DESTINATION: Wild cats take a perch in Tallahassee

The female caracal swivels her black-tufted ears at the slightest wave of sound; like a roving satellite antenna, all 20 muscles in those super-sensitive ears prick up at the first hint of noise.

Honing in on the crinkle, crinkle of cellophane from the newly-made ‘big cat’ toy fashioned just this morning by Lead Keeper, Laura Augustine.

Along with her sibling, the nine-month-old pair of medium-sized wild cats native to Africa, Central Asia and the Arabian Peninsula, are the latest ‘guest animals’ at the Tallahassee Museum.

The brother-sister duo are on six-month loan from the Carson Springs Wildlife Conservation Foundation in Gainesville.

With the recent opening of the exhibit, Animal Curator Suzie Buzzo and her staff are still ‘getting acquainted’ with the new felines, which are secretive by nature and nocturnal by choice.

“We know they like the ledges and that hammock in the middle,” Buzzo confirms, as evidenced by the early-morning quantity of shed fur, leftover from each previous night.

“They also seem to like toys that ‘wiggle’,” Buzzo notes, all of which are part of the ‘enrichment’ program, which includes hiding scents – catnip and perfumes – and attempting to feed them different foods.

So far, the fish and steak bites don’t seem to garner as much attention from the caracals, as their more-familiar staple of chicken.

“We also put out cardboard boxes for them to get into,” Buzzo adds.

Any creative outlet, whether a physical activity or mental exercise, designed specifically to arouse the caracals’ natural curiosity and enable them in displaying species-specific behavior. Like all animals in captivity, even the Museum’s temporary residents need constant stimulation – the means to channel their energy – while best simulating their native habitat.

For these wild cats, decidedly most active when air temperatures drop below 68°, they will probably spend the majority of daytime hours in the Florida heat languishing in the shade.

But, don’t be fooled into thinking that these sprawling ‘desert lynxes’, napping in the afternoons, are just docile, sweet-faced kitties.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Primarily carnivorous, caracals are fierce predators and at the top of their game.

In fact, caracals were so adept at hunting, in ancient times, they were tamed and used for ‘coursing’ throughout Persia, India, and Egypt.

The sport of hunting game animals – in this case, birds – using sight rather than scent, ‘coursing’ took advantage of the feline’s rapacious skills.

In outdoor coliseums, gamblers wagered bets on how many pigeons a well-trained caracal could fell in a single swoop of its paw.

Although these beautiful karakulaks – from Turkish, appropriately meaning ‘black ears’ – are rarely seen on safaris in the wild, on game preserves like South Africa’s Great Karoo, they are on exhibit at the Tallahassee Museum for a few more months.

Visitors can get an up-close-and-personal look at these elegant felines with their distinctive ebony facial branding: two black stripes from the forehead to the nose and an inky, outlined mouth.

If those ‘periscope’ ears stand up…if the brother and sister begin to move their heads from side to side until those ebony tufts – their audio antennas - start to flicker…if they begin to meow, or purr, or hiss like all cats, wild and domesticated, do…that might just be their way of communicating.

Their way of saying hello and good-bye.

Vickie Lillo - Gadsden County News Service

DESTINATION: Wild cats take a perch in Tallahassee

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DESTINATION: Wild cats take a perch in Tallahassee

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Small Farm Producer Meeting to give local gardeners and growers a voice

Putting water on the fire – Local volunteer fire departments receive canned water to support wildland firefighting efforts

Putting water on the fire - Local volunteer fire departments receive canned water to support wildland firefighting efforts

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