Regional Park, focuses on animals native to the southwestern U.S. Prior to the mountain lions’ arrival, a barn owl was brought in on Nov. 11.
Many of the animals at the OC Zoo are injured, orphaned, confiscated and can’t be released into the wild.
Source: Orange County Register
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