Timbavati Wildlife Park's Bobcat Kitten

Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog post. It’s July and it feels like it! The heat has been on around the Wisconsin Dells and so has our season. This week we’re taking a look at a new little resident of Timbavati Wildlife Park, a baby bobcat. This little kitten can be seen in the Waterfalls Area of our park. While we’re here, let’s take a look at a few bobcat facts. 

Bobcats get their name from the shortness of their tail. Apparently someone thought the tail crop looked like a fashion statement and the name stuck. They are also referred to as bobtail cats and sometimes wildcats. A real wildcat though is a different thing.

Bobcats hunt in low light conditions. They will typically hunt at dawn and dusk. That seems to be a thing with a lot of large cats, life is a lot of sleeping and hunting. In the winter months they will hunt more during the day hours simply because their prey is far and fewer during those months. They are carnivores and will typically prey on small mammals and birds.

A full grown bobcat can weigh up to 33 pounds. They are a foot and a half to two feet in length and can also run at speeds of up to 30 miles an hour. They live all over North America from Southern Canada to Mexico. 

If a bobcat kills something that big it can’t eat it all and it’s too large to carry off. When this happens they will bury their kill and come back to it later. Mountain lions do this as well. This is referred to as caching.

Bobcats mate primarily in the winter. The gestation period of the female bobcat is 60 to 70 days. Fortunately for us, we happen to have a new little baby bobcat in the waterfalls area. Check out this week’s video for a first look at one of the little new residents in Timbavati Wildlife Park. Thanks and we will talk with you all next week.

Timbavati Wildlife Park - Keeper Talk With A Two Toed Sloth

Greetings friends and welcome to the month of July! That’s right the middle of the summer is upon us and family vacations are in full swing! You want to know what else is in full swing? Our Sloths! A sloth hangs around all day long with its curved claws. Let’s take a deeper look at one of the most requested animals in Timbavati Wildlife Park.

There are two types of sloths in the world, the three-toed and two-toed sloth. Sid, one of our park’s more recognizable residents is a two-toed sloth. Sloths are found in Central and South America. While their feet have three claws their hands only have two. 

While sloths are categorized as herbivores they have been known to eat small insects and lizards in the wild. Typically they love leaves, shoots, fruits and vegetables. A sloth’s temperature can range from 74 to 92 degrees Fahrenheit. If their body temperature gets too cold the bacteria in its stomach that helps it digest food can actually stop working. A sloth can starve to death with a stomach full of food if it can’t stay warm enough to digest its food.

Now a human can eat digest and remove bodily waste from a meal in 12 to 48 hours. A sloth by comparison can take up to 30 days to digest a leaf. This is interesting when you think about that in tandem with the speed of a sloth. A sloth moves quite slowly and deliberately to conserve energy. It even sleeps for up to 15 hours a day to save energy. This is a common theme in the animal world. A lot of animals sleep for a long time through the course of the day for energy conservation.

A sloth eats, mates and even gives birth while hanging from the trees. This is the safest place for it because it is a very slow mover on the ground. What about in water though, how do they move in water? Watch this weeks video for more great fun facts about the two-toed sloth. Visit our website for more information about visiting our park today! This 4th of July Veterans will receive a free admission when you show your military ID. Thank you for your service and we’ll talk with you all next week. Cheers!