Saturday, December 5, 2009

Update

I have been immensely busy with both school as well as work and have only now managed to squeeze in a blog update.

Foremost, the CCF cheetah bushblok project was not selected as a finalist in the World Challenge competition. Thanks to those who voted! Be sure to listen for the success of the program in the future.

I am sad to report that in the weeks since my last posting that one of the animals in my areas has died. Ralph was the oldest binturong at Carolina Tiger Rescue. Necropsy results yielded heart failure as the cause of death, which is to be expected with a nineteen year old binturong. The keepers were going to take him to the vet the morning he died becuase he had been acting unusually lethargic and was not eating. Longevity of binturongs is not known in the wild because these animals have not been well-studied, but nineteen is the expected age in captivity. Consequently, Ralph lived the longest life possible for a binturong in captivity, which speaks for the quality of care at Carolina Tiger Rescue. For an animal to die of nothing but old age leads me to believe that the life of the animal was ideal. Ralph never had much to say, but that is characteristic of an old man.




To learn more about binturongs, please read a previous posting. You can also learn more about Ralph, who will be missed by staff and volunteers at Carolina Tiger Rescue.

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