Carolina Tiger Rescue- Days 1 & 2

So many things to write about! First of all, I made it to North Carolina alright! I met the guys I am staying with- Geoff, Bill, Josh and Justin (though Justin is actually just another temporary person sleeping on the other couch they have). They are all really nice guys, though a few of them are pretty far from my normal crowd... Geoff works at the tiger rescue, Josh is a high school science teacher, Bill is looking for a job doing something I haven't quite figured out, and Justin is a cinematography guy- he wants to get into doing PR for indie races. Some of them actually met each other the day they moved in, so it is a pretty interesting dynamic. Most of the time they are playing Call of Duty or Rockband!  I feel pretty okay here, though just kind of an imposition, for they are in a small townhouse and I had to pile all my crap in a corner. It just isn't really a bid enough place for 5 people! But for now it will do...

So now a little about the last two days:
Monday- Day 1!

I left at 7:45 to go get gas (I used all but the last little bit of my tank getting down here) and head to the rescue, which is about a 20 minute drive on 5-lane highways. I started work at 8:30 am, and was pleasantly surprised that the keepers remembered me. The three keepers are Ed, Lenore and Lauren. Lenore is definitely my favorite- she has a very upbeat personality in a 5'4" body, and loves to help out, give direction, answer questions, etc. She has amazing patience. Ed is a very stoic guy, as opposite of Lenore as you can get! He is 6' something, with red hair and a slight beard, and I have never seen him smile. He is always serious, but always nice. Lauren I have only briefly met, though she is the oldest of the three, probably in her late 30's, whereas the others are late 20's, early 30's. I started my day helping with preparing the food for the day. Binturongs (more on them later) are primarily fruit eaters, though they get some meat protein and vegetables, and they all have to have fruit and meat cut up for them every morning.

These are the binturong trays.

 I then loaded up in the back of one of the really beat-up pick up trucks that the rescue has. Almost everything they own is donated, including the vehicles, freezers, and power tools, so it keeps life interesting. Anyway, feeding basically involves going around to all of the small animal cages (ocelots, servals, bobcats, binturongs, cougars and caracals) and putting chicken thighs, breasts, legs, etc. through their feeding slots and into the inclosure. Each animal gets a piece injected with vitamin syrup (mostly glucosamine) about once a week. They all get different amounts of food based on their size, breed, and activity level. The keepers monitor them very closely and track exactly what they eat, how much, what is left in their enclosure, that sort of thing.

This is a binturong hanging out by his feeding tray.

 Now for the tigers (of which there are many) and the lions (of which there are three), they get whole chickens, anywhere from 1-3. They have to be "shifted" into different parts of the enclosures via shift gates, which have a handle outside the cage for people to move them easily and safely. The shifting keeps them from fighting with each other over the food or gulping the food down too fast. The shift gates also allow for easy and safe cage cleaning. Almost all the tigers are on at least 1/2 acre of land, which is fantastic. Their enclosures contain den boxes, trees, large water tubs for bathing, and sometimes other tigers/lions if they have proven to be social animals. They also have 15+ foot fences surrounding their enclosures, and most of the big cat enclosures do NOT have feeding tubes... which means whole chickens have to be flung over a 15+ foot fence. I am not exactly a strong person, and chickens tend to be both slippery and hard to find an appropriate lobbing position. Needless to say, I beat a lot of chickens around the 10 foot fence mark, and made a lot of really hungry tigers pretty pissed off. Ed took pity on me and helped me fling a couple, and Lenore (who has the same problem I do most of the time) decided to drive the truck a little closer to the fence when possible so I could chuck them in from the fence bed. We finally finished feeding all 66 of the animals on the compound and headed back to the main house/building. At that point in time I was covered in chicken blood and juice, and tons of fruit goo. And getting really hungry.

Kizmet eating.

