BEND, OR -- A new bobcat is now on display at the High Desert Museum. Curator of Wildlife Jon Nelson tells me the kitten came to Bend back in October, weighing less than three pounds. "We got a call from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife saying that they had this baby bobcat that required human care, and they asked if we’d be willing to take him."

Nelson tells KBND News, "Some members of the public found him near Portland and he was a little baby, so they were worried about it. So they picked him up and took him into the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Their policy is always to try and reunite these baby animals with their parents, so they took the cub back and left him there, thinking mom will come back and we’ll have a happy ending. Unfortunately, he gravitated towards people, so more people found him." That's when ODFW realized the eight-month-old could not be returned to the wild. 

Nelson says it's a good example of why humans should not try to rescue baby wildlife. In this case - as in others - it's difficult to tell whether the kitten was actually orphaned by its mother, "It’s really common for adults to leave the babies; they have to go off and hunt and forage for things, and they’re coming back." He says babies "rescued" by well-meaning people can quickly become habituated to humans and, "Once they’re habituated, most species can’t be returned to the wild. They won’t have the skills they need to survive." 

Since October, museum staff have been working on training, "Getting him going in and out of a crate, so we can move him around," says Nelson, "And then, we kind of did a slow process of getting him used to the exhibit and getting him used to being viewed by people. And that took some time."

Now more than 15 pounds and adjusted to his new surroundings, Nelson says the bobcat is ready for the Spirit of the West exhibition, "With this exhibit, we have a gray fox that has been in there for quite a while now. And he and the gray fox are going to kind of take turns. We have other enclosures that are off exhibit, and so we want to give these animals a chance to rotate in and out and not be on public view all the time."

He doesn’t have a name yet; hat privilege will be auctioned off in August at the High Desert Rendezvous - the museum’s annual fundraiser. 

Photos by John Williams, courtesy High Desert Museum