Osh the elephant appears to be content under the care of keepers at the Oakland Zoo. So content, at times, that he purrs like a kitten.
Osh the elephant appears to be content under the care of keepers at the Oakland Zoo. So content, at times, that he purrs like a kitten.
The accompanying footage was shared via social media Sunday by the California zoo, along with the description:
“Maple & Willow aren’t the only ones with impressive purrs… here’s Osh making some sounds of satisfaction while enjoying his afternoon beet pulp snack.”
Maple & Willow aren’t the only ones with impressive purrs…here’s Osh making some sounds of satisfaction while enjoying his afternoon beet pulp snack 😋
Elephant purrs are among the social animals’ many communicative skills. They also make rumbling sounds and louder trumpeting calls.
Osh was born in 1994 and the African elephant has a substantial following among zoo regulars.
Maple and Willow are mountain lions kittens that ended up at the zoo after their mother was killed last month by a vehicle strike on a Northern California highway.
The Oakland Zoo has shared adorable footage showing Holly, a rescued mountain lion cub, trying a hard-boiled egg for the first time.
Rescued mountain lion cubs Holly and Hazel will be transferred Wednesday from the Oakland Zoo to the Big Bear Alpine Zoo in Southern California, where they’re sure to become popular attractions.
In announcing the move, the Oakland Zoo on Monday shared footage of Holly trying her first hard-boiled egg while gazing approvingly at her keeper after each bite.
“We will be sad to see this lovable pair go, but we are happy to have been able to save both of their lives, and that [California Department of Fish and Wildlife] chose a home they could go to together,” the Oakland Zoo tweeted.
“Before they depart, we are helping these rapidly-growing rescued mountain lions continue to develop, both mentally and physically.”
Paws for this big news CUBdate: Holly and Hazel are headed south to their “furrever home” at Big Bear Alpine Zoo this Wednesday. We will be sad to see this lovable pair go, but we are happy to have been able to save both of their lives, and that @CaliforniaDFW chose a home they… pic.twitter.com/Di86Pal31z
Holly arrived at the Oakland Zoo last December at 3 or 4 months old. She was critically ill but has thrived under the zoo’s care.
Hazel, about a a month older than Holly, was rescued in January. She was emaciated and weighed only 12 pounds. When her “Cone of Shame” and IV unit were removed, she was photographed drinking a milk shake.
The Big Bear Alpine Zoo, in Big Bear Lake, has promised to keep them safe and content.
“We can’t wait!” the zoo commented on the Oakland Zoo’s Facebook announcement. “Thanks so much for saving their lives. We’ll provide an excellent furrever home for them.
“Our last 2 mtn lion sisters lived to be 20 and left a big hole in our hearts when we had to say goodbye last year. This will mark a new era for our zoo.”
Jay Kinsey was driving in central Montana last week when he caught up to three mountain lions running on a highway.
Jay Kinsey was driving in central Montana last week when he caught up to three mountain lions running on a highway.
The accompanying footage shows the mountain lions, or cougars, pacing in a line before hopping over a guard rail into the snow and disappearing from view.
Kinsey then exits his car and focuses on the cats as they emerge from the base of a bush and walk farther from the road.
“It was definitely not something a guy comes across every day,” Kinsey, who lives in Lewistown, told MTN News.
He explained that he had previously seen crows and eagles feasting on a road-kill deer carcass and thought the distant objects might be more crows. “Then I noticed they were cats so I picked up my phone to [document the encounter] and show my wife and daughter when I got service.”
Kinsey told For The Win Outdoors that hunting friends told him he was watching a female mountain lion and two sub-adult kittens.
“I’d say they were right because she was always in the lead,” Kinsey said. “It was pretty neat to see. I’ve seen a few when out hunting deer and elk but never that close to them.”
The unusual encounter occurred last Thursday just west of Lake Sutherlin.
Dubbed the “Summer of Kittens,” mountain lions enjoyed an historic population boom in the mountains scorched by fire near Los Angeles. The National Park Service shares cute photos.
In what officials are calling the “Summer of Kittens,” mountain lions enjoyed an historic population boom in the mountains scorched by fire near Los Angeles nearly two years ago.
Thirteen kittens were birthed by five cougars in the Santa Monica Mountains and Simi Hills between May and August.
P-67’s litter.
The National Park Service reported Wednesday that it was the first time this many mountain lion dens have been found in such a short period of time during the 18 years biologists have been studying cougars in this region. The previous high found in one year was four dens.
“This level of reproduction is a great thing to see, especially since half of our mountains burned almost two years ago during the Woolsey Fire,” said Jeff Sikich, a wildlife biologist who has been studying the mountain lion population at Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.
“It will be interesting to see how these kittens use the landscape in the coming years and navigate the many challenges, both natural and human-caused, they will face as they grow older and disperse.”
