Predator Pets (2018) Season 1 Episode 4
Predator Pets (2018) Season 1 Episode 4
We learn about Mark's exotic animals including his alligator and tarantula. We see how Mark is an expert handler and cares for many different exotic animals. We then venture to visit Joe Taft at the Exotic Feline Rescue Center, which has rescued just under 200 big cats where staff and volunteers are trained in caring for these magnificent creatures. We visit Val and her energetic bobcats.
#documentary #animals
We learn about Mark's exotic animals including his alligator and tarantula. We see how Mark is an expert handler and cares for many different exotic animals. We then venture to visit Joe Taft at the Exotic Feline Rescue Center, which has rescued just under 200 big cats where staff and volunteers are trained in caring for these magnificent creatures. We visit Val and her energetic bobcats.
#documentary #animals
Category
🐳
AnimalsTranscript
00:00Humans have had a close relationship with animals for thousands of years.
00:26Scientists agree the domestic dog has been a trusted pet for around 15,000 years, and
00:31cats became part of the household from 10,000 years ago.
00:35And now it's estimated there are at least 600 million pet cats in the world.
00:41Exotic pets have also been kept for thousands of years.
00:46It's well documented that the Egyptians kept baboons as pets, and exotic animals kept in
00:51the home feature in many ancient texts.
00:55In modern times, the keeping of exotic pets has increased.
00:59A staggering statistic is that there are more tigers in the U.S. alone than there are in
01:04the wild.
01:09Animal owners truly believe they are playing a role in preserving the numbers of exotic
01:13animals.
01:14But on the other side of the debate, there are those who believe it is a cruel practice
01:19to keep any animals in captivity.
01:22This series explores the issues from both sides, from those who know the dangers, but
01:30see the benefits, to others who condemn the keeping of exotic pets.
01:35Their stories follow.
01:40Mark Colehorse knows his animals.
01:43Owner of the traveling zoo, Mark's Ark, and with over 40 species living on his property,
01:49he really is a modern-day Noah.
01:52From horses to ducks, rabbits to frogs, Mark is an expert on all things cute and cuddly.
02:00But Mark also has a curiosity for the dangerous side of animal handling.
02:04His pride and joy are some of the world's most hostile predators.
02:11I'm going to be getting out Ivy.
02:13Ivy is the larger of my two alligators.
02:16Really quite honestly not knowing what her type of temperament is, and she's quite different
02:22than any others that I've ever had.
02:24She is not friendly.
02:27This is not a normal pet.
02:33You guys might want to stand back because she's going to get an avalanche of water.
02:36And the way she's presenting right here, she can take a hold of this and bust it easily.
02:42I go through a lot of these.
02:44You might ask why I do this.
02:46And when she is taped, she calms right down.
02:49She kind of knows this is a job.
02:52What I'm trying to do is get her tail so that I have control.
02:55There we go.
02:55That's pretty good.
02:58And then I can get her from behind.
03:05She is not happy.
03:08This is actually easier than it usually goes with her.
03:12So once I control her tail, and I've got the back of her head, then I can just press her firmly
03:17but not harming her down, and then her bite power is very powerful on the way down but not up.
03:27Electrical tape only will tape against itself and not on her so it doesn't pull her skin.
03:33She can breathe perfectly fine.
03:36And once I have her subdued like this, she can't bite.
03:40And she's really of no danger unless she decides she wanted to use her tail.
03:45I would feel completely confident in letting a very small child hold her now.
03:50And a lot of people are worried about the claws.
03:52The nails, they're not very sharp actually.
03:55They really don't serve a whole lot of purpose.
03:57They do dig in the mud.
03:59At four years old, Ivy is still relatively small.
04:03But Mark knows the dangers she will pose once she reaches adulthood.
04:08It is likely she will grow to nine feet long and weigh up to 250 pounds.
04:14Once she reaches five feet, she will be classified as a class three wild animal.
04:19And Mark will need to obtain a permit to keep her.
04:22Alligators are probably, in my opinion, one of the smarter reptiles.
04:26They definitely have anger.
04:31She has almost got my fingers.
