Tessa Stripes is our newest animal keeper here at Carolina Tiger Rescue. She studied wildlife biology at Virginia Tech. Before coming to Carolina Tiger Rescue, she interned at Wildlife Safari. Her favorite animals to work with are tigers! She enjoys giving the animals at Carolina Tiger Rescue a safe and appropriate home for them. It’s a hard and dirty job, but she loves it! Her favorite time of year at the rescue is the fall, when all the animals get pumpkins for enrichment!

Keeper Tessa’s Blog 10/6/2023

We have four new residents at Carolina Tiger Rescue, so say hi to them if you come out to visit. I would like to introduce you to our newest servals: Saka, Kito, King and Simba. Kito has taken the title of oldest cat at the sanctuary because he is 21 years old!

Saber Tiger

These four boys came to us from a sanctuary in Florida. Prior to living there, they were all failed pets. This is really common with servals. They’re so cute when they’re babies, but you can’t love the wild out of them. As they grow up, they start acting like normal servals. They hiss, scratch and pee everywhere! Then, their owners have to figure out what to do with the wild animal living in their house. The lucky ones end up at sanctuaries like Carolina Tiger Rescue.

These boys are settling in nicely at the sanctuary. They cleared quarantine, and they seem to really enjoy basking in the sun in their new enclosure. These serval boys don’t seem shy at all, so they are currently living on the tour path. Sometimes all four of them lay right up front even when a large tour group is stopped there! It’s been a lot of fun getting to know all of them and learning about their personalities.