It was about 3am this morning when Ariane woke us up to tell us that we captured our first cat! (Let me tell you, I was pretty confused... it took a few minutes to wake up and get orientated to what was happening). The ironic thing about this capture was that it was cold and raining, so instead of going out at 2am to check the traps, Miriam and Estella had gone out to close the traps, because we don't want an animal to be trapped for hours in the cold rain.
Ariane told us when she woke us up that it was raining so we didn't have to go if we didn't want to. Yeah, right! Not an option-- we all got up and loaded on all our layers of clothes including rain gear. Meanwhile the team was running around gathering all the equipment we need for a capture: restraining equipment, anesthesia, measuring equipment, blankets, tarps, lights, and the paperwork to be filled out. When everything was ready, we all piled into the back of the pick-up truck and headed out into the dark rainy night to see the Geoffrey's Cat that was caught in trap #11.
As we approached the trap, only 3 of the team members went to give the cat the anesthesia. If we all went, it would scare the cat too much and there would be more danger of it getting hurt. Also, if the animal gets too worked up, the drugs don't take effect. We set up an "examination area" under a large tree. Estella asked if anyone wanted to be the data recorder. I volunteered and plopped myself right down next to the tarp where the cat would be placed.
After a few minutes Claudia brought the cat over and the examination began. It was such a beautiful animal! It was amazing to me that this cat "sleeping" in front of us was a wild animal. It was determined that this Geoffrey's cat was an adult female who has had kittens in the past. She was small for an adult, at first they thought she was young, but upon further examination of the teeth, body, and claws, it was clear that she was just a small adult. Because she was so small, we decided not to put a collar on her. (Usually only full-grown adults get radio collars because if a cat grows after the collar is on, it could get strangled.)
During the examination, the cat is always blindfolded. Even with the drugs, the eyes stay open, and the bright lights could cause damage. Measurements are taken of body length, tail length, size of head, size and condition of teeth, etc. We took fur samples, a small skin sample from the ear, and a sample of external parasites (fleas). All of these samples are sent to a lab for analysis. Every 10 minutes it was important to check the cat's temperature, heart rate, and respirations to make sure it was never in danger.
When under the influence of the anesthesia, some of the cat's reflexes still work. One of them is the tongue-- she was licking, licking, licking, the whole time she was being examined. It was really cute. After about thirty minutes she started to wake up more and we witnessed more reflexes-- her ear twitched when touched and then she kicked her leg a little when touched.
There were lots of photographs taken of our cat, which we decided to name Chiquita. Obviously, all the volunteers were camera-happy, but the photographs are important to the team as well. Every cat can be identified by its fur patterns, like fingerprints. This particular cat may be the same female that the team caught several months ago-- they had caught a small Geoffrey's Cat but had not given it a radio collar because it was too small. They did, however, put a numbered ear tag on it. Chiquita had marks on her ear where the ear tag would have been-- she may have managed to get it off. We put a new numbered ear tag on her and hopefully it stays on so she can be identified if she gets recaptured again. Claudia plans to look at pictures of the two cats to determine if they are, in fact, the same.
After the examination. Claudia put Chiquita back in the box trap and covered it with a tarp to protect her from the rain. After the anesthesia, someone needs to stay with the cat until it fully regains consciousness. We all stayed for a little while, and even after Estela told us it would be another 2 hours until she woke up, most of the team and volunteers stayed. Finally it was time to open the trap and release our cat back into the wild. We all stood behind the trap as Estela opened it. Chiquita wasted no time before she took off into the dark. We got back to the farm at about 6:30am and were all happy to go back to bed. It rained most of the rest of the day, so the traps stayed closed until about 5pm when we went out to open them. It was a good day to rest! |
