At a distance, the snowy Rocky Mountains line the horizon like lace. Otherwise, it’s hard to tell this is Colorado, given the tigers, lions, leopards, and other foreign carnivores.
This isn’t a zoo, and don’t let the fencing fool you. This is The Wild Animal Sanctuary, where more than 450 animals brought to Colorado’s eastern plains get a second chance to roam. The sanctuary spans over 1,200 acres and rehabilitates captive exotic and endangered animals. For some, this might be the first time their paws have touched grass.
Below the elevated walkway where visitors watch, a jaguar patrols the edge of a fence. The nonprofit says Manchas was a neglected pet in Mexico, confused about his identity after he was raised by the family’s dogs. Other rescues have come from Bolivian circuses, an Iowa mall, and a shuttered Puerto Rican zoo. About 150 came from the cages of the Netflix show “Tiger King.”
Why We Wrote This
Some formerly captive exotic animals have never had their paws touch grass before. The Wild Animal Sanctuary gives them space to roam.
In the view of Austin Hill, public relations director at the sanctuary, the need to rescue animals can result from owners’ warped priorities. “People were trying to mistake human want for animal need,” he says.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
Perhaps some exceptions are the lions that hail from a zoo in Ukraine. Rescued from Odesa, they were spared Russia’s war.
Rehabilitation takes time. And progress, when it comes, appears in behavior. For the big cats, for example, roaming is a welcome sign. Roaring is also good. So is falling asleep on one’s back, with legs limp and stomach exposed. The cats would do that only, the humans here assume, if they felt safe.
One lioness, spotted on a recent tour, is in just this pose with her jaw gone slack. During the Monitor’s second visit in December, most of the sanctuary’s bears were missing from the scene. They were busy hibernating, dreaming bear dreams.
The sanctuary expands beyond just this site, and includes a wild mustang refuge in Colorado’s northwest. Overall, the nonprofit has about 100 staff members and some 160 volunteers. From a safe distance, workers here build rapport with the animals.
Mr. Hill can name the rescues at first glance, as if ticking off the roster of a favorite football team. Foxes with tails that float behind them, light as scarves, frolic in a ditch. That’s Benedict, Suzette, Pickles, and Pancake.
The sanctuary provides over 100,000 pounds of food a week at its peak. Meals are offered at random times to replicate an authentic habitat. Another callback to the wild comes in sound.
The lions start a call-and-response – thunder from their throats. The conversation builds, with groans and grunts and heaving sighs, rattling the valley and its birds. Several seconds pass till I remember how to breathe.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
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