Oh Deer

It's deer season in North Carolina. Although I am not a hunter, Carolina Tiger Rescue is fortunate to have a good network of hunters that bring fresh meat for the cats. I personally think that hunting is only validated if the hunter uses the animal in its entirety. Otherwise, I find it a waste of a precious life. I have come across many hunters who will kill multiple deer for one cut of meat when one doe would have delivered the meat of those six single cuts. The elimination of population surplus or choosing to not take down an animal for one cut is not an issue for the hunters that come to Carolina Tiger. During the season we get multiple deer brought in each week that go out to feed our cats. Tigers will get an entire torso or a deer leg (hoof to hip) in place of one chicken, and small cats will get small portions of one leg or the pelt of the animal. Preparation to feed usually takes about an hour, but once the truck is loaded up it usually looks like this:

Yesterday someone brought in a deer that had been hit on the road. Yes, it may sound strange, but if a person witnesses a deer getting killed on the road we will take it just like one taken down in a hunt. It makes sense to not waste the meat, and we are committed to taking care of our animals. Of course, we always remove the bullet(s) and ensure the meat is good prior to giving it to any animal. It is just another facet of the circle of life at Carolina Tiger Rescue.

We "dress" a deer in similar fashion to a hunter... we skin the animal, remove the internal organs (in the wild cats do not usually consume the intestines of prey, though they will eat some of the larger organs such as the heart and liver and drink the blood for hydration), then remove the limbs. After helping Lauren, head keeper, dress the deer, I decided that Tex needed the deer for breakfast. The legs were given in place of one chicken to other tigers (so instead of receiving two whole, raw chickens one tiger received one chicken and one whole leg). Any tiger on the compound that lives with another tiger is shifted during meal times to prevent fighting. This simply means the tigers are separated in different parts of the enclosures by shift gates. However, I forgot to shift tigers Lucky and Carmelita yesterday morning... they are used to being on a certain side and I thought the gate was down. Lauren and I were about to drive away leaving the two to their respective meals when we realized that in fact I had not shifted them. This could have been a major problem had one tiger finished early and decided to steal the other's meal. A fight would have broken out... probably not to the death, but separating two 400 pound cats with claws that are three inches long is not an easy as separating two young boys in a school yard.

After the shift gate mishap, we shifted tigers Jellybean and Tex with difficulty, as Jelly is a bit jealous and took a swing at Tex when he saw the deer. We pulled the deer into the enclosure (with no tigers in that part) and lifted the deer torso onto a platform. Tex came into the enclosure once we were out surveyed the place first. Tex can be aggressive at times and I expected him to charge me, but he didn't.

The deer carcas is on the platform and Tex surveys the area

Tex immediately pulled the meat off the platform and dragged it around for no apparent reason. He was either showing off to a snarling Jellybean or searching for just the right spot to eat. Like most cats, tigers can pull their own body weight with their jaws. Tex took the meat in his jaws and walked around, heaving his weight on his front legs with the torso in between. Tigers carry the majority of their weight in their forepaws. If you look at tiger you will notice that their front legs are more powerful than their back legs, which differs from cats like the bobcat, whose back legs are much larger for jumping.

Making sure the kill is... killed

Preparing to drag meat to a secure location

We never feed live game to our animals. Although the predator-prey relationship is only natural, it goes against our values as a wildlife sanctuary. The deer we receive at Carolina Tiger Rescue allows the tigers to eat a complete as well as diverse diet. Nothing goes to waste on the compound... no bones, no parts, and as some put it, it keeps us humble.

Special Thanks

I'd like to take a moment to thank one of Carolina Tiger Rescue's tour guides, Pat. I met Pat today and he informed me that he has been reading my blogs! I'm really excited about sharing the lives of these animals with others, and today Pat spread the word about my blog to our visitors on his tour today. Thanks a lot! I was also able to take a moment and listen to how well both Pat and Ruth, another guide, discuss what we do at Carolina Tiger... which is a lot! It is my hope that through this blog I am able to promote the support of these amazing cats in North Carolina while documenting the Days of Their Lives. I learn every day from talented, intelligent individuals who work tirelessly as staff and volunteers and I think it is pretty much the coolest thing ever that I have this opportunity to work with exotic cats. Please keep reading and don't hesitate to let me know what you want to know! Come out for a tour. And, more importantly, visit Carolina Tiger Rescue's website to see how you can get involved with the wildlife sanctuary and get to know our stars!

http://www.carolinatigerrescue.org/default.asp

My favorite picture of Julio.

