Wild Cat Education and Conservation Fund (previously called "Leopards Etc.") is an organization that gives live wild cat education programs around northern California. If you'd like to read more about them, their site is at:
These
are
some photos I've taken at their shows.
African
Leopard
All of their cats seem to have one problem:
They haven't learned that it's bad manners to stick out your tongue
Yep, bad manners
You can see they all do the tongue thing
If you point it out to them, they give you the evil eye
Siberian Lynx
They will allow their owners to pull on their tails -
you should not try this at home
or they will display bad manners
or worse, profound cuteness
Definitely cute
Caracal
Serious ear tufts
Old Tuftie
Licking the table after a meal is also bad manners
Barbara would be pointing this out, but cat's got her tongue
Cheetah
Yes, even the Cheetah does the tongue thing
Rob tells us that these cats do NOT love him-
they just use him as a secure piece of territory
Well they may not love him, but clearly he's a kitty hugger
(don't try this at home)
King Cheetah
(King is a COLOR of Cheetah)
Here you can see the difference between the (rude) king cheetah's markings and the regular cheetah:
Note the extra large spots
and the racer stripes down the back
Cougar/Puma/Catamount/Mountain Lion
(The Cougar has over 40 names in English alone.)
Yes, another cat with bad tongue manners
He doesn't like Barbara telling him it's rude to stick his tongue out
but he sure is handsome
Oops - he saw me!
I think he wants a kiss...
Ocelot
Rob convinces the Ocelot to climb the "tree" to get a piece of meat
He sticks out his tongue indicating that the piece of meat was inadequate
(pathetic humans can't catch a good-sized mouse)
It's sad to think how many people make fur coats out of these beautiful cats.
Serval
Yes, another table-licker. Titch titch!
The Serval was too fast for me to catch him in focus, but you can see here
that he's trying to help the pathetic human who lost the piece of meat down the plastic tube.
Snow Leopard
Most impressive boots and mittens he's got there
No, he didn't bite off his fingers
He's just sucking on them. Better finger-sucking than sticking out his tongue!
