Three-week-old mountain lion cub rescued by California biologists | California
It was an unusual scene. A lion cub alone for days in the sprawling Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California, making a noise that sounded like a cross between a purr and a soft cry, perhaps calling for its mother.
Where was his mother?
National Park Service biologists, who monitor the recreation area’s small population of mountain lions, have visited the site several times.
They assumed that its mother had probably moved to another den, abandoning the cub.
The lion kitten’s health was deteriorating. He seemed weaker and was losing weight.
In consultation with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, biologists intervened to save the kitten, which would end up in the care of the Oakland Zoo.
The 3-week-old cub, later named “Crimson,” arrived at the Oakland Zoo in late March, emaciated and unable to stand, according to zoo general director Nik Dehejia. He was “extremely small,” Dehejia said. The little newborn could fit in cupped hands.
It is rare for mountain lions to abandon their offspring. It is unclear why Crimson’s mother left him.
“A lot of times we’ll never know,” Dehejia said, although a hypothesis emerged that the cub’s abnormality — missing toes — might have signaled to his mother that he wouldn’t be able to survive as well. “It’s difficult to know how many cubs were potentially there, how many cubs the mother was caring for.”
Now at the Oakland Zoo, Crimson is in an intensive care unit at the zoo’s veterinary hospital, Dehejia said. He was bottle fed every 3 hours to put nutrients back into his body.
He is the 33rd mountain lion rescued by the Oakland Zoo. Another young puma, three months old, named Clover, is also currently at the zoo.
“We never want to remove a mountain lion from the wild,” Dehejia said.
Although the zoo is proud to rehabilitate Crimson, it wants the cubs to be with their families, he said. “These cubs actively need their mothers to nurse and socialize. »
Crimson was abandoned by his mother. But other factors, including habitat fragmentation, urban development and human-wildlife conflict, have contributed to the zoo taking in animals in distress, Dehejia said.
“More often than not, we’re in their habitat rather than them in ours. This is a larger-scale issue about how we build, how we live, how we coexist with the wildlife around us.”
For now, the zoo is working to help Crimson grow strong and wean him off the bottle, Dehejia said.
Crimson and Clover being close in age could make them well-suited companions, although it will be weeks before the zoo gradually introduces them.
