Mystery Cats: April 2015

Tuesday, 28 April 2015

NEWSLINK: UK: French cat found on a Hutton estate

MYSTERY surrounds how a French cat called Lucky turned up in the middle of a housing estate in Hutton.

Sherri Eckworth, who lives in Bonningtons off Hanging Hill Lane, was woken up at 6am on Thursday, April 9, by a strange noise outside her home.

The 46-year-old explained: "There is another cat that comes around the cul-de-sac and makes a noise so I said to my husband, 'Oh, it's that cat again'.

"But it didn't sound like it usually did, it was much quieter. It didn't seem like it was howling for a mate, it sounded like there was a problem.

"We went outside and it came running towards us then ran away again."

Sherri asked her husband, Grahame, to keep an eye out for the cat during the day.

She continued: "That evening it was howling and mewing outside a lot and our dogs were going ballistic.

"I opened the front door and it bombed into our house. It went round the kitchen and round my legs, as if it was my long-lost cat.

"It was purring like mad and then it shot back out again. It was obviously scared and skittish and I also had a chance to feel its back and I felt it was thin and definitely did not have a collar."

NEWSLINK: UK: Plans progress for big cat return to the north east after 1,300 years

Farmers fears their livestock could be under threat from plans to reintroduce a big cat to the wild.

The group fighting to allow Eurasian lynx to roam free for the first time in 1.300 years has the backing of the public.

The Lynx UK Trust revealed yesterday that a survey completed by almost 10,000 people – carried out by the University of Cumbria – showed 91% support for the idea.

The group is also preparing formal applications for trial reintroductions of the species to send to the National Species Reintroduction Forum.

The trust want to bring six of the animals to the Grumack Forest, at Succoth, near Huntly in Aberdeenshire, and three locations in England and Wales.

But farmer, John Morren – who keeps cattle and sheep on his land near the Grumack Forest – said: “I think it would be negative. I think we already have badgers and foxes and they are all predators.”

The 78-year-old added: “I think it would be a bit alarming for the lambs to be picked up and carried and bad for the ewe when she loses a lamb. If a lynx was hungry it would go for the ewe as well.”

One of the camera-trapped images of Siberian snow leopard

Camera trap images have been taken of snow leopards in the newly created National Park of Sylyugem National Park in the Altai mountains of Siberia.

Aleksei Kuzhlekov, a national park researcher, reports that, "four pictures of snow leopard were taken at different times, probably of three or four individuals".

The Saylyugem National Park was created five years ago to protect wildlife in that region of Siberia, especially the snow leopard and argali mountain sheep, in an area totaling 118,380 hectares.

The creation of the reserve was much needed, because poachers had killed more than 10 snow leopards in the area in the 1990s alone, to sell their pelts and body parts on the black market for Chinese medicine.

The snow leopard is in the endangered category on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species with as few as 4,000 left in the world, of which only 2,500 are likely to be breeding.

The head of the local conservation department, Igor Ivanitsky, adds: "We were able to place the cameras in the right place by painstakingly working out the movements routes of the cats.

Continued ...

Monday, 27 April 2015

Raw meat diet could combat captive cheetah health problem

Presented by

Michelle Douglass

A diet of raw meat and carcasses over commercially prepared meals could combat debilitating gastrointestinal diseases that affect many captive cheetahs.

Over 95% of captive cheetahs in North America and South Africa and 55% in Europe are known to suffer from gastritis – a type of gastrointestinal disease that causes inflammation of the stomach lining; vomiting; diarrhoea and weight loss.

The problem is extremely rare among free-ranging cheetahs.

In the biggest-ever international survey of its kind, researchers gathered information on diet and health for 184 cheetahs in 19 countries, representing 12% of the world’s captive cheetah population.

The team discovered fewer instances of vomiting and diarrhoea in cheetahs whose diet was based on carcasses, compared with animals that were fed commercially prepared meals, which typically include minced meat such as horse or beef, with added vitamins and minerals.

