NEWSLINK: Big Cat Habitat adopts rare cross between lion and tiger

Big Cat Habitat of Sarasota added a a rare, new member to its family on Wednesday.

Say hello to Rhaja, a tigon.

The 7-year-old male tigon is a cross between a female lion and a male tiger, one of about 100 known worldwide. He now has a permanent home at the sanctuary, according to Big Cat Habitat's Kay Rosaire in a press release.

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NEWSLINK: Tango the tiger who starred in 1990s Esso ads has passed away

A tiger who starred in Esso’s much-loved fuel adverts has died of old age at a Lincolnshire wildlife park.


Tango, one of several big cats to appear in the famous ‘Tiger in Your Tank’ ads in the 1990s, passed away at the weekend.

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NEWSLINK: Conservationists Warn Leopards Have ‘Slipped Off The Radar’ But Can Still Be Saved

A camera trap in South Africa captured something remarkable last month: In six brief images, a leopard, one of the planet’s most elusive cats, can be seen attacking, killing and moving off screen with a meal ― in this case, an unlucky impala.

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NEWSLINK: Leopard gives birth in earthquake damaged house

A leopard has given birth to three cubs at a private house belonging to Lalit Jung Thapa in Sirutar-8, Aanantalingeshwor Municipality. Thapa had abandoned the house after it was damaged by the earthquakes last year.


According to Thapa, the leopard gave birth to those cubs five days ago. “Although the mother does not stay there the whole day, it keeps returning to feed the cubs,” said Thapa, 62.

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NEWSLINK: Utah wildlife board approves increased cougar hunt

The Utah Board of Wildlife voted on big cat changes Thursday, allowing for more hunting this coming season.


The number of hunting permits for cougars will increase by 30 statewide, although the changes are on a per-unit basis. The Ogden unit, for example, will issue one less permit while units in central Utah with recent livestock conflicts will issue more permits.

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NEWSLINK: Kheri villagers sight another tiger, official says no big cat in area

There seems to be no respite from tigers for the terror striken people of Chedipur and nearby villages adjacent to Mailani range of forests in Kheri district. Four days after a tiger that had killed five humans since July 8 was finally tranquilised by the wildlife experts, another tiger was sighted by the people of Chedipur. More sightings were reported from Nihalpur village, near Khuthar range of forest, in adjoining Shahjahanpur district.

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NEWSLINK: Tigers coming out of forests around Bhopal due to lack of ‘caring capacity’

Forests in and around Madhya Pradesh capital lack caring capacity and necessary prey base, forcing the tigers to move out of their natural habitat and come close to human habitations in cities, according to a letter written by a top forest official to his senior.

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NEWSLINK: Southeast Asia's Indochinese Leopards Nearing Brink of Extinction

A new study revealed that Indochinese leopards in Southeast Asia are dwindling in number, with less than 1,000 individuals, adding another big cat in the brink of extinction.
In a study published in Biological Conservation, the report showed that the genetically distinct subspecies now only live in 6.2 percent of its historical range, with two major strongholds in peninsular Malaysia and the Northern Tenasserim Forest Complex in the border of Thailand and Cambodia.

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US SIGHTINGS: Attacks. ‘She will have stories to tell’: Idaho preschooler saved from jaws of mountain lion in rare attack

By Ben Guarino August 15 

The first time the mountain lion pawed its way through the Idaho campsite Friday, the cat went unnoticed by everyone except for one woman. Kera Butt was camping with her family in Green Canyon Hot Springs, near Yellowstone National Park, when she caught a glimpse of the animal.

“As we were eating dinner, I turned my head and saw the back part of the cat,” Butt told East Idaho News. “I saw it move and I told everyone, ‘I just saw a cat.’”

Her family was skeptical. It must have been a different species of animal — perhaps she had mistaken a wolf for the larger predator, they said. Although mountain lions are native to the Yellowstone area, the cats are almost mythical in their ability to go unseen. They are stealthy hunters and usually shy around humans. No more than a few dozen live in the 3,000-square-mile park at a time.

Butt’s eyes did not deceive her. She had indeed spotted a mountain lion, an event the Idaho Department of Fish and Game called “highly unusual.” Stranger still, the big cat would return later that night — in a brief moment that, to the Butt family, unfolded in horror.

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