Injured bobcat settling in at Willowbrook

A 3-year-old, light-sensitive bobcat -- the first feline at Willowbrook Wildlife Center -- has taken up residence among the other chronically injured critters.

"He was hit by a car in southern Illinois, and he recovered from the rest of his injuries, but he has vision issues," said Rose Augustine, a wildlife keeper at Willowbrook. "The facility that took him in already had two bobcats, so they were looking for a place that could take him, and we had the space."

Wildcats are fairly rare in the area, but bobcats are the most common. Before a cougar was shot and killed in Chicago earlier this year, bobcats were the only big cat species thought to be in the state.

Plans are under way to build a larger, more comfortable enclosure for the bobcat, who has been on display for only a few weeks, said Willowbrook supervisor Sandy Fejt.

"He's been very good," she said. "He hasn't attempted to bite; he hisses sometimes, but he's a wild animal."

And because he's a wild animal, he won't be named. Caretakers said that naming the animals under care at the center desensitizes visitors to the fact these are dangerous animals.

Plump and fluffy, the bobcat spends most of the daytime hours in a kennel covered in pine branches or a hole in a tree stump that's been moved into the enclosure. He is more active at dusk and dawn, the caretakers said. He is fed dead mice or quail.

"We don't feed them live prey because that can be difficult for humans to see that aspect of the circle of life," Augustine said.

Fejt said they also don't want to feed animals live prey because the injured critters might hurt themselves even more banging into their pens trying to get their meal.

Though they have never hosted a feline before, caretakers read up on the bobcat's needs before he arrived.

"We just got a different kind of net so we can have better restraint of the animal," Augustine said. "We did have to purchase some additional handling equipment some other rehabbers recommended."

The bobcat is housed between a family of raccoons and a bald eagle with a bum talon. He is one of scores of indigenous creatures the center cares for.

The center provides care for injured and abandoned wild animals. Any of the animals that can't be released back into the wild are often housed at the center or sent to other long-term care facilities.