04:33She has got me across the back with her tail.
04:36Even for this size, it would feel like somebody taking a very broad belt across your back
04:41and just drive it right back.
04:44Exclusively found across America's southeast, alligators are some of the most menacing predators
04:50in the United States.
04:52Growing up to 15 feet and reaching 1,000 pounds, this is not a creature you want to run into
04:58unprepared.
04:59I've never had dogs or cats when I was a kid.
05:02My parents were very tolerant, and I always had exotics.
05:06One of my first pets was a spectacled caiman.
05:09It was nasty, evil.
05:11I really liked it.
05:12My dad enjoyed it, too.
05:14They're fascinating.
05:15They're smart, strong.
05:17This type of animal's been around longer than dinosaurs.
05:20It's a tricky thing to call this a pet.
05:22I've known people that have had 12-foot alligators literally in their basement in the large city
05:27of Fort Wayne near here with their toddler child that jumps on its back and played with
05:33it and pet it.
05:35And the animal had free reign of the basement and a pond, a pool.
05:39Now that's a bit extreme for me.
05:42That won't ever happen.
05:43My child never goes near this animal unless it's in my hands and it's secured.
05:49This animal can be dangerous.
05:53Encounters between humans and alligators are on the increase in the United States.
05:58Worldwide, it's estimated that 1,000 people die every year as a result of crocodilian
06:03attacks.
06:05I have seen her take raw chicken legs and take that bone and just crunch it in half.
06:10I've been bitten by another alligator before, and I thought I was going to lose my thumb.
06:14It was an alligator that was about a foot longer than this that I had.
06:18And I was in a hurry and a rush to go to a show, and even though he didn't have a temperament
06:23like this, he didn't like that hurried pace, he got a hold of my thumb, and the next thing
06:29I thought was, there goes my thumb.
06:31And he pressed down and bit down so hard, it felt like, you can't imagine the pressure.
06:37It just, I thought my thumb was gone.
06:41Alligators' teeth break off easily, and Mark's attack left him with a tooth lodged in his
06:46hand.
06:48They have the strongest bite pressure relative to size of any crocodilian, and Mark was lucky
06:53to escape further harm while at the mercy of this wild creature.
07:02A full-size alligator can break the femur of a cow.
07:06It's substantial.
07:08It's incredibly strong.
07:10People buy them as a novelty.
07:13These are people that, they decide they want to get a pet without ever having experience
07:18with any kind of exotic animals.
07:20They buy it, it's dangerous, they thought it was a novelty, they thought it was gonna
07:25be cool, it was gonna be really neat, and they learn that, you know, it's not a pet.
07:33That being said, I know my animals, I use these animals a lot, for 11 years, this is
07:38a safe animal that I would never, ever, by any circumstances, ever let anybody get injured.
07:45While Mark is highly conscientious of his animals, unfortunately, the same cannot be
07:50said for all exotic pet owners.
07:54Juan Stewart is the Chief Veterinary Officer and National Director of American Humane Hollywood.
08:00Juan has spent many years working in animal shelters and is a strong advocate for the
08:04welfare and protection of both domesticated and wild animals.
08:08These reptiles, these birds, these small exotics, they require so much expertise, it would blow
08:16your mind.
08:17You get a small boa at your pet store and it's all of 18 inches, well, one day, that
08:22thing, if you feed it right and take care of it, it's gonna be, you know, 8, 10, 15
08:27feet, potentially, and then what do you do?
08:28I mean, they get discarded, and that's not fair for the animal.
08:32They can become wild, vicious, dangerous animals.
08:37Years spent dealing with these crocodilians means Mark has experienced firsthand the wild
08:43nature of these highly powerful animals.
08:46Absolutely, this is a predator.
08:48You would not believe what this thing is capable of when it eats.
08:52I prefer to feed dead food.
08:54When there's a situation where I have to feed live, 180 degrees different in their behavior.
09:00They are unbelievably fast, unbelievably violent.
09:10When you hear them, you know, killing their prey, and you hear the bones crunch, there's
09:15no doubt about it, you just hear it, and they want to kill it as quick as possible.
