A Note of Hope

A NOTE OF HOPE:

The novelist Robert O'Brien once said, "You can unlock any door if you only have the key."  While the number of stimuli a young cat raised in the wild would encounter would be immense, the number that are vital to the cat's health and wellbeing are relatively few, and it is possible for a human foster parent to give a tiger, lion, or bobcat a good start in life.  If the composition of formula milk supplies the necessary nutrients for proper brain chemistry development, and touch and movement are applied with as much attention to quantity as there is to quality, the lives of captive newborns can not only be saved but made far better.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

This cougar cub has the undivided attention of a trained, compassionate caretaker.  The foundation is being laid for its future success.

With these precautions in mind, the following recommendations are suggested for the human rearing of large Felines where they are separated from their mothers at birth and hand-reared.

1. Maintain extended body contact between the mother and her newborn until the infant can move about on its own or begins to explore its environment.  Newborn and infant large cats should be carried in a sling, pouch or knapsack continuously on the body of the human surrogate mother including co-sleeping with it at night. Every effort should be made to have as much skin to skin contact so that the smell and taste of the surrogate mothers body (through licking behaviors of the newborn cat) are also encoded in the developing brain of the newborn cat.

2. Since large felines are born in litters (large groups of offspring), it is important to provide-- as much as possible--something close to the normal social group experience of litter mates so that the basic sensations of being with its own species become encoded in the developing brain of the growing cub.  This kind of learning may be necessary for later adult socialization with members of its own species.  Human hand-rearing of newborn large felines should include at least two cubs who are carried together in the same pouch with the human surrogate mother.

3. The lack of the mother's natural milk can prevent normal physiological health, brain development and behavior. Every effort must be made to obtain natural milk from a domestic animal that could serve as a best-substitute for large feline milk.  Goat milk is one possibility, which can be fortified with nutrients specific to large feline milk.

4. During early development, the infants should be exposed to adult members of their own species.  If this is not done, the young may not develop the social skills necessary for proper pairing behavior.  If hand-reared adults cannot breed successfully, raising large cats in captivity to preserve endangered species would not be a workable solution.

5. Work needs to be done in this area.  Several on-going test projects with different species of large cat should be started right away, since so many species are threatened with extinction. Special attention must be given to how we choose human workers who would make successful mother surrogates.

6. Special consideration should be given to optimizing the development of the brain serotonin system in large feline newborn/cubs by supplementing their biological formula milk with tryptophan. Similar considerations should be given to optimizing their brain dopamine and oxytocin systems which are important in pleasure bonding and pairing behaviors.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS:

Dopamine - A brain chemical found in the Prefrontal Cortex which is necessary for normal thinking and emotional states.

Oxytocin - A neurotransmitter necessary for experiencing certain kinds of pleasure.