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June 17, 2007
Back to the Cathouse
A couple of weeks ago Shirley and I visited The Exotic Feline Breeding Compound just outside Rosamond, California, near Edwards Air Force Base. Well, we when back last night for their semiannual Twilight Tour. For these events, both the public and the private areas of the compound are open with many volunteers to answer questions and sell raffle tickets. The volunteers provided the cats with boxes, large paper sacks, telephone books and even watermelons to play with and destroy. The event was in the early evening so most of the cats were active or at least out of their hiding places. The back of the ticket contained these reassuring words,
The holder assumes all risks and danger incidental to the exhibition of tigers and other wild cats, including specifically (but not exclusively) the risks of (a) being attacked and injured by wild or domestic animals . . .
The risk of wild cats attacking anyone was minimal but we were able to get within two or three feet of them. A couple of these wild animals clearly wanted their tummies rubbed and on a few occasions, the volunteers obliged them. For the record, as far as I could tell, the sum total of the "domestic animals" was a single riding horse.
We learned a little bit more about the Compound's history. While officially organized in 1977, it history actually began earlier when Joe Maynard, a truck driver who loved big cats, moved his family and his pet "panther" to what was then and still is a nearly uninhabited place in the Antelope Valley. No one explained how he came to have a pet panther. By the way, "panther" can mean any one of several big cats and I'm not sure which kind he owned at the time. Maynard, who still lives on the Compound grounds, became concerned that many exotic cats captured for zoos from the wild died of stress related diseases in captivity. He and others believed that if these animals were born and raised in captivity their mortality rate would be much lower. It turns out that this was correct. The Compound, now with a professional staff and many volunteers, participates in breeding programs with zoos around the world. They also have serviced as a laboratory for experiments in artificial and in vitro insemination. Most of these experiments have failed, so the vast majority of their cats breed the old-fashioned way. Working with other breeding facilities, mating pairs are selected from a worldwide group to insure genetic diversity within each species and subspecies. But sometimes the cats don't exactly follow the rules. The Compound has a fully equipped clinic including recently acquired MRI capability. While the Compound is home to many different species and subspecies, they specialize in Amur leopards (Panthera pardus orientalis), Northern Chinese leopards (Panthera pardus japonensis), Jaguars (Panthera onca), Manul (Pallas's Cat) (Otocolobus manul) and Fishing Cats (Prionailurus viverrinus).
You can see much better pictures on their website but here are a few that I took yesterday afternoon and evening.
This sleepy guy is Bao, a North Chinese leopard. He is taking a break on top of his cathouse. Boa is a grandfather many times over. His descendants populate many zoos around the world including China! At 17 years of age, he is still in very good health. Later in the evening, he became more active and enjoyed ripping up a cardboard box that a volunteer provide for his and our enjoyment. Bao came to the Compound on loan from the San Diego Zoo but he will remain at the Compound for the rest of his life. One of his offspring has taken his place in San Diego. Below is a picture of Bao's newest grandson.
He was born May 10, 2007 and they say he is quite large for his age; only slightly smaller than a typical domestic cat. He was named at the event last night but we were somewhere else at the time and never learned his new name. Staff had taken him from his normal living quarters into the Compound's reception center so it would be easier to see him. But when Shirley and I first saw him, he was not a happy camper. But by the time this picture was taken, about two hours later, he had stopped growling (imagine a weak, rather high-pitched but very unhappy and constant vocalization) and was playful and seemed to be enjoying himself.
Above is a picture of Nemo, a fishing cat. These cats are great swimmers and, as you may have guessed from their name, they catch and eat fish. Even though he could have, Nemo neither swam nor fished while we were there. He did sit contentedly for several hours on a beam in his enclosure and allow any and all to photograph him. Adult fishing cats are about one and a half times the size of a typical domestic cat.
In case you haven't been to a zoo for a while, this big guy is a tiger (Panthera tigris). His name is Caesar. He was born about October 2000 and confiscated from drug dealers that got themselves busted. Compound staff speculates that the assholes who owned him gave him drugs! He has some slight neurological damage but, at about 500 pounds, he is otherwise now in very good shape. He also has by far the largest enclosure. Even so, he seemed to prefer to hang out on top of a large wooden box in an attached holding area. Later in the evening, he did move on his own into the larger area but remained near the side of the enclosure where he was most accessible to the assembled masses. Nice kitty! Caesar will be moving to an even larger public display facility, currently under construction, in a few months. Until then he is not generally on public display. For now his major tasks include sleeping, an occasional run around his enclosure, goofing around in his swimming tank and other such activities. When he moves to his new digs, his major activity will be fund raising. Aside from breeding exotic cats, the compound is now the permanent home to several abused or otherwise homeless cats like Caesar.
Posted by Duane Smith at June 17, 2007 1:07 PM | Read more on Odds and Ends |
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Comments
Cats at the cathouse? I thought you meant..never mind.
Posted by: Aydin at June 18, 2007 8:21 AM
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