Wooo For Kinkajous!

Every heard of the honey bear? Some people are under the misconception that this "primate" is related to bears (which doesn't make sense seeing how bears and chimps are not related). The kinkajou, Potus flavus, is a small mammal native to Central and South America with coarse, red fur and a fully prehensile tail. As one of two mammals with prehensile tails (the other is the binturong), "kinks" as we call them are related to raccoons and have long, thin tongues. They use their tail as a fifth limb and often hang upside down. Kinkajous can also turn their feet entirely backwards for ease in coming down trees.   

                                                                        

We have two kinkajous at Carolina Tiger Rescue: Albert and Wednesday. Wednesday used to be someone's pet and was defanged and declawed (an unethical practice in my opinion). Albert was never someone's pet. Both were surrendered to Carolina Tiger years ago. Although they look cute and cuddly, the kinks are a Level 4 on aggression... the same as the tigers. They have very sharp teeth and they are extremely quick. Their little fingers are amazingly human but they emit the most unnatural hissing sound when irritated... which is often. These nocturnal creatures stay inside during the winter since they are not adapted for cold weather. We keep them in the vet room in separate cages next to eachother. They are arboreal so we keep branches and rope in the enclosures for them to climb on.

Albert likes to sleep in newspaper and Wednesday holds on to her tail like a security blanket when she sleeps. I really enjoy spending time with Wednesday because although she hisses and acts unfriendly some of the time, she always pushes her head against the fence so I can use a stick to scratch her head. Since Carolina Tiger is a no touch facility no one can touch the animals, but Wednesday does enjoy being cooed at regardless. Albert... kind of dislikes most people. 

Since they are inside for the winter, the kink enclosures are cleaned each day and enrichment is provided each day as well. Kinkajous love peanut butter and ours will do almost anything for it. They are fed one pound of fruit and vegetables each day.

When kinkajous are waking up, their bodies shake as if they are cold. It is a muscle response and entirely natural.

Here Wednesday is working to figure out how to get the peanut butter inside a plastic cone. Their little hands and long tongues make access much easier.

Kinks do not make good pets. They may weigh a mere five pounds and eat mostly fruit, but they would try to take a bite out of my peanut butter-covered fingers any day. And I'm not sure if it's the peanut butter.

Photos

It's easy to get behind in these blogs because I like to take my time in relaying an event or sort through photos. However, I still have tons of photos that don't make it on here. Here are a few:

Julio after I raked all the leaves out of one side of his enclosure, moved around one of his platforms, and built a low-level platform in a tree for him to climb on. One of the volunteers carved this pumpkin and put chicken inside of it as enrichment for Julio. The carving is of the character Puss in Boots, who has been rumored to look like Julio. Here, he investigates. Pumpkins are always a good toy for enrichment, as the cats (both big and small) can tear into them.

Oliver the ocelot is very shy and rarely comes out of his den box. He loves to smell flavored water (I've never seen him drink it).

Kiowa playing with her scented paper roll. The caracals don't respond to scents the same way ocelots do. Kiowa is very playful and this past week was moved to a new enclosure with Damien caracal. Damien has been alone for some time and Kiowa's enclosure partner, Tailessa, passed recently. Kiowa and Damien are currently working on getting used to eachother but have been successful thus far.

Rajah and Kaela sunning themselves. Most of the tigers at Carolina Tiger Rescue can be found doing exactly the same thing on a regular basis. The tigers also call to eachother during the day using low-level roars or to tell everyone that the territory is theirs. We still call these guys "the cubs" because when they came to Carolina Tiger they were very young. A police officer found them walking down the highway in Wake Forest, NC and we were able to give them a home.