09:21They're very efficient, very efficient.
09:28When dealing with an alligator, as with any wild predator, caution is key.
09:33Returning the alligator to its cage can be a particularly difficult task, and Mark approaches
09:39it with precision and care.
09:42The power is in her hip and her tail, so between my legs here, it's the best way I've found
09:48to do it, and then I have to hold her very securely, because she'll do that.
09:54So she knows she's getting put away, and I've got to be very quick and careful with her,
10:03because sometimes she'll come back at me.
10:05She's got a posture right now that's an aggressive posture, she's checking things out, she's
10:11kind of curious, and she's okay now.
10:13She's calmed down.
10:14She's going to probably just go right back up on her platform.
10:16She knows everything's done.
10:20Like many exotic enthusiasts, one predator is not enough to satisfy Mark's desire for
10:26the dangerous and mysterious.
10:29This is a Colombian red-tailed boa.
10:31She's about seven, eight years old.
10:33Her name is Rocky, Rocky Balboa.
10:35They can vary a lot in their color.
10:37She has bronze.
10:39This is one of South America's largest snakes, the green anaconda being the bigger.
10:45As an arboreal snake, Colombian red-tailed boas are natively found living in the treetops.
10:52They have the fastest strike of any snake, and can easily catch monkeys and birds out
10:57of trees.
10:59She's almost eight feet long.
11:01She's strong enough that she could constrict enough to keep my chest from expanding to
11:05take in breath.
11:06So it's a very, very powerful snake.
11:10Even as a trained animal handler, Mark is not immune to the power of these highly dangerous
11:15snakes.
11:16Caught alone and unaware, he experienced their predatory nature and powerful grasp.
11:23I have had incidents before.
11:26When I was a zookeeper, I had a much larger one than this that didn't want to go back
11:30in its cage, and the snake did not want to let me go.
11:34It did not want to go back in the cage, and I struggled with the snake for well over an
11:40hour.
11:41I could not get to my radio.
11:43I was able to get the upper hand on it.
11:44I think I just literally had more energy than it did, and I was able to literally take it
11:51off like a pair of pants and slide it down.
11:55But when I was done, I can't remember but only a few other times where I was so exhausted
12:00in my life.
12:02These are the strongest animals, and their musculature and the way they hold on is different
12:08than anything else.
12:09I've been bitten by large snakes like this before, and they're so fast that you don't
12:14even realize that you're bitten at first because it's so quick that even your nerve endings
12:19don't fire right.
12:21Honestly, you think, was I just bitten?
12:25And then you realize that you've got 60, 70 tooth marks in your arm from a snake like
12:32this, and it's a half inch deep.
12:34It bleeds for quite a long time before your blood clots, and it does hurt.
12:39Imagine having 60 hypodermics all in one short, small area.
12:43This is not a domesticated or tame animal.
12:48You never know when you're going to have a bad day with that animal, you just have to
12:51know the animal.
12:52I can kind of tell with my animals when they're not feeling good or anything.
12:58She's doing fine.
12:59She's having a great time.
13:01If she were not, she would be closed up and tight.
13:07Perhaps the most widely feared of Mark's collection is his tarantula.
13:11While its venom won't kill you, the tarantula's razor sharp fangs and large, hairy body make
13:17it infamous around the world.
13:19I don't know that I'm going to be holding her.
13:23She just bit into this, and let me tell you what, it was quite something.
13:29She just dug her fangs right in that wood.
13:33I've held her before, but boy, she just drove them right in.
13:36This is a Chilean rose hair tarantula, a very common tarantula available in pet stores.
13:43They typically have a reputation as being a really calm spider.
13:48This is a female.
13:50Females can live a lot longer than males, up to 30 years.
13:54Males are short, seven to nine years.
13:57And I've never been bitten by a tarantula.
13:59Don't ever want to.
14:01She has half inch fangs.
14:03The venom, though, is described as being relatively benign.
14:09The bite is what hurts.
14:10I mean, having half inch fangs, two of them, and spiders are really soft.
