Wildcat found in Halifax placed at Cape Breton wildlife park

A wildcat found roaming the streets ofHalifax last year has a new homeat a wildlife park in Cape Breton.

The serval cat was taken in by the Department of Natural Resources last Augustafter it was spotted in the city's Armdale neighbourhood.

The department has since placed thewildcat in the care ofTwo Rivers Wildlife Park in Huntington, which is about 30 kilometres south of Sydney.

Michaela Hadway,a caretaker at thepark, said the animal, which has been affectionately named Loki,was extremely timid when hefirst arrived in October.

"He is more of an independent guy, which we totally respect here at Two Rivers," Hadwaytold CBC Radio's Information Morning Sydney. "But he is very sweet and growing more interested in people and our activities, and we're very happy to have him."

Serval catsarenative to grasslands, open forests and marshes in sub-Saharan Africa, and they're illegal to own in Nova Scotia.

Theycan be recognized by their long neck and legs, large ears, and golden yellow coat with black spots and stripes.Serval cats can grow as large as a medium-sized dog.

It's not clear how Lokicame to the province,but it's possible he was purchased from a breeder in Ontario where there are no regulations on owning exotic animals and brought to Nova Scotia to be kept as a pet. No one hascome forward to claim the animal.

Hadway said Loki is happy and healthy in his new home. His favouriteactivities are playing with new toys, rolling in fresh beddingand scratching on his trees, she said.

"I think Loki is much happier not having physical contact with people from what I've experienced," she said. "You cannot keep these cats as pets. I think it's doing them an injustice bringing them here when they are meant to be living their lives in Africa."

Shouldn't be kept as pets, expert says

While servals can be kept as pets in several Canadian provinces, there are no accredited sanctuaries for the animals in the country.

This has become apparent toTammy Thies, the founder of the Wildcat Sanctuary in Sandstone, Minn.

She saidsanctuaries in the United States have been overrun with servals, including many coming from Canada,something experts are calling the "small exoticcat crisis." She said it's been exacerbated by social mediaand people exploiting the exotic animals for content.

"We get more calls on African servals than any other species combined. We could place a serval a week from the calls we'rereceiving,and we just can't keep up anymore," Thies told Information Morning.

Thies said most of the calls her sanctuary gets arefrom animal lovers looking to surrender their pet serval because they can't properly care for them. She said the animals can have health issues or become aggressive, which makes them difficult to care for.

"They find a breeder, the breeder tells them it's the look of the wild,but the personality of a domestic cat. And that's really not true," she said.

"The breeders are out there to make money and to sell these animals, but it's often very devastating for the owner that has them and the cat themselves because it's not working out the way they had envisioned."

Thies advises animallovers to keep wild animals in their hearts, not their homes.

Loki's future

Hadway said the Department of Natural Resourceschose the wildlife park as Loki's new home because it's the only place capable of housing and caring for serval cats in the province.

She stressed that these animals are not meant to be pets.

"They are beautiful creatures and we're thankful to have him here, but they do not belong here. They belong in their native habitats in Africa or wherever that may be, and I think it's up to us to not support the transfer of these animals here."

#TheMoment a rare exotic feline tried to mess with a Halifax housecat

1 year ago

Duration 1:23

Rachael Smith was driving when she spotted an exotic cat called a serval roaming the streets of Halifax. It soon encountered a housecat named Sammy, who didn't back down.

Hadway said the park's next step is to build a heated enclosurefor Lokithat has indoor and outdoor accessto get him through Cape Breton's cold winters.

Proceeds from a fundraiser hosted by theIsland Veterinary Hospital in Marion Bridge, N.S., at the end of the month will go toward that expense, she said.

She said she's hopeful Loki will be in his new enclosure by the spring.