On Saturday morning, I got to cover my first release - a bobcat release. Her name is Sophie and she had been at Best Friends since she was just an itty bitty baby. She was trapped at the bottom of a slot canyon when she was just a few pounds and was rescued by canyoneers last summer. She’s spent her whole life since then here in captivity, but remained completely wild. She has been kept away from humans to ensure that she stays afraid of them. She ate by hunting small animals that wandered into her pen, and was occasionally tossed a live meal to hunt if none wandered into her pen on their own.
She could have been released last fall, but she would have had a much harder time adapting to being on her own at that time of year. Now was a better release time, because of the bajillion wild bunnies out here that are procreating. There is a never-ending supply of slow, easy-to-catch baby bunnies for her to feast on. Not so good for the bunnies, but good for her. It will give her time to become a better hunter in time for winter, when food is harder to come by.
We drove out to the White Cliffs on Saturday and let her go. It’s incredible how much natural instinct they have. This bobcat that has lived its whole life in captivity, will be just fine in the wild. Bobcats are solitary animals, so they don’t need to befriend any others. They just go out and eat, sleep, and live.
I wish I had better photos to show for the release, but that cat took off so fast, I only got two frames fired off before she was gone, gone, gone. I couldn’t be in front of her because she could attack if she felt I was in the way of where she wanted to go. But sub-par photo aside, it was an incredible experience, one I don’t think I’ll ever forget.
Filed under: best friends, wildlife
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