14:17But what they do when they bite is they grab really powerful, and they bite and let go.
14:26That powerful grab is tremendous.
14:30Usually the snake and the spiders are the most fearful animals that I have, that I show.
14:35I am not a cat person, a wild cat person, small or large cat.
14:40And I'm not a primate person.
14:41I am completely against those type of animals.
14:45Big cats, primates, they're too smart for their own good.
14:48And they're dealing with an animal that matures like a human being, except they're a wild
14:53animal.
14:54And so when something turns 15, and their testosterone blooms four times greater than
14:59a human being, and an animal that's only 30 or 40 pounds, and you yank the chain around
15:05the neck of that animal one too many times, and that animal wants to be dominant in a
15:08troop, you're in trouble.
15:10I worked with primates too long, and they definitely are not a pet.
15:15This is something you can control, you can take care of.
15:19Primates are not something for anybody.
15:21Now, normally I would handle spiders a lot easier, more comfortable than this, but she's,
15:27like I said, I'm a little more unfamiliar with her.
15:30This is not something I've done many times with her.
15:34These aren't for everybody, no, no, no, definitely not.
15:44I can go in the cage with all the animals out here.
15:47The question is, can I come back out of the cage?
15:57When driving through rural Indiana, there are many sounds you would expect to hear.
16:15What may surprise you is the roar of a mighty tiger.
16:26Founded in 1991 by Indiana local Joe Taft, the Exotic Feline Rescue Center is a refuge
16:32for the abandoned and the abused, home to over 200 exotic cats across nine different
16:38species.
16:40Joe's long-held interest in exotic cats began in his youth.
16:45I started with cats in the mid-60s.
16:48I bought an ocelot as a pet for absolutely no good reason.
16:54After the ocelot, I had a leopard that I lived with for 19 years, and I lived with
17:00her.
17:01I mean, she was a pet.
17:02She had a big outside enclosure, but she had three rooms in the house, and she had the
17:07run of my house most of the time.
17:12She slept in my bed at night her whole life, and during the winter, she was under the covers
17:18with her head out in the pillow.
17:20During the summer, she was over on the couch.
17:23Joe's attitude towards pet ownership changed after witnessing the mistreatment many of
17:28these creatures face in captivity.
17:33What we do here puts us in contact with the 98% of the people who have these animals who
17:39shouldn't, and very seldom are we in contact with those 2% or maybe even 1% of people who
17:48have them that do a good job.
17:55In the United States, laws concerning exotic pet ownership are handled at a state level.
18:01Indiana laws are considered relatively lenient compared to other states, requiring little
18:06more than a permit for exotic pet ownership.
18:09Despite this, many owners don't bother with a permit, instead purchasing animals illegally
18:15from breeders online.
18:17You could find these animals on the internet, and you could get them for $500 or $1,000,
18:23and there wasn't much regulation about their interstate movement.
18:29Now there are new federal laws in effect that clamp down on the interstate movement of big
18:35cats in the pet market.
18:38Unfortunately, a USDA permit is easy to come by, and if you have a USDA permit, then you
18:43can move the cats back and forth across state lines.
18:47On the other hand, there cannot be any money involved in those movements.
18:53And frankly, you know that most of the exchanges involving these animals, there is money involved.
19:00All of the cats at the center are rescues, arriving from zoos, circuses, breeders, and
19:05pet owners around the country.
19:08Joe has made it his mission to rescue ill-treated felines and educate the public about these
19:15beautiful and mysterious animals.
19:21A lot of these cats come here poorly nourished.
19:26You get an animal like this in a little cage and upset, and he snaps at something, they'll
19:34break their teeth off.
19:36So cats would come to us with big grooves cut in their teeth right at the base, and
19:43then it wouldn't take a lot of impact with something just to snap those teeth off.
19:52Although I've certainly seen upset tigers hit steel bars and teeth just break.
20:01Many of Joe's rescues arrive in cages not suitable for their size.
20:07With over 25 years on the job, Joe has seen firsthand how mistreatment can have long-term
20:13physical and psychological effects on these majestic creatures.
