In Loving Memory of Big John

With heavy hearts, we must say goodbye to our oldest feline resident, Big John. He passed away today after just celebrating his 23^rd birthday last Christmas. He was a patient, social tiger who took on a paternal role towards the neighboring cubs, ShereKhan and KiKi, as well as a playful, teasing role towards his Siberian tiger neighbor, Caesar.

IEAS had been Big John’s home for the past 18 years after being rescued from a circus from Spain who had kept him in a small, cramped trailer with other tigers, ponies, and camels. During his time here, he proved himself to be an amazing being, consistently showing great patience with his tiger companions and developing trust with his human caretakers. Though we at IEAS are sad to say our farewell, we are so grateful to have been able to provide this magnificent tiger with the life he deserved for the last part of his life.

IEAS will not be the same without Big John. He will forever live on in our hearts and memories.

IEAS Intern Holiday Bake Sale

IEAS had its first-ever annual Intern Holiday Bake Sale earlier this month, which was organized almost entirely by the IEAS intern team! We are excited to say that we were able to raise $515 to go towards feeding the animals at the Sanctuary! Despite feeding our bears less during the winter because of their reduced activity, we are still going through about 250 pounds of meat every day. Being a nonprofit organization, we are able to pay for the care of these animals strictly through grants and donations. We are so grateful towards Bianca Lewis from Target in Fort Worth, TX for providing the donations that made this bake sale possible! We also want to thank Derek Pranther for allowing us to have our bake sale at Love's Travel Stop off of Highway 114!  We greatly appreciate everyone who came out to support the Sanctuary at our new yearly tradition!
If you missed our bake sale and would like to support the sanctuary in other ways, please visit our How To Help page to learn more ways you could help us provide for our animals!

Surprised Birthday Party!

Surprise Birthday Party!!!

As promised we gave some of our residents more pumpkins, but this time in recognition of a very important celebration, Duke's Birthday!!! We gave him his own pumpkin with a Happy Birthday message and some of his human caretakers help him celebrate his 12th Birthday. Check out the pictures below and follow us on Facebook for more. 

This is Duke posing with his pumpkin before eating his birthday cake.
He was very possessive of his present.

Duke is one of our four resident cougars at IEAS and they can live to be seventeen years old or older. Duke arrived at IEAS in 2011 from a Coryell County property deemed a too dangerous habitat for animals due to poor environmental conditions. He didn't come here alone though, he was joined by Prince, Princess and Duchess. 

This is him after a few bites, treasuring the moment. 

Cougars are native to Texas and much of the continental U.S, but are also known to reach into Canada and  South America. They are the largest of the lesser cats meaning they can purr to help communicate in groups. They are carnivores who feed mainly on deer, but also small rodents, opossums, beavers, and porcupines. They drag their prey into a secluded area and are known to bury their prey to munch on at a later time.

For more information on his story as well as any of the other residents please visit our website. Duke along with many of our residents are available for adoption. To learn more about this process and other ways to help please do not hesitate to contact us or follow the links. Some of the options cost you nothing and all of the proceeds go to the animals. For Example, amazon smile and Kroger as well as Tom Thumb  grocery stores donate one percent of each grocery bill to the Sanctuary. 

50 Shades of Cappy

Meet Cappy our fantastic resident Capybara! Cappy is typically overlooked by our interesting big cat and bear residents BUT Cappy is just as cool! 

What is a Capybara you ask?! They are only the largest rodent in the world! Want to know more, keep reading! 

They live in southern Central America and northern South America. Capybaras are semi-aquatic so we tend to see Cappy swimming happily in his pool :) He swims quickly around his pool and underwater with the help of his webbed feet. He can also press his ears against his head to prevent water from getting inside his ears while submerged. 

Rodents have continuously growing teeth which is why you will find Cappy chewing on grass and pumpkins when given the opportunity. 

Curious about that weird bump on his nose???? Male capybaras, like our handsome Cappy, have that bump to rub their scent and mark their territory. As seen in the pictures below, Cappy will rub his scent gland on everything, including his pool. 

Although capybaras are not endangered, conservation for these cute fellows is important! Capybaras are often killed and hunted for food.

You Got a Friend in Me

You Got a Friend in Me

If a random stranger not only approached your house but sat outside of it every day how would you react?

Almost every other afternoon, I go out and sit with two animals for my emotional enrichment journals. The two animals that I sit with are a male cheetah, name Mau, and a male lion, name Odin. Each and every time that I sit with them after work, I aim for twenty minutes a day.

