Video: Rescued cougar cubs find new home at the Oregon Zoo

Published 4:11 pm Friday, December 6, 2024

Two cougar cubs found in Southwest Washington are settling into their new home — the Oregon Zoo. 

The 4-month-old cubs were rescued by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife earlier this year. The cubs, a male and a female, are too young to survive in the wild on their own, and will become the Oregon Zoo’s newest permanent residents.

“We’re so happy we can provide a home for these cubs,” Jen Osburn Eliot, who oversees the zoo’s Great Northwest area, said in a statement. “We wish they could’ve grown up with their mom, but since that’s not possible we’ll be doing everything we can for them. They’re still shy with people, so we’re giving them time to adjust and explore their new home.”

A video posted to the Zoo’s social media shows the two playful felines exploring an enclosure. They will eventually make their debut at the cougar habitat in the Great Northwest area of the zoo.

“The cubs aren’t ready to venture out yet, but we’re getting the habitat prepared for a lot of activity once they are,” Osburn Eliot said. “In the wild, cougar cubs stay with their moms for at least a year, so we’re giving these two all the time they need to feel safe and comfortable in their new home.”

The Oregon Zoo has been without a cougar since the death of Paiute, a 15-year-old cougar who died earlier this year.

Cougars — also known as mountain lions, pumas, catamounts and Florida panthers — range throughout southwest Canada, the western United States and South America.