20:17These were circus lions.
20:19When the guy that owned these retired from the circus, he wheeled nine big cats into
20:24his barn in circus wheel cages, and that's where they spent the next ten years.
20:30Six years into that, he bought another tiger and put her in a five-by-seven cage, and she
20:35lived in that for four years in that barn.
20:39Finally, the USDA decided that it was time to quit petting this guy in the head, and
20:48they called me one morning and said, we have ten big cats up here.
20:52We want you to take eight of them and create the other two for another facility.
20:57We did it the next day in a blizzard, two and a half feet of snow.
21:02These guys could barely walk when they got here.
21:05They were here for a month before they first tried to run, and then they just fell over.
21:11The guy that had these lions certainly didn't give a damn about them, but they're doing
21:17much better now.
21:20It's no fault of Joe's that some of his animals arrive displaying the physical scars of previous
21:25neglect.
21:27Zozo, she walks in a circle because for four years she was in a cage that was five foot
21:36by seven foot, and she didn't have the ability to walk anywhere else.
21:45Years of mistreatment can also have significant behavioral effects on the predator, with many
21:50of the felines arriving depressed, anxious, and overly aggressive.
21:56I don't do things that would make me afraid.
21:59You know, after working with big cats for over 50 years, I know the things that people
22:05do that are scary, and one of my serious goals is to be able to do this again tomorrow.
22:11So you can't do that if they hurt you.
22:15Huh, come here.
22:19Hi.
22:20I mean, she's as sweet as can be, but she is full of energy, and she would certainly
22:29break me.
22:30Even with the protection of a fence, Joe knows never to let your guard down around these
22:35vicious predators, especially when they're hungry.
22:43The oldest tiger that's ever been here was 26 when she died, and sometimes we blame that
22:52on what she ate before she came here, which was a 17-year-old girl.
22:58Court documents described the tigers as, quote, extraordinarily hungry, unquote.
23:08We didn't get them for two years after the incident, and they were still extraordinarily
23:12hungry.
23:18They were all part of a traveling animal show, and the guy had jury-rigged some cages in
23:23a barn so he could go out and party for the winter, and left them in the care of a young
23:30girl who did not have a reliable source of food, and they hadn't been fed at all for
23:36four days, and she went in the barn and took her teenage friend in with her, but the court
23:43transcripts say that the keeper girl, who didn't have the experience to be a keeper
23:49to begin with, went up to the cage where these hungry tigers were with a hose to give them
23:57water, turned her back to talk to her friend, and you saw what happened when I turned my
24:04back on, only these guys were hungry.
24:11The tigers reached out and grabbed her and pulled her back to the fence, and her teenage
24:17friend ran up to try and save her, and they grabbed her friend's arm and pulled it off
24:25and ran off and ate it, and the girl died on the floor.
24:30Sadly, this shocking attack is not an isolated incident.
24:34Since 1990, more than 300 dangerous events involving big cats have occurred, resulting
24:40in the deaths of four children and 16 adults.
24:48The staff at the rescue center are highly trained and well aware of the risks associated
24:53with working with such a powerful animal.
24:56Regardless of the situation, these are dangerous predators.
25:01I wouldn't want to go in there and let her sit in my lap.
25:03She would definitely take your fingers off as a food source.
25:10You can see she's not interested in that much anymore.
25:14Where did you get that big belly?
25:16You're not a skinny little girl anymore, are you?
25:21No.
25:25Since opening the rescue center, Joe and his team have saved countless big cats from all
25:30around the country and have had their fair share of close calls.
25:35Bruises, scratches, and broken bones are all part of the job when working with some of
25:40the world's most formidable predators.
25:42However, these big cats are not Joe's only threat.
25:47His work also receives public backlash.
25:51This tiger is one of four tigers that we took out of downtown Gary, Indiana.
25:57This was a federal seizure, and the USDA called us the day before we were supposed to take
26:03these cats and said, we're afraid to be in this neighborhood in the afternoon.
26:09Why don't you come up and spend the night in a neighboring town, and we'll go in first
26:15thing in the morning and take them?
