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The Forgotten Wild Cats..

Back in my late teens, I rescued and raised an orphaned endangered Jaguarundi cub, after her Mom's habit of raiding farmer's chickens cost her Mom's life. Toma, the name I gave her, was not a majestic big cat. She belongs to the group of wild cats known as small cats. I tend to call them the forgotten cats, because unlike the popular big cats, many of these small and medium sized wild cats rarely receive the needed awareness and help necessary to save them from extinction. In the Wild, these small cats can be found in various parts of the world as different spices and variations. Consider to be one of the smallest of wild small cat spices, Jaguarundis can weigh 6 to 20 pounds measuring 12 to 20 inches in height and grow up to 4 feet long. They R the close relatives to cougars, and a distance genetic relative of the cheetah. But R commonly mistaken for a small puma or cougar depending on what region of the world they live in. A long time ago various kinds of mountain and low land Jaguarundis thrived in the wild spanning from the USA to South America. Unfortunately, like the fait of Toma's Mom, many were killed for killing farmer's Chickens or were victims to habitat lost from human development. Toma was a rare low land South Western Jaguarundi. Which, at one time were commonly found throughout South Western United States and Mexico. Currently, it is believed only 200 to 300 South Western Jaguarundi remain left in the wild, and less than 50 remain in the USA. Presently in captivity, only 4 exist, which is not enough gene diversity to start a breeding population.

What can be done from keeping many of these forgotten wild small cats from extinction?
1. For starters U can learn more about them by googling Jaguarundi and small cats.
2. Ask your Zoo to start a breeding program for any endangered small cat that needs a breeding program.
3. Small Cats R NOT man eaters and pose no danger to human life. So a political solution of carefully moving some of them to more safer places to live, will work too.
4. If U have any ideas, let me know.

The following are some pictures of Toma when I was raising her as a Cube:

1. This was my first day with her.

2. My Dad holding at home, and she's a few months older here.

3. Toma loved the kitchen, and made it her den, which she ruled.

4. Toma drinking water at the back door of our house in the kitchen.

5. My Dad holding her again by the back door.

6. My Dad trying to keep her on a chair. She hated that chair. To shakey.