Jellybean came from the Nashville zoo as a surplus cub in a litter of white tigers. White tigers are often irresponsibly bred for the entertainment industry. The white gene is genetically recessive and both parents must have the allele in order for a cub to be white. Only two white tigers have been found in the wild, and this was in the 1950's. Based on the gene being recessive, all white tigers in existence today are related to the original white tiger found in India and are as a result extremely inbred. Oftentimes in the breeding industry extra cubs in a litter of white tigers, or cubs that aren't pretty enough, are euthanized. If an orange cub is born in a litter bred for white tigers, that cub may also be euthanized. Although some of our tigers are clicker trained and enjoy the enrichment, we never ask them to perform. I am very strongly opposed to the idea of using live animals as entertainment and I think that the breeding industry for this market is morally corrupt, particularly when it comes to white tigers.

Jelly got his name because when he came to Carolina Tiger his little pink paws looked like Jellybeans. He is a very vocal cat (lots of moaning and chuffling) and loves to visit on the tours. He has also taught his enclosure buddy, Tex, to be extra talkative. Jelly and Tex spar like housecats sometimes, slapping eachother in the face and sprinting around like maniacs. It is not usually seriously aggressive, but rather playful or agitated. The other day I was working in their enclosure (a part they were not in) and the whole time Jelly sat along the fence and chuffled.

As you can see, Jelly loves attention. Not all of the tigers at Carolina Tiger are this friendly, and when interacting with wild cats one must never let his or her guard down. Please note that these are not the kind of cat you bring home and play with.

Nitro is the blind tiger at Carolina Tiger Rescue. The sand on the perimeter of his enclosure helps him identify where he is in relation to the fence. He can count his steps and navigates the enclosure very well. His enclosure buddy, Apache, is very protective of him and the two are very friendly. Last week we sprayed the perimter of the enclosure with vanilla and the den boxes, water areas, and shift doors with peppermint to help Nitro use his senses to navigate. Nitro decided recently that he absolutely loves me and jumped on the fence and attempted to scent mark me. The boys are being moved to a new enclosure soon and volunteers have been working to get everything just right. Gererous donations have also allowed the purchase of materials such as sand to make paths throughout the enclosure for Nitro. I am appreciate to each of the volunteers and donors who give to Carolina Tiger Rescue. It gives me hope for the future and protection of exotic cats and I am excited to build a career where I can work with people like the family at Carolina Tiger Rescue.

I'm never sure who is Becky and who is Coda when it comes to the bints in this enclosure (that is, if I am looking at their faces). One of them charges me constantly and yowls and growls, but here either Becky or Coda was being friendly because I had bananas with me. I have to admit that since becoming an intern I have started to eat more fruit. Any career that promotes personal health must be a good choice!

I think I've made a good choice.

Bananas and Muscle

The animals at Carolina Tiger Rescue enjoy a variety of strange and crazy enrichment activities that often elicit strange and crazy responses. Only recently did I begin working with the binturongs to provide them enrichment. I always run into the same problem at work when it comes to enrichment: I want to deliver enrichment to everyone in a day, and I want to create or introduce items that the animals don't see every other week. Both can be challenging as well as time consuming. Rajah is pictured above because although the goal of the day was to deliver enrichment to binturongs, I spent some time making scent enrichment for my small cats. I don't have any tigers in my assigned areas, but I decided to visit Rajah and Kaela. As always I had perfume and cologne all over me, so Kaela and Rajah were very eager when I stopped by. Rajah took a whiff and immediately began rolling around in the grass like your average family dog. Kaela, normally sweet, became possessive over me and refused to let Rajah come back over as she rubbed on the fence and moaned. If only the perfume and cologne companies knew what the cats thought of their products! I think you could make an excellent commercial using this. Every man wants a cougar to want him, you know, and all women enjoy the hunt... though I digress with my amazing ad ideas.

Back to bints. As I've mentioned, binturongs are primarily fruit eaters, and they live for bananas. I recalled my mother's sneaky tactics in making fruit fun when I was a kid and decided to redesign her banana and honey on wheat sandwiches. I took about ten bananas and sliced them, added warm honey and mixed it together in a bowl. Then I used toilet paper rolls (the cardboard provides lots of fiber I'm sure... like those wheat sandwiches) and smeared jam on the inside. We use natural jams, jellies, and peanut butter to avoid addition of unnecessary and unnatural chemicals to the animals. I poured the banana mixture into the rolls and folded the ends.

