This is Tigger, who is still a cub. His woven-cube toy was made from old fire hoses, we met the wife of the man who made it, she was working as a volunteer during our visit. She explained that it took him awhile to figure out how to make sure the bolts holding it together stayed on the inside of the toy. It looks like his efforts have been much appreciated--look closely at the teeth marks on it!!
Overview of the tiger enclosures from the elevated walkway. The woman volunteer was handing out "treats" of (raw) ground beef mixed with either egg or pumpkin puree, and she hadn't started her rounds when this picture was taken. Once she appeared, some of these tigers woke up and started walking around in anticipation of her arrival. The treats were (human) handful sized, some she tossed into the enclosures through gaps in the gates, some she placed on a stick and pushed them through the gaps. All the animals seemed like they were really enjoying them.
The volunteer (wish I'd thought to ask her name) told us she's been handing out treats once a week for about 6 years. She told us that she also likes to rub Ben Gay or Vicks Vaporrub onto sticks and then give them to some of the cats, apparantly they enjoy the intense odors. She told us the servals are especially found of them.
This was our first visit to the sanctuary during the mid-morning hours, all our other visits have been in the late afternoon. In addition to the cats, we did see a few bears who seemed to be waking up from hibernation, and a couple of wolves.
This is a close up of the tiger in the following picture.
Romeo, the mountain lion in the enclosure closest to the walkway. The perch he is on is new since our last visit, made by the same man who made Tigger's toy, and also made from woven recycled firehoses. Apparently it took several days before he would go near it, but once he decided it was safe, he also decided that he really likes it!
Overview of the lion's area. The multi-platform structure (concrete platforms suspended from poles by chain) is new since our last visit.
A young female lion who lives in the tiger enclosure area. The volunteer told us she was rescued from the film industry because she wasn't being cooperative enough for their purposes. She woke up soon after I took this picture, as soon as the volunteer came within sight of her. She was very excited about the prospect of getting her treat, we could clearly see her anticipation!
View of the large tiger enclosure with the swimming pool. There were at least 5 tigers in the enclosure, 3 were napping under a stand of trees just to the left of the pool (outside of photo), and 2 were sleeping in the pipe on the right. Note the obviously well-used ball floating in the pool.
A closer view of the 2 in the pipe.
Not everyone chose to nap in the sun, these 2 obviously preferred the shade.