Biologists track the mothers’ movements via telemetry and visit the dens when she is off hunting for food, feeding or just resting. In less than an hour, the biologists perform a health check, determine the sex, take measurements and weights, obtain biological samples and place a numbered ear tag on each of the kittens, to help identify them in the future. All are returned to the den before the mother returns.
P-54’s litter
Litter 1: A 4-year-old mountain lion known as P-54 gave birth to males P-82 and P-83 and female P-84; this was discovered on May 14. The suspected father is P-63, one of two male radio-collared mountain lions living in the Santa Monica Mountains.
Litter 2: On June 19, biologists discovered P-19, whom they have studied for 10 years, had given birth to females P-85, P-86 and P-87. It was her fifth litter.
P-19’s litterP-19’s litter
Litter 3: On July 6, biologists found that P-65 had birthed a female and two males, P-88, P-89 and P-90. The likely father is P-54, who spent three days with the mother in March. It’s believed to be P-65’s first litter.
“This three-and-a half-year-old cat was one of the 11 mountain lions the park service was tracking when the Woolsey Fire broke out on November 9, 2018,” the park service stated. “She survived the fire and maintained her home range within the overall burn perimeter, although we know from tracking data that she has been utilizing smaller unburned patches within it.
“On August 21, 2019, she became the second radio-collared female mountain lion to cross the 101 Freeway and move northward into the Simi Hills. She later crossed the freeway again on November 6, 2019 and returned to the Santa Monica Mountains.”
P-65’s litter
Litter 4: On July 7, P-67 was found to have birthed female P-91 and male P-92 in Simi Hills, marking only the second time biologists have discovered a litter of kittens in this area. P-67 was originally tagged as a kitten in 2018 in Simi Hills to mother P-62.
Litter 5: Finally, on Aug. 6 biologists learned that P-80 gave birth in the Santa Monica Mountains to P-93 and P-94. They estimated that the kittens were 32 days old. The likely father is P-63 as he traveled with the mother for four days in early April. P-80 also “had her kittens within the Woolsey Fire perimeter but in an unburned area in the southeast corner that still supports healthy mature chaparal,” the forest service stated.
P-67’s litterP-80’s litter
The National Park Service has been studying mountain lions in the Santa Monica Mountains since 2002. It does so to determine how they survive in a fragmented and urbanized environment.
In a move met with debate, Utah made an “emergency change” by increasing the cougar harvest objectives in hopes of helping another animal.
In a move met with lively debate, Utah made an “emergency change” by increasing the cougar harvest objectives in 11 areas across the state in hopes of helping struggling deer populations.
The Utah Division Wildlife Resources on Thursday increased by 117 the “harvest objective,” meaning once the quota is reached in these areas the hunt will close, the agency stated.
“We basically wanted to increase some of our cougar harvest in those areas since they’re the primary predator for deer, just as kind of a way to stabilize and help some of those mule deer populations that are struggling to recover more quickly,” Faith Heaton Jolley, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources spokeswoman, told KSL.com.
“It’s just been different pockets of the state that have either been hit really hard by these heavy winters or by drought seasons.”
In August, the agency raised the quota for the fourth straight year, agreeing to 690 cougar permits, an increase of 46 from the previous year, KSL.com reported, adding that there are more than 2,500 estimated adult mountain lions in the state compared to about 1,000 in 2004.
The hunting harvest-objective units are listed on the DWR website.
Not everybody was happy with the change, and a back-and-forth discussion ensued at the end of the KSL.com post. Among the comments:
“Killing the cougars is not going to do very much to increase deer populations. Human involvement is causing the deer decline. Work on the deer poaching and land grab problem.”
“Most people don’t realize the impact these cats actually do have on deer populations. It might not be the same case in certain areas, but there are plenty of places that do need more cougar tags because they are definitely hurting deer populations in those areas.”
“We have way too many deer out there, let the cougars do their job.”
“I guess this is the difference between a team of scientists making a decision and laymen off the street. They are making a decision based off of years of collected data and are trying to make the best decision from that. Separating our emotions from these kinds of decisions can yield great results and be far less divisive.”
“Mother Nature is very good at maintaining herd populations and health through natural predators. Only since the introduction of human ‘sport’ hunting of both predator and prey animals has herd populations and health become an issue. It’s a man caused problem. So, take man out of the equation and let nature do what it’s done successfully for tens of thousands of years.”
“There’s sometimes controversy with hunting predator species,” Jolley told KSL.com. “The biggest thing is we’re trying to reduce some of these populations where these deer are struggling, and it can help facilitate them to recover more quickly, but it’s also all these quotas we’ve set will help (maintain) sustainable management for both these predator and prey populations.”
Photos and graphic courtesy of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