As stated on the IEAS website, “Emotional Enrichment is a technique from improving and enhancing and animal’s emotional life and minimizing stress, agitation, and irritation within the context of the animal’s personality and biological instincts.” This program was started by Louis Dorfman, IEAS Animal Behaviorist. Emotional Enrichment is said to improve their quality of life while ensuring them the comfort and respect of knowing “You Got a Friend in Me”.

On a regular day after work, I go out and sit with Mau a good distance along his fence line. The unique thing about Mau is that he is gong blind so by him not being able to see he can only go off of what he smells and hears. As I walk up and approach Mau’s habitat I say “Hey Mau” and proceed to sit down. Since the cats are very sensitive to sound you sit with them in silence for however long or before it gets dark. During this time of sitting, the animals might groom themselves, lay around, or even play with their behavior enrichment items. Behavior enrichment items that are in their habitat are pickles, boomer balls, and tires that occupies some of their time throughout the day.

Mau and sitting companion Zakiya

 Providing companionship for these two animals has taught me a lot about observation skills. I have sat with Mau enough to notice that when he hears a mule driving around he relates it to feeding time since that is how we deliver his food to him. He even walks in the same pathway along the fence line only because he can feel with his feet the dirt that is there. Mau is comfortable in his habitat and knows it well. 

Odin and sitting companion Zakiya

At times sitting with these animals gives us interns as well as keepers a moment to unwind and get a breath of fresh air to relieve stress due to the daily tasks of the sanctuary. These animals here have interesting background stories to where it lures individuals in to want to know more about them.  Considering that animals can’t express themselves with words, emotions such as anger, sadness, and happiness play an integral role in capturing the natural essence of who they are and who they have become.

By signing up and making an appointment to take a tour here at the International Exotic Animal Sanctuary, you too can learn an awful lot about these animals along with their remarkable personalities!!

Pumpkin Playtime

Pumpkin Pie Playtime!

While the staff at IEAS join family and friends in celebration of Thanksgiving the residents at IEAS received pumpkins. The pumpkins given to the tigers, lions and cougars had a peek- a- boo hole where they could find some of their favorite treats inside including chicken necks inside. However, for the smaller animals at IEAS like our coatis, ring tailed lemur and capybara the pumpkins served as a desert platter where they could find marshmallows, peanut butter as well as their whole Thanksgiving feast. Our bears also got pumpkins with their diets, but our bears didn't need much encouragement to tear into their pumpkins.  They love to eat the insides and will shred and flatten their pumpkins to get the yummy insides. They also serve as behavioral enrichment for the animals as they get to play with them and destroy them to find their prize inside.

This is Duke, one of our handsome cougars, enjoying his first moments with his pumpkin. He seemed a little possessive of his new toy.

Upon receiving the pumpkins from Rainbow Plant Sales, Heritage Church of Christ and Dr. Randy Griffin we gave each resident a pumpkin and watched their interaction. We recorded various responses from excited and interested to indifferent or unconcerned reactions. For example, Cappy loved his pumpkin and upon receiving it began consuming it immediately and the bears tore theirs to shreds. But some of the older bengal tigers, including Caesar and Big John, seemed a little less interested and didn't care to interact. While others like Nala, afemale lioness, was more interested in saying hi to her visitors at the fence. You can watch the videos and get a glimpse at the experience up close through visiting and liking our Facebook  page or by following us on youtube.

Catch some of the action, live below!

This is Saphy, a 15 year old Cougar, interacting with her first pumpkin of the year. She still plays like a little cub. 

See the various reactions from all the different animals and how each one is different. 

This is Kodi, a white nosed coati, and her reaction to her pumpkin.

Watch Rasul make his own pumpkin pie. 

Odin on the other hand wasted no time tossing his pumpkin around to get his treats. To see the whole experience, visit our Facebook page where you will find a video of Odin and his pumpkin.


We are planning to do a second round of pumpkins with all of the residents soon, so be sure to stay updated on what is coming soon in order to plan a visit and potentially see the experience up close. We hold tours everyday of the week at eleven o'clock in the morning and offer a three o'clock evening tour on Saturdays.

More Exciting News!

In addition to the cubs we posted about last week, we also received a few other new residents! Please welcome Wiki (pronounced wick-kai), a jaguar, as well as Romulus and Remus, two 6 month-old tundra wolf siblings. Their previous institutions no longer had space for them, but IEAS will now be their forever home.