26:20Well, the state police showed up at 8 o'clock in the morning, and they put yellow crime
26:26scene tape around the place.
26:28We got there 10 minutes later, and there were probably 100 people on the streets ready to
26:32throw beer bottles at us.
26:35So it was an interesting morning.
26:40He had three of them in the back room of his tattoo parlor, and this one was out in the
26:45parking lot behind the tattoo parlor.
26:57Look at his claws now.
27:02See those claws?
27:05Children.
27:09These guys came here when they were six months old.
27:12The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asked us to go to New York and take a leopard, which
27:17we did.
27:19And as we took the leopard, they told the guy, we're not going to prosecute on this,
27:23don't do it again.
27:25He must have been on the phone buying these leopards before we got all the way out of
27:29his driveway.
27:31And six months later, after his wife escaped from being chained and beaten in the basement
27:37upstairs, she went to the police, and the police came back and found two leopards and
27:43four kids.
27:44So we went out and got these two leopards.
27:49But for Joe and his team, the risks are worth it, to see these magnificent, powerful creatures
27:55given a second chance at life.
27:58This tiger came from Branson, Missouri, where he was in a magic theater, where they cleaned
28:04his cage every day with bleach, didn't particularly bother to rinse the bleach off.
28:17In many cases, the effects of long-term neglect continue to manifest themselves, even years
28:22later.
28:24He had bleach burns on all of his feet, he could barely stand up.
28:30See how he still holds that one foot up?
28:37Sebastian the tiger also arrived in a poor condition.
28:41A detached retina meant he was in constant pain and in need of an urgent operation.
28:48He is just one of 25 of Joe's rescued tigers that have required surgery on their eyes.
28:55While Joe dedicates his time and money to providing medical attention to those animals
29:00who need it, fortunately, not all of them arrive badly neglected.
29:07One of Joe's charges still has a special place in the heart of one Ohio State trooper and
29:12his wife.
29:15She came from an Ohio State trooper who had encountered her as a sick and injured cub,
29:23and then he took her home, and he and his wife nursed this animal back to health and
29:29kept her for nine years.
29:32Ohio was one of the states that had no regulations about the keeping of wild animals, and then
29:41Ohio passed some incredibly knee-jerk regulations, and as a result of those regulations, this
29:48state patrolman was forced to give this animal up.
29:54On October 18, 2011, Ohio resident Terry Thompson let loose his vast collection of exotic animals
30:02in the streets of Zanesville.
30:05Fifty-six animals, including black bears, mountain lions, Bengal tigers, wolves, and
30:11leopards roamed the streets, terrifying residents.
30:15Shortly after, state legislation was changed, making the private ownership of wild animals
30:20and restricted snakes increasingly difficult.
30:24Even before I came into the legislature, there were some issues at hand with wild animals.
30:29You know, they got talked about, but then after a couple months, it kind of went away.
30:36We wanted to make more than just a motion with this.
30:38We wanted to actually implement something and get something moving, and when we looked
30:42at this legislation, we wanted to be different than any other state.
30:45Everyone said, well, look at the other states and look what they're doing around you.
30:48We didn't want to do it that way.
30:49We wanted to make this Ohio, and we were going to stand and make it Ohio law, and that's
30:54how we wanted to do it.
30:55We didn't want to base any of the legislation off what other states were doing.
31:01We went over to get the cat.
31:03He lived way out in the country.
31:05We had a hard time finding him.
31:08When we finally found the house, there was a state police car out in front, and I thought,
31:14we're too late.
31:15There's been trouble.
31:16But as it turned out, he was the owner.
31:22Of all the cats that we have here that have been privately owned, this officer and his
31:30wife are the only people who come to visit, and they come every few months.
31:36Considering the number of cougars in this country, the number of people who are hurt
31:40or killed by cougars is minuscule.
31:43You have to really trigger one of these animals to come after you.
31:48Most people that are attacked by cougars don't know there's a cougar there.
31:52I mean, if you're jogging down a mountain trail or mountain biking, you can go by one
31:59and trigger all of their chase instincts, and they will chase you.