Rotten was suspicious of me and showed his distaste by growling low in his throat (never take it personally... he's always like this). After some sweet talking and gesturing I think we communicated that I had a present for him... either that or I told him his hair looked good, I don't know...  but he calmed down and I put the roll into his food bowl.

"Bananas? Bananas!" was the thought process illustrated on his gnarly little face as he grabbed the roll with competence and began chewing on it. He reminded me of a raccoon in the way he held the roll in his hands. He only turned his lip up at me once.

Each binturong savored the treat and worked to tear into the roll once they smelled the banana. However, Ralph is very picky and apparently does not like honey. Shroom and Coda were kind of adorable, though Coda charged me when I approached his enclosure.

I have mentioned that the small cats, the ocelots in particular, enjoy chasing string like house cats. Like scary, hormone-injected house cats. Petee, Julio, and Magoo, the ocelot on the public tour route (and not in my assigned areas), love the string. I was lucky enough to have someone snap a few shots of my experience with Petee. He may weigh only thirty pounds, but this cat was stronger than me:

Petee sees the string and he wants it.

Petee sees the string and he needs it.

Petee sees the string and tries to kill it.

Petee sees me try another angle and is not fooled (this is just before he launched upward).

I see Petee is stronger than me.

You see we are both putting all of our weight into this vicious tug-of-war.

Some of the small cats wouldn't be able to play this game because a few of them get grabby with their food or with visitors and we do not want to promote bad behavior, especially since these animals can be dangerous. Petee used to be aggressive around his water dish, but he has not shown signs of this behavior in a while so I am allowed to engage in this kind of activity. I'm not sure who won... I had the string, but I wanted to fall down in the grass. Petee got some needed exercise. As I said, enrichment elicits some crazy responses.

Clicker Training

The tigers at Carolina Tiger Rescue are very smart! I dare say they are smarter than my dogs at home. The reason I make this claim is because some of the tigers are clicker trained. Emerson, pictured above and featuring his adorable snaggle tooth, is clicker trained with Lenore, one of the keepers. She called me over the other day to show me another form of enrichment provided to these animals. We don't make them perform or ask them to do anything in return for a meal; clicker training provides human-animal interaction and gives the animal something to be good at. The clicker method is positive reinforcement; the clicker is auditory recognition that the animal does something desirable, and a treat follows the activity as motivation to continue. Emerson is very motivated by chicken ( I personally am more motivated by steak), and he is eager to please when Lenore breaks out the clicker. The clicker she uses is one of those really annoying seat belt clickers children get at the State Fair, the same ones they obnoxiously run around with clicking every chance they get. Lenore only clicks when Emerson does something she wants him to, however, whether it is to sit, to lay down, to go to his station, or to jump up.

Lenore explained to me how simple the commands must be in order for the tiger to understand and follow them. Simple variations such as body language, tone, and inflection from the person can confuse the animal. Emerson is so quick and so tolerant. He followed every command with little distraction even though I was standing right next to him (he has not had an audience before). The goal is for Emerson to not only follow his training, but to introduce commands that will allow the keeper more access to the animal through the fence to observe and treat an animal if necessary. For example, Emerson has learned to show his paw to Lenore, which is useful if he were to be limping. He can also bow his head for bug repellent to be sprayed on his ears. Unfortunately, Emerson hates men with beards, so the clicker training is also a way to begin introducing other people to him.

Emerson is following Lenore's commands in these photos, and the commands are one-world requests such as "stand," "paw," or "station." He knows what to do and follows through immediately, never taking his eyes off of Lenore. She immediately clicks when he has done something right, and the treat follows. These training sessions provide alleviation from boredom and strengthen the bonds between man and animal. When Emerson has eaten all the chicken, Lenore lets him lick the bowl clean:

The keepers at Carolina Tiger Rescue do clicker training almost every day with their animals (even some of the small cats), though not all of the animals are clicker trained. Rajaji is one of the tigers that has recently begun his clicker training, and he will definitely benefit from it. He is the first tiger visitors see on the tours, and he is usually very friendly. However, in the mornings during feeding time he gets quite agitated if you look at him too long once he's got his chicken (I'm like that with my steak). Rajaji can go from a sweet chuffle and a hello moan to a menacing roar, as was perfectly captured by my camera:

Had I been one of those annoying kids at the State Fair with a clicker, I would NOT have clicked it at him. And yes, I jumped.

