<\/p>\n
After removing a mountain lion cub from a private home, Colorado Parks and Wildlife is reminding the public it is illegal to possess wild animals and dangerous to the animals\u2019 health.<\/p>\n
Although sick from being fed bratwurst, the kitten appeared to be in good health otherwise, said Travis Sauder, CPW district wildlife manager, after he retrieved the kitten and sent it to the nonprofit Wet Mountain Wildlife Rehabilitation in Wetmore.<\/p>\n
Wildlife biologists estimated that the cub was less than six months old. It probably had not been weaned from its mother\u2019s milk and might have only eaten regurgitated solids from its mother, Bill Vogrin, public information officer for CPW\u2019s southeast Colorado region, said in a press release.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you find wildlife you believe to be orphaned, leave the area immediately and call CPW,\u201d Sauder said. \u201cBy leaving the area, mom will feel safe to come back and retrieve her young.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany animals intentionally leave their young behind when startled, relying on the built-in camouflage of the youngsters\u2019 spotted fur to keep them safe. The mother will then return to retrieve its young once the area is safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
The people in possession of the kitten published photos Monday on social media showing it in a cage. They claimed they found it in a snowbank after a snowplow passed by. They also claimed they released it back to the wild after allowing it to \u201cthaw out.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Sauder collected the cub from their home in Walsenburg on Tuesday and transported it to the rehab center.<\/p>\n
\u201cWild animals do not need to \u2018thaw out\u2019 because they are equipped by nature to survive cold and snow,\u201d Sauder said. He said it was kept too long to return to where it was found.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt had been almost 30 hours since it was picked up Monday and its mom would not be in the area any longer,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is why it\u2019s vital to leave baby wildlife where you find them and call us immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
public to leave baby wildlife alone<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,28,29,603],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-62078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-wildlife"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62078"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=62078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}