Big Cat Rescue Cats Belong on Camera
With about 80 cats of 10 species, Big Cat Rescue always has something interesting going on and we want to share it with the world. Our limitations have been the high cost of outdoor cameras and enough bandwidth to make it viable. At the bottom of this page is a map and a video of potential camera locations.
Vacation Rotation Enclosure
The Vacation Rotation enclosure is 2.5 acres where we rotate different lions, tigers and cougars for two week vacations. At the 18 second mark, if you can imagine being about 15 feet up in the air and looking down at the tiger, is where I would put a web cam so the pond and fountain are up front. It happens to be the point closest to Internet, which is about 75 feet away.
Every two weeks the new cat or cats move in, so there is always a lot of activity that day and then typically a lot of exploring in the early morning and evening hours. During the heat of the day, it will be cats snoozing, but I could watch that all day.
Max and Mary Ann
Max and Mary Ann are two young bobcats who were rescued from different situations, but were young enough to introduce. Now their favorite spot to be is on top of one of their platforms within just inches of the side wall of the cage. A camera on the side or above them would have a lot of action in about a 3 foot square space, as that is their favorite spot to groom, play and nap.
Warning, the music will stay in your head the rest of the day.
TJ Tiger Pond
TJ the tiger has a 2+ acre enclosure that goes down into our lake. One of his favorite places to lay is on the lake bank and he loves to splash in the lake. The camera could be place at the same vantage point from where this was filmed, as we were up on a cat walk above him.
Windsong Memorial Hospital
We have a Nest cam in the Windsong Memorial, directly over the operation table.
At the 40 second mark in this video you can see the inside of the hospital. At the 3:09 mark, you can see the ceiling where there is a cut out to the loft above. This is where the camera has the best view of the surgery.
Feeding Time at Big Cat Rescue
One of the things people never get tired of seeing is the cats being fed. The cats are all fed in small wire enclosures because we have to train them to come into a small space for vet exams and emergencies. It’s not a very interesting spot, except around 9 am every day, but then it can be just amazing to see and hear a cat crunching through bones. Probably the best place for a camera would be one of the 3 feeding areas attached to the Vacation Rotation area above because it would always have a different big cat and would be about 300 feet from the other VR camera.
Bobcat Rehab Area
You can find out more about our Bobcat Rehab area and see photos and videos of what we capture on CCTVs here: http://bigcatrescue.org/bobcat-rehab/
In this video you can see the hospital room where cats go through rehab before being allowed outside.
Current Nest Cam
This is currently being used by Nirvana the Ocelot.
Logistics
This is an aerial shot of our property, outlined in green. The red area is the Vacation Rotation area and Intern housing. Intern housing is on the left 1/3 and the VR is the other 2/3’s of that space. At the bottom right you can see the cell tower that is paying rent to be on our property, but has no dishes on it. They have removed most of the supportive gear, generators, etc., so I don’t think they have plans for the site any time soon. Nextel built it, but a new company pays us rent now. I’ll find out who, if this helps get us better coverage. We have Frontier FKA Verizon FIOS through our property at 10 spots (all buildings).
Below is a video where I walked around today and shot the areas that I think would make for the best web cam experiences.
Green is our boundary. Red is the Vacation Rotation area. If the site has an explore.org live cam, there will be a link.
1. Vacation Rotation 15 feet up w/ view of entire enclosure http://explore.org/live-cams/player/big-cat-rescue-vacation-rotation
2. Vacation Rotation feeding area http://explore.org/live-cams/player/big-cat-rescue-feeding-station
3. TJ Tiger lake bank http://explore.org/live-cams/player/big-cat-rescue-tiger-lake
4. Max and Mary Ann the Bobcats on their platform
5. Rehab (actually further to the right in a 3 ac parcel adjacent http://explore.org/live-cams/player/big-cat-rescue-bobcat-rehab-and-release
6. Kitten Cabana for domestic kittens that are always between 6-8 weeks of age http://explore.org/live-cams/player/big-cat-rescue-kitten-cabana
7. Vacation Rotation for small cats that is under construction
8. Nakita Lioness from 15 feet up in the corner of the open area http://explore.org/live-cams/player/big-cat-rescue-lioness-nikita
9. Cat Hospitals (one for surgeries, the other for rehab) http://explore.org/live-cams/player/big-cat-rescue-windsong-memorial-cat-hospital and X-ray http://explore.org/live-cams/player/big-cat-rescue-x-ray-cam
10. Alternate feeding station that looks into the cypress bayou for TJ tiger
