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 11/28/19
The newest residents of Carolina Tiger Rescue are here! The seven servals from Canada arrived two days ago and are settling into their new home.
As you may have heard from my last blog post, thirteen servals were seized from a backyard breeder in British Columbia, Canada. Six went to two of our sister sanctuaries, or sanctuaries that share our values, and seven of them will now call Carolina Tiger Rescue home! The seven servals, four girls and three boys, were welcomed by staff and will be given plenty of time to get used to their new home, first in quarantine and then in outdoor enclosures.
The servals’ personalities are already shining through. Right away we could tell that they are very vocal! They also have been loving all of the enrichment. I saw one of the males shredding a cardboard box like Carolina Tiger does – making it into confetti! He’d rip a piece off, throw it to the side, and go back for the next piece, all while sitting IN the box.
While the new cats are in quarantine, the other keepers and I will be able to get to know their personalities. They will move from quarantine to an off tour enclosure and from there we will see if they may be interested in being on the tour path or if they would rather continue living off tour away from large groups of people. Because it takes time to determine this, I can not tell you just yet whether or not they will be seen on tours. I can tell you that they are spunky cats and we’re so happy to have them as new additions to the Carolina Tiger Rescue family!
We do not have names for the servals yet, but I will let you know when we do. For now, join us in welcoming the servals home just in time for the holidays!
