Florida Panther Festival 2013 This Weekend

According to US Fish and Wildlife, the wild population is estimated to be between 100 to 160 adult Florida Panthers left in the wild.

On Saturday Nov. 16 there will be activities all day and on Sunday, November 17, the Florida Panther Festival is dedicated to on-site field trips. To RSVP, call Lisa Andrews, Outreach/Education Specialist at Big Cypress National Preserve, at 239-695-1164.

http://www.naplesillustrated.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=news.details&ArticleId=3979

Big Cats in Slow Motion

Thanks to Bixby Films for visiting the sanctuary and filming our residents in super slow motion = ROARSOME FOOTAGE! :)

Calling All Cat Lovers

When: November 18, 2013 at 6:00 p.m.

Where: Hillsborough County Animal Services 440 N. Falkenburg Rd. Tampa, FL 33619

This meeting is for all individuals dedicated to saving more cats out of HCAS or individuals interested in learning how they can help be part of the solution. This meeting is for those who are not currently volunteering with one of rescue groups that currently partners with HCAS.

During this meeting, we will discuss:

Foster Program

Adopt-to-Rehome Program

Saving More Cats

Oldest Cat on the Planet

Scientists are checking out the oldest big cat fossil ever, dating back close to 6 million years and closely resembling the snow leopard of today.

Paleontologists have long sought the answer to where and when big cats—mighty predators like lions, tigers, and leopards—slunk onto the earthly scene.

Now, fossil finds on the Tibetan Plateau offer new evidence about the cats' earliest whereabouts.

(Photo from National Geographic website)

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/11/131112-big-cats-origin-tibet-animals-science/

First Big Cat Rescue Book in iBooks section of iTunes

Meet JoJo https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/meet-jojo/id736346395?ls=1&mt=11

Body Shop Dragon Fruit Lip Butter Campaign to Benefit Big Cat Rescue

WildTrack Needs Cats to Track

“Just a quick recap. WildTrack is about helping monitor endangered species - we help conservation organizations in the field monitor free-ranging endangered species. One of the techniques we use to keep track of these animals is footprint identification. Our award-winning footprint identification technique (FIT) has given us very high accuracy in identifying species, individuals, sex and age-class - just from digital images of footprints. Lots more information on our website.

Now since each species of big cat has a different footprint anatomy, so we need to develop reference libraries of footprints from each species. We have FIT up and running for Amur and Bengal tiger, mountain lion, African lion and cheetah, and are now working to collect prints from leopards.

By collecting prints from captive leopard (whose ID, sex and age are often known) we'll be able to develop an FIT algorithm to identify free-ranging unknown leopard. So in this way, captive animals are acting as ambassadors for their wild counterparts. We already have two leopard-conservation projects waiting to use FIT.

So for now, this email is to check that you are all still interested in helping us collect footprints from leopards that you have in your rescue facilities! If you write back in the affirmative we'll send you our protocol for collecting digital images of footprints, and explain exactly what we need. It should cost very little to do this work - all that's needed is a digital camera and a ruler/paper/pencil, and it can make a very nice educational outreach project for visitors.

So, the ball's in your court - and we look forward to hearing from you all!

Kindest regards,

Zoe and Sky.”