Binturong Fever

Ralph is a senior citizen

Last week I finally got to get inside the binturong enclosures to do some cleaning. I guess that doesn't sound so exciting, seeing as how I either walked around enclosures picking up animal waste or fending off too-friendly binturongs. However, I was excited. We have over a dozen binturongs at the sanctuary, and if you don't know what a binturong is, then that's ok because you're reading this now. The binturong (Arctictis binturong), is an arboreal (tree-dwelling) mammal from Southeast Asia that has been very poorly studied. These guys are mostly fruit eaters, though they are still grouped with the carnivores because of their carnassial teeth. However, they are opportunistic feeders and will eat small mammals, fish, eggs, etc. They are one of the most important species in promoting rainforest species, especially the Strangler Fig. This tree can only take root after the fruit passes through the system of the binturong, as the dense seed coat will not allow germination and only the binturong GI tract can soften this coat (there is also a bird in Australia responsible for the same thing). "Bints," as we call them, have tufted ears, coarse black fur, and prehensile tails.

I took this photo from Wikipedia because I have yet to get a full-body shot of any of ours. These guys have nicknames like "Asian Bearcat" but they are not bears nor cats. They are a close relative of the mongoose family, as well as skunks and weasels. However, the binturongs smell like corn chips. I'm not kidding! I don't have warped olfactory signals...they really smell like Fritos. Come out for a tour and you will smell it!

Cage cleaning is very simple. At Carolina Tiger Rescue, each animal is grouped into an aggression level. Binturongs are Level 1, meaning they are generally non-aggressive (but there is one named Coda who really pushes that description). Level 2 are the small cats; Level 3's are Keeper Only (meaning only the keepers go into these enclosures, for whatever reason); and Level 4 are the tigers and kinkajous, and no one goes into an enclosure with one of these animals in it at the same time. Bints are generally lazy or overly friendly, so a team of two enter the enclosure with one person cleaning and one person guarding. Communication is essential in this process, even with a lazy binturong, for at all times must both individuals know where the other is as well as know where the animal(s) is/are. Cage cleaning looks like this:

Here, keeper Jess and volunteer Ashleigh work together, one person cleaning and one person guarding Kiowa the caracal. She obviously doesn't care, but it is so important to be ready for anything (I have previously mentioned their amazing claws). Keeper Lenore and I used the same methods last week to clean each binturong enclosure. Although cage cleaning is strictly business- no visiting- I had a heck of a time warding off Shroom and El Grande, our two extremely friendly binturongs. The entire time I was guarding Lenore, both of these guys were insistant upon getting as close as possible so they could see what we were doing and possibly help. Shroom is very strange, as he is not arboreal, and he just wanted to see what was up as Lenore and I bustled around cleaning up after him (yes, he is a male). Whenever someone cleans, new enrichment is brought into the enclosure and old enrichment taken out (it is only enrichment as long as it's a novelty). Shroom was very pleased that we moved around his plastic kiddie slide (he slides down it!). After each cage is cleaned, we back out of the enclosure and never take our eyes off of the animal.

El Grande (above), on the other hand, was foaming at the mouth by the time Lenore and I got into his enlcosure. He was SO EXCITED to see us and spent the entire time testing my rookie guarding skills. He ran along his beams (above the ground because he is arboreal) trying to get past me so he could climb onto my head. Apparently at one point he developed this habit, but Carolina Tiger Rescue is a no-touch facility and I was not about to let this fifty-pound corn chip rake my face off in happiness. If you've ever seen Ninja Cat on Youtube, El Grande is exactly like that cat-- one second he was five feet from my guarding tools,  the next he was in my personal bubble trying to get past me. Don't let his eagerness fool you- they get lots of lovin'. El Grande is the most spoiled bint on the compound and has a holiday wreath on his door, from his adoptive parents, to prove it.

                                  

This is what Ralph does. All day. Sometimes volunteers think he is dead. I have.

Cleaning is pretty easy, though it does take some time. We always get in and out as quickly as possible for safety as well as placing as little stress on the animals as possible. It was fun to get in some time with the little guys, though afterward I had the strangest craving for corn chips.