New Brunswick’s Atlantic Wildlife Institute has spent the last year helping several of the region’s wildcats recover from starvation and abandonment.
The Institute just released one bobcat, who they had first taken in as a kitten, and are currently taking care of another one, which was found abandoned in a backyard near Saint George, N.B.
The newly released cat had developed a natural wariness of humans—a good thing, according to the Institute’s Pam Novak—and was successfully released into the area it originally came from. The new kitten, who is just over a month old, will hopefully follow down a similar path.
In addition to these two cats, the Institute had also been home to a lynx. The endangered animal had been found near Rogersville, N.B. and was starving when it first arrived. Over the course of a month it had been dewormed, and nursed back to health.
“Once we knew she started gaining weight, she was gaining more energy, her wild instincts started back, and she became quite aggressive, and quite not wanting to be here anymore,” Novak told the CBC.
While Novak and the team at the Institute are more than happy to help local wildcats, they do want to caution people not to act too quickly if they spot a bobcat or lynx kitten alone in the wild.
“A lot of times with any of the wild animals you really want to give them the benefit of the doubt and see if their mother is around,” she said, adding that it was best to leave the animals alone for 24 to 48 hours just in case the mother returns.
“Because as good as we try to be here, their wild mom is much better.”
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