32:04While many of these owners have good intentions, according to Joe, a lack of understanding
32:09about how to properly care for the wild animals often results in mistreatment and neglect.
32:15You know, there are people who have these animals, people in private hands, who take
32:23incredibly good care of them, and I'm not against that.
32:31I'm against poor care.
32:33I'm against incompetent ownership.
32:35Indiana, I think, has some pretty reasonable state regulations.
32:41If you can acquire one of these animals legally and you can jump through some hoops, you can
32:49get a permit to keep one in Indiana.
32:52So you know, in that regard, we're certainly not in favor of seeing them, you know, for
32:59sale in your local pet store.
33:03But there are people that take good care of them, and I'm not in favor of seeing them
33:10taken away from them either.
33:13We're making a difference for one animal at a time.
33:16We're not making a political statement.
33:19We're not saying that people should or should not have these animals.
33:25We're saying that this is an animal who is in trouble.
33:31This is an animal that has been mistreated.
33:33This is an animal whose life is endangered, and we will step forward and do what we can
33:42do to save that animal.
33:47You know, we will go wherever they are to get them.
33:51We will bring them back here.
33:56We will make whatever medical technology is at our disposal available to them, and we
34:07will see that they have a safe place to stay for the rest of their life.
34:18You will get hurt.
34:24Are they going to kill you?
34:25No, they're not going to kill you, but they're going to hurt you.
34:30They will scratch you up pretty bad.
34:32Val Mahler is crazy about bobcats.
34:36Since opening the National Bobcat Rescue and Research Center in 2008, her life has been
34:41devoted to protecting and studying the often misunderstood predator.
34:47I have worked in the animal business my entire life.
34:50I've been a wildlife biologist, moved out here to do something completely different,
34:56and fell into bobcats because that was what was booming at a time that there was no one
34:59else out here.
35:01I have not met a more intelligent, compassionate, emotional animal in my entire life.
35:09Bobcats, in comparison to their body size, have the largest brain of any of the felines.
35:14It doesn't matter if it's wild or if it's one that's been raised in captivity.
35:20They all have this deep emotional bond with each other or with their human people.
35:26If they're a pet, they develop a deep emotional bond.
35:30Val's bobcats have developed this bond and show their affection by rubbing their glands
35:34on her and marking their scent.
35:42Head-butting and mouth-to-mouth contact are also believed to be the ultimate displays
35:46of affection.
35:47You're fat.
35:48You're fat.
35:49I know.
35:50Normally, the difference in the marking and the affection, she will rub her head up against
35:59like this.
36:00This is more of affection, and then she'll lick my nose a lot and hold it with her teeth.
36:06Hmm.
36:07I know.
36:08I know.
36:09That's Dalton.
36:10That's Dalton, isn't it?
36:11I know.
36:12Oh, I know.
36:13I know.
36:14Despite their friendly appearance, Val knows that the best place for these predators is
36:24out in the wild.
36:28Bobcats really do need to live in the wild.
36:32The reality is a bobcat is a wild cat, F-zero.
36:35They are wild, and so to put a wild animal, even if it's affectionate, even if it loves
36:41you as a cub, to put it into a pet environment is really just, it's just not, I don't know,
36:53it's not realistic.
36:54They are going to tear your house up.
36:56They can't be a house pet.
36:57If you're going to keep them as a pet, which we never condone, they need to be kept in
37:02large cages.
37:03They need to have the funding to be able to feed them every day.
37:06They're an obligate carnivore.
37:07They have to be fed meat.
37:09If you go to the grocery store and buy food, you have to use supplements to supplement
37:13that so it gives them the appropriate minerals and vitamins.
37:17So understanding what kind of animal they are, what the responsibility is to them as
37:23an emotional animal that you cannot just leave, you can't go on a vacation and leave them
37:28behind.
37:31Wild bobcats remain highly territorial, and their unpredictable and ultimately wild nature
37:37make even the calmest of bobcats a dangerous choice of pet.
37:46Bobcats can be territorial.
37:48They can become food aggressive.
