Roanoke – Two bobcats that have been featured on WSLS.com are back in the wild.
The pair — a male and a female — had been at the Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center in Roanoke since last summer, when they were brought in as kittens. It cost about $60 a day just to feed them, and staff put in months of hard work to prepare them for release.
Chester Leonard, executive director of the Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center, was on hand for the release. He said:
“It’s truly an amazing day, it was surreal, honestly. And I definitely had my heart beating a little bit there too.”
Both bobcats were feisty and ready to go. The pair were released close to where one of them was found as a kitten. To protect the animals, the exact location will not be disclosed.
The two are already bonded, and it is possible they could become mates in the future. 10 News will have much more about their release very soon in an exclusive report.
As 10 News has reported, one of the three original kittens, a boy rescued from Wythe County, was later deemed non-releasable because it had become habituated to people. The male now has a new home.
“The habituated bobcat has been finally transferred to the Oklahoma City Zoo, where it’s been named Poe, and it’s going be in their large carnivore exhibit,” said Executive Director Chester Leonard. “It’s going to have a lovely, huge habitat.”
Leonard said bobcats are expected to live upwards of 20 plus years in captivity.
Leonard said the Wythe County animal was found last year after a family who thought they had a domestic kitten realized — after seeing a WSLS news segment — that the animal was a bobcat. The family had allowed children to handle and feed the kitten, which led staff to determine it had become too habituated to people to return to the wild.
Leonard described the center’s efforts to re-wild the animal, saying staff tried months of minimal human interaction and even kept it with the two other rescued bobcats that were more feral. “We knew after a good four months of it still doing that, that it was not going to become feral,” he said, and the center began seeking a long-term home.
Leonard said the Smithsonian National Zoo helped connect the center with the Oklahoma City Zoo. After quarantine and standard protocols, the center expects Poe to be in the zoo’s enclosure by mid-April, where visitors will be able to see the animal.
“I know it’s not what we originally wanted but it’s the best-case scenario and we’re really lucky to find someone to take it."
To donate to the care of the bobcats or support the Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center: https://swvawildlifecenter.org/make-a-donation/
Watch more about the bobcat kittens rescue watch a 10 News Special Vanishing Voices: Saving Virginia’s Wildlife.