Romulus and Remus are IEAS’s first wolves ever! They are named after the legendary twin brothers who founded Rome after being raised in the wild by a wolf. Tundra wolves are a subspecies of gray wolf and are native to Eurasian tundra and forests. Though gray wolves are considered a species of least concern, they are unfortunately subject to a number of human-caused threats that have extirpated them from much of their range. Contrary to popular belief, wolves are very timid animals. Romulus and Remus have definitely shown this more than our new tigers; however, they are gaining trust in IEAS staff through our Emotional Enrichment program and are settling in nicely in their new habitat.

Wiki is currently the sanctuary’s only jaguar resident. Because jaguars were prominently featured in Aztec mythology, Wiki was named after a type of legendary Aztec warrior. Jaguars such as Wiki are the only true big cats (genus Panthera) native to the Americas, defined by their ability to roar (mountain lions can’t!). Their native range extends from the southwestern U.S. to South America, throughout which they are considered a keystone species. Though they have been extirpated throughout most of their range in the U.S., one wild jaguar was photographed earlier this year in Arizona. They are a near-threatened species that are unfortunately on the decline due to human activity such as poaching, deforestation, and conflict with farmers.  Though Wiki is still adjusting to his new home, we hope that with the help of our Emotional Enrichment program that he will continue to gain trust in his human care takers!

We are very excited to share our new residents with you! Guided tours are available every day at 11 if you would like to come by and see them. Or, if you’re interested in helping out with the care of Wiki, Romulus, and Remus, please consider donating here. Keep an eye out for more updates on how our new guys are doing!

Welcome Home!

WELCOME HOME!

We've recently adopted a few new members into the IEAS family!  We have been so excited to take in two six month old cubs, a male and female, and two more cubs that are a year and half old, also a male and female.

These youngsters are getting adjusted into their new habitats and loving their new scenery.  The six month old cubs can often be seen playing with their toys or splashing in their water trough!  Kimberly, one of our resident white Bengal tigers, is now neighbored by the young cubs.  She enjoys their company and will play with them through the fence and chuff back and forth with the cubs.

The older cubs have taken a liking to their pool with the warmer weather lingering.  These two will often be seen playing with one another or exploring their new large habitat.  These cubs are also very friendly to keepers and interns, chuffing back and forth and walking along the fence with the keepers and interns!

We hope you are as excited about the new residents as we are!  Please consider helping out these adorable cubs by donating here!  We can't wait to see how these cubs grow up!

Can you Bare the Differences between our Bears?

Grizzlies are large bears that can be 6.6 to 9.2 feet  in length and can weigh between 175- 975 lbs. Typically males are larger than females, but their size depends on the location and food source available.  Grizzlies are more commonly found in mountainous regions where they have greater accessibility to a varied diet including: salmon, trout, carrion, mouse, elk, berries, nuts and other fruit. They can be found across the continental U.S ranging from Montana and Idaho to Wyoming.  They used to be found in Colorado as well, but have been inexistent since 1978.. Their hair can vary from a blonde to a dark brown and often times gives them a grizzled appearance and they can live for up to fifty years in captivity. 

Here at IEAS we have six Grizzlies. In 2007, we received four grizzlies from a previous facility that did not have the room to support the unexpected cubs.  They remain together in the same habitat here at IEAS and we wanted to see how well you guys could tell them apart? 

 

This is Willie, he is a 9 year old Grizzly. He is the largest of his siblings and can be found dangling his feet off of his perch while eating a melon. 

Meet Wendy!! Wendy is the smallest of her siblings and also shorter, but she can hold her own against her big brothers. 

Big Papa is the tallest and lightest Grizzly that we have. He is a very curious boy that will commonly follow you around to see if you have food or what you are doing.

However, due to road construction, railway systems, habitat destruction, and trophy hunting these bears have moved to much of Russia, and remain densely distributed in Canada as well as Alaska.  Therefore, they are considered to be endangered in the lower 48 states. 

In recent years, organizations have helped to increase awareness regarding the conservation of these  magnificent animals. They have implemented programs that promote the preservation of land, setting up natural breeding by influencing the linking of populations,  and built bridges that allow them to enter their native lands in the presence of road construction. 

How you can help?

• Donations www.bigcat.org/donate
• Adopt a Bear www.bigcat.org/adopt-an-animal
• Prevent Illegal Hunting