37:51When they have food that they want, that they think you might get from them, or when they
37:56have your phone or your keys and you want them, they're going to hurt you.
38:01They can certainly, they have the ability to hurt.
38:13Even our camera crew fell prey to these wild animal's advances.
38:17If you're down at the same level with them, or if they're up at eye level on a fence,
38:23the first thing they're going to do is jump at you and they will pat you really quickly
38:27with their feet.
38:28They just go bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop.
38:30And you, your face will bleed a lot.
38:36So it's a warning.
38:38If you cross that line a second time, then that's when they use teeth.
38:42And teeth is where that begins to get more dangerous.
38:51Bobcats have been known to attack household pets, including rabbits, cats, and dogs.
39:06Even animal lover Val, who has around 50 animals living in her house, won't let the cats roam
39:11freely.
39:14I would absolutely not keep a bobcat running around my house.
39:18To me, that would be insane.
39:19I have over 70 on the property.
39:21I would, I have my choice of every personality and every, you know, the extremes, one end
39:26to the other, from the, from the sweetest to the craziest.
39:30And there's not one on this property that I would comfortably put into my house.
39:36Bobcats are nocturnal and primarily hunt under the cover of night.
39:40With a diet consisting of small and medium-sized mammals, this fierce predator will first stalk
39:46its prey before striking with razor sharp precision, cutting the spinal cord of its
39:52unsuspecting victim.
39:58Val considers that the urbanization of traditional rural areas has in fact provided an almost
40:04ideal hunting ground for the bobcat.
40:07The planting of domestic shrubs, trees, and lawns has increased rabbit, bird, mice, and
40:12squirrel populations, all of which are the perfect bobcat prey.
40:19Bobcats are also known to kill prey much bigger than themselves.
40:23And while they often hunt by stealth, they can deliver a death blow with a leaping pounce
40:28that can cover 10 feet.
40:36Their reputation for being vicious and predatory hunters has made bobcat trapping commonplace
40:42in the United States.
40:44As we know, their environment is dwindling.
40:48They're preyed upon, they're killed.
40:51So it's not the most friendly place for them outside of the borders or the safe walls of
40:59private ownership or animal company ownership.
41:04Bobcats are common throughout North America and are found in a range of diverse habitats.
41:10They adapt well to many different living conditions and can be found in forests, swamps,
41:15and deserts.
41:18In the last 10 years, their urban population has also increased significantly.
41:25When we talk about an urban bobcat, we're talking about an animal that has adapted to
41:30live in the urban environment.
41:32There are 12 and questionably 13 subspecies of bobcats.
41:37The scientists are still outstanding on it.
41:39The smallest of the subspecies are down here south in Texas along the southern borders
41:44and in Mexico.
41:45And as you go north, they get larger.
41:47We have been doing the science on bobcats here for 20 years.
41:51We have learned more about them in the past 20 years probably than anybody has ever known
41:56about them.
41:57A lot of interesting things went on, particularly again with the urban bobcats, because they're
42:00almost a new species.
42:02They're a completely different animal than the rural bobcats.
42:05They can't stand it.
42:08They smell like other cats.
42:10I don't know.
42:11I don't know.
42:12It's a matriarchal society in the urban environment.
42:15The girls are in charge.
42:17The boys generally are really submissive to them.
42:20When you see two bobcats fighting, it's largely females.
42:24Bobcats live a solitary lifestyle, only interacting with others of their kind during breeding
42:29season each winter.
42:31They are territorial, and run-ins at the wrong time of year are often violent.
42:45Even bobcats that have become pets remain stealthy hunters and premeditate every move
42:50they make.
42:53Val is taking a risk every time she interacts with these highly intelligent hunters, yet
42:58she wants nothing more than to see the bobcat population thrive and survive.
43:04Yes, there are lots of bobcats in America today.
43:07There are.
43:08In 20 years, I think there's every likelihood that we could lose all of them due to inbreeding
43:13and genetic issues and disease, and it could take out both the urban and the rural cats.
43:19I think that our work here is important, understanding them before this happens, and being ready
43:25for it when it does happen is going to be a very important part of what we do.