Earlier this month a rescue team with the U.S. Forest Service came upon a mountain lion cub in desperate need of help. The little one was found lying in the middle of the road near Idyllwild, California. Her condition was critical, so firefighters Joe Colvin and Nick Gillot rushed the poor animal to a rescue camp of San Diego Humane Society.
[The mountain lion cub] wasn’t really moving, seemed distressed,” a spokesperson for the US Forest Service said. “She was semiconscious, extremely emaciated, dehydrated, weak and had tremors.”
We are delighted that an orphaned, dying mountain lion treated at @sdhumane’s Project Wildlife is finally feeling much better! The cub was located by firefighters in Idyllwild in critical condition: emaciated, dehydrated and weak. Now the cub has more than doubled in size. pic.twitter.com/38FCzPYytx
— San Diego Humane Society (@sdhumane) October 7, 2020
Once she got there, the 4-month-old cub was immediately put under medical care. The tiny feline weighted around 11 pounds and the staff the center feared for the worst. But the little cub proved to be a real fighter and so far she made remarkable recover. Within a couple of weeks, she doubled her weight and she starts roaring again.
“With each passing day, she becomes more active and responsive, and though she still has some medical issues to overcome from being in such a fragile state, we are delighted she has responded well to our treatment and are hopeful she will make a full recovery,” Christine Barton, director of Operations and Wildlife Rehabilitation at the San Diego Humane Society’s Ramona campus, told Los Angeles Times.
However, the rescue cub will remain at the center until she’ll make a full recovery. Then she will be transferred to the Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center in Arizona where her rehabilitation will start. The cub would eventually be released in the wild when the time comes.