STROUDSBURG, Pa. — They keep to themselves, tucked away on a shelf. Some orphaned bobcat kits are getting big and strong at Pocono Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center.
They were picked up in Wayne County.
"These little baby bobcats were wandering around for days, coming and going from this deck. They were very thin, very dehydrated, and clearly, there is no mother. We have no idea what happened to mom, but things do happen to wild animals. They were live-trapped and given permission by the regional office to bring them to us so they can gain weight and independence before we send them into the wild," said Kathy Uhler, director of the center near Stroudsburg.
Uhler says three bobcats in her care at the same time is a first.
"They have a lot of catching up to do. Each one is at least 6 or 8 ounces underweight. That's a lot for their age; they are 6 or 7 weeks old. So, they have a lot of catching up to do. We need to grow them pretty big, and I don't want to keep them very long because they will get to be unwieldy very quickly, maybe a month. We need to do live-prey training with them, get them comfortable killing, and then get them out of here," said Uhler.
While most of the animals here at the wildlife center can be fed food that you can find at your local grocery store, the bobcats are a little different, and so is what they eat.
"Mainly, we are going to be using rodents. They need to be able to be attracted to certain scents and things like that. We purchase our rodents from rodent pro, Rodent Pro, and they have gift certificates online so people can actually if they don't want to donate straight money, and what to know exactly where it's going, that way they can donate mice and rats to their care," said Uhler.