Anyway, lunch came at 12:30 after Lenore gave me a run down on the enrichment they do at the rescue to stimulate natural behaviors and keep the animals from getting too bored/domesticated. They try to do enrichment with each animal at least every other day, in either scent (hidden food, perfumes, animal musks), taste (different textures, treats and foods), visual (mirrors, stuffed animals), auditory (playing recordings of other animals, either in pain or challenging) or physical (new objects- tires, kegs, toys). I scarfed down the only food I had brought with me that was a quick fix- tomato soup (and choked it down, I was miserably hot already) and some granola bars. After lunch I got to do enrichment, which was incredibly fun. Lenore gave me a stuffed black leopard and a mirror and sent me out to all the small animals on the compound to use one or the other with them. Most of them had little to no reaction, some coming up to the fence to say hi to me (though of course I cannot touch them) but not having any interest in the mirror or leopard. One of the caracals, Savage, had the best response to the mirror, stalking up to it and staring extremely intently at his reflection, looking very spooked to see himself there! Others however, like Collins the bobcat, went nuts over the stuffed toy and chased me around the perimeter of the enclosure (whilst I was cavorting like an idiot, making the stuffed animal appear to be running, and making growling noises). Two of the three cougars also had a similar reaction- they stalked, leaped and ran all around the enclosure trying to catch the leopard (me). The cougar thing did freak me out a little bit, as I spent a lot of my life in Colorado where cougars are really bad news (and they do not make good pets!).

Star, the smallest of the three cougars. She is rubbing affectionately on the fence near me.

That was really the rest of my day- at each enrichment interaction, I had to mark down what the animal did, how they reacted and on a scale of 0-3 how much they responded.  They then have a database that each interaction gets placed into- this tracks each individual animals likes/dislikes and what they best react to.  Once the day was over, I went back to the apartment and played rock band with the boys, and then went to the first bar of my life (they convinced me) to go play Trivia. I didn't know the answer to a single question and felt pretty awkward the entire night, since it was like 15 people that I didn't know. I slept like the dead on the couch though!

The following are some random pictures I took of the animals.

One of the servals, Santana.

An ocelot napping in a tree.

Two caracals, Gabe and Savage.

Today was a lot more physical- I started out preparing the food for the binturongs and kinkajous (adorable evil little monkey-cat-creatures), and then went out with one of the interns, Melanie to feed all the binturongs, including the fish oil pill they get to keep their coat and skin condition optimal. We also fed pills to Rajaji, a tiger, which he managed to drop out of his mouth while eating every single bite of chicken. We then had to repeat this until we got the pills down! Next came a tub cleaning- me and Melanie shifted Rajaji out of his main enclosure and dumped, scrubbed and refilled his HUGE swimming/bathing tub. The tigers like to poop in their water, so it got pretty nasty! Tiger poop does not smell very good. Now Rajaji is probably one of my favorite tigers, because he is super talkative. He loves to "chuff" at people, and if you "chuff" at him (by blowing air out and making your cheeks vibrate), he will talk back. He has beautiful eyes, and is a favorite on the tours. Once the tub was done, I did enrichment for 9 of the tigers/lions by placing meat in boxes and throwing them into their enclosures, and seeing if they could/wanted to hunt them down and rip them open. The tigers I got to interact with were Kizmet, Christan and Max (who are all together), Rajaji, Mona & Moki, and the lions Sebastian, Tarzan and Sheba.

I know this is getting long, but I promise I am almost finished!

I helped pull down a tree off of an enclosure (it had fallen a couple weeks ago in a storm) with a handful of the summer-long interns- melanie, kristen, josh and katie, and some volunteers. After that we ripped the rotted boards off of the top of Rajaji's den box, after cutting through tons and tons of poison ivy vines which covered it. I wore gloves that went up to my elbows and washed my arms at least 6 times today, but I am sure tomorrow is going to be awful... It was very hot (though not as bad as yesterday), and I was soaked with sweat by the time we were halfway finished just clearing the viens away. We cut some new boards for the top, and got on all of 3 before it began to downpour. Of course we had all the power tools out, and clippers, saws, hammers, etc. all around the enclosure, and they had to be removed from being out in the rain, so all four of us that were working on this got soaked to the bone, and had to ride back to the main house in the rain. The compound closes down when it is lightning outside, so that in case a tree falls, damages an enclosure and an animal gets out, no one is inside to be compromised. So we all hung out in the entry way, wringing out our clothes. Once the rain stopped, we went back out to our projects, which is where the end of the day found me. The roof is only about 1/3 of the way done, so I assume I will be working on that tomorrow- though it seems like many projects here are started and less are finished.

I was very ready (and smelly) for my shower tonight! The boys just left for a movie and for the first time since I got here I get some alone time and some peace and quiet. And thanks to the fact that they got internet today, I can update you all (and do some work on my part-time job).

Off to bed for me!

~Rich With Life~