And “firm and dry faeces” – associated with a normal, healthy gut in cheetahs - was most commonly found in animals fed on a raw meat diet.

Read on

Saturday, 25 April 2015

NEWSLINK -INDIA-India plans more tiger reserves on jump in big cat numbers

NEW DELHI - India is planning more tiger reserves across the country, bolstered by a recent survey that shows the big cats' numbers are growing, an official said Wednesday. Environment minister Prakash Javadekar announced in parliament on Tuesday that three more reserves have been approved in central and eastern India, taking the total number to 50. The reserves will be set up in existing national parks in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Orissa states where villagers will no longer be allowed to live or work, while buffer zones will be established around them. "We will be adding three more reserves taking the number to 50," H.S Negi, inspector general of the government's national tiger conservation authority, told AFP. "Reserves have proved to play an important role in the conservation of tigers," he said. India currently has 39,000 square kilometres (15,000 square miles) under tiger reserves across 18 states. Another 30,000 square kilometres are designated as buffer zones, where villagers are allowed to live. India announced in January that 2,226 tigers had been counted across the country, a 30 per cent increase in the population from 2010, when the figure was 1,706. At the beginning of the 20th century, India was home to an estimated 100,000 tigers but widespread hunting reduced the numbers to 1,411 in 2006. - See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/news/asia/india-plans-more-tiger-reserves-jump-big-cat-numbers#sthash.Rpd3A6xr.dpuf India plans more tiger reserves on jump in big cat numbers

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Saturday, 18 April 2015

NEWSLINK-US-Mom Charged After Boy, 2, Falls Into Cheetah Pit at Ohio Zoo

A woman accused of holding her 2-year-old son over a railing at a Cleveland zoo when he fell into a cheetah exhibit has been charged with child endangering. Michelle Schwab, of Delaware, Ohio, was charged Monday in Cleveland Municipal Court. Cleveland Metroparks Zoo says the toddler's parents jumped in and pulled him to safety after he fell into the cheetah enclosure Saturday. Zoo officials say the boy hurt his leg in the fall, but they say the cheetahs didn't go toward him or his parents. Schwab couldn't be reached to comment on the charges. Court records did not say whether she has an attorney and there was no telephone listing for her. The zoo says several people saw the woman holding the child over the railing.WATCH VIDEO-http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/mom-charged-boy-falls-cheetah-pit-ohio-zoo-30283756

FILM NEWSLINK-Roar review: big cat movie that injured 70 crew is re-released! Run! Towards it!

One symptom of our terrible, horrible, no good cinematic age: death-defying stunts in movies are pretty much par for the course, and thus unimpressive. A Chitauri spacecraft can smash through the windows of Grand Central Terminal and look fairly photoreal, yet it’s one of the least exciting bits in The Avengers’ third act slugfest. All our high falutin’ technology has done a lot to enhance the filmgoing experience, don’t get me wrong, but it has desensitised to the point that we expect danger at every turn. We knew that young Suraj Sharma was never near a real uncaged tiger while shooting Life of Pi, which is why Drafthouse Films, the Austin-based upstart theatre chain and distributor of hard-to-categorised movies, is pushing the behind-the-scenes elements of their unearthed gem Roar as much as the film itself. It’s a smart move. There’s really not much going on with Roar storywise. But then you take a step back and think about what it is that you’re watching. My viewing of Roar was set to a soundtrack of “Oh my God!” and “Holy crap!”, all of my own making. Roar, finished in 1981, was the pet project of Noel Marshall. He was a producer on The Exorcist and used his own, demon-bred money to finance this film that nearly killed him and his whole family. That family consisted of his wife Tippi Hedren, his two sons and Hedren’s daughter Melanie Griffith. The basic plot is that Marshall is working in as a zoologist in Africa. (And maybe he’s a doctor, too? There’s a shot of him in a white coat among Masai villagers. For a movie that took over 10 years to make, it is a tad incoherent.)-READ MORE AND SEE VIDEO-http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/apr/14/roar-review-big-cat-movie-that-injured-70-crew-is-re-released-run-towards-it