Rescued baby bobcat weighed less than a kilo when it arrived at wildlife centre

Anorphanedbaby bobcat no bigger than a baseball capis recovering at a Nova Scotia wildlife rehabilitation centreafter it was discovered cold, muddy and alone in a suburb outside of Halifax.

The animal, found by a hiker at the end of a road inFletchers Lake, weighed less than a kilogramwhen it arrived three weeks ago at Hope for Wildlife.

"It looked in really hard shape," Hope Swinimer, founder of the Seaforth-basedrescue centre,told CBC Radio's Maritime Noon on Monday.

"I think it actually started to climb up the pant leg of the rescuer. These are all behaviours that would indicate an animal in distress needing help."

The bobcat,named Fletcher, was badly dehydrated and so cold that the centre'smedical staff couldn't even get a body temperature reading. Staff at firstguessed Fletcher was a male cub, but later determined she's female.

The first step was to warm herup and give her fluids.

"She was really emaciated, and it's important not to feed an animal when they're that down and out so over the next week, we slowly introduced milk and food that she would be accustomed to in the wild," Swinimer said.

The baby bobcat's diet now consists ofmice, chicks and rabbit and she's since gained another kilogram.

Staff estimate the tiny creature was two months old when shearrived late last month.

Swinimar said the baby'smother likely diedbecause a female bobcat wouldn't abandon its young.

Baby needs motherly instruction

Female bobcats don't reach maturity until they're about a year old, said Swinimer, and babies usually nurse until they'refour months old.

"They will hang with the mom and the mom will teach them a lot, and that's the hard part is getting them proficient at what they need to be able to do to be a bobcat that can sustain itself in the wild world," she said.

Ensuring aninjured or sick creature receivesthe right kind of medical care without having too much human interaction can be a balancing act, Swinimersaid.

"From fawns to skunks to groundhogs to foxes, baby beavers, all of them need as little interaction as possible, but they still need care," she said.

Still, she said staff at the centre "very seldom see imprinting in these animals becausewe've been doing it for years and years and we've become very good at it."

Hundreds of calls a day

Swinimer praised the quick-thinking hiker who came across the baby bobcat and quickly texted a picture to the centre.

She said it's possible on a warm summer day for Hope for Wildlife to receive up to 200 calls from people concerned about the well-being of wild animals. Only about 20 to 30 of the animals end upneeding help.

Fletcher is still in the centre's intensive care unit, but Swinimer said she'll soon be strong enough to move to an area outside,away from humans, where "she'll get to experience the real world very quickly."

Swinimer said it's not unusual for the centre to see orphaned bobcats during the summer, and usually when they're this tiny they'll wait until the spring to release them back into the wild.

"We're very hopeful with this little girl that she'll be back out in the wild, and I think it's going to be a great success," she said.