Burton was the first cougar to move to the Cooper's Rock Mountain Lion Sanctuary. He arrived in 1998, at 14 months old.
Before moving here, Burton lived behind the scenes at a private zoo in the southeast United States. Zoos of all types, whether publicly or privately funded, routinely have more animals than they can display. Those who live behind the scenes do not have quarters as comfortable as the animals in public view. Some zoos are better than others, but unfortunate Burton lived in a ten-foot-square dog kennel on a concrete slab.
Happily, the zoo donated Burton to the sanctuary. The sanctuary placed him in the Original Enclosure, where he lived for a year. Sanctuary volunteers donated money and labor to build a larger enclosure for him, which the sanctuary completed in July 1999. Burton has lived in the Second Enclosure ever since.
From Cooper’s Rock Mountain Lion Sanctuary website
Burton with Ball
Burton
Burton Portrait
Tecumseh
Tecumseh, named after the great Shawnee Indian chief, joined Cooper's Rock Mountain Lion Sanctuary in September 1998. He was only three weeks old. Sanctuary volunteers collected the money to buy him from a breeder -- he was headed for an exotic animal auction, where he likely would have been bought by a private game reserve, raised, and hunted. Because he arrived so young, Tecumseh is the only cougar at the sanctuary with intact claws.
The sanctuary bottle-raised Tecumseh while building the Second Enclosure and expanding the Original Enclosure. When Burton moved to the Second Enclosure in July 1999, Tecumseh took over the newly-expanded Original Enclosure. In 2002, the sanctuary refurbished The Palace, a 50-foot-square enclosure that was designed specifically for their young and active mountain lion, and Tecumseh moved there in August of that year.
From Cooper’s Rock Mountain Lion Sanctuary website
Tecumseh stalks
Tecumseh's Lair
Tecumseh Prowls
Tecumseh Hiss
Jackson
Jackson, a bobcat, is the sanctuary's first non-cougar resident. He was found as a kitten by hikers in Virginia and taken home, then sent to rehabilitation. Unfortunately, he proved too deacclimated to the wild, so we adopted him. From Cooper’s Rock Mountain Lion Sanctuary website
