EDUCATION TO PREVENT EXTINCTION - NOT!

Robert and Barbara Dicely, founders of the Wild Cat Education and Conservation Fund, returned to Sonoma State University on Nov. 1, bringing their wild cats to the Cooperage at 7 p.m. for Associated Students Productions' annual Big Cat Show.

Barbara Dicely started volunteering about 30 years ago and, over time, had enough experience to have her own license. Her and her husband have been putting on this show for about 20 years and do about 100 shows per year. Though the majority of their shows are at schools, they also give their presentation at libraries, Boys and Girls Clubs, day camps and many other places.

There are 36 species of wild cats, the largest one being the Siberian tiger, of which males can weight up to 800 pounds. The five wild cats that were part of the Big Cat Show show are a cougar, a Siberian lynx, a cheetah, an African Serval and a Geoffroy's cat.

"The more and more people that live on planet Earth, there become less and less space for wild animals," said Barbara. "More and more endangered species are on the edge of extinction. How do you care about the animals if you don't know anything about the animals?"

The Wild Cat Education and Conservation Fund's purpose for putting on these presentations is to educate the public on the decrease of wild animals and to inform them about what is happening to the cats that share the world with people.

All of the Dicelys' ambassador cats are captive born and not taken out of the wild, as it is illegal. The cats can be purchased from a zoo or from a private licensed facility.

"We try to buy our cats at a young age so they learn to travel and how to work with a leash," said Barbara.

The first cat that was brought out was a Siberian lynx. The Siberian lynx is found all over the world, from Sonoma County to Canada, all the way to Europe and Asia. Depending on their location, the lynx can be very populated to greatly endangered.

"There are a few very easy ways to tell if it is a lynx," said Barbara. "They have a pathetic excuse for a tail, and they have unsightly ear tufts which help them hear sounds out in the wild. They also have very large paws that look like snow shoes to help them walk easily on the surface of the snow."

The second cat that was brought out was the cheetah. The cheetah is an animal that was made to do one thing—run. Per stride, the cheetah covers 20 feet and in four seconds, the Cheetah can run 20 miles per hour. In three steps, the cheetah can be up to 45 miles per hour.

"Cheetahs have huge lungs to breath and are the fastest land mammal though they were not made for endurance," said Barbara. "In nine seconds, a cheetah can run a quarter of a mile. If they run for more than 30 seconds, their body temperature becomes high and they have to rest.

"Cheetahs have survived the ice age and living with lions but they will not survive living with man," she added.

Next was the African Serval cat. According to the Dicelys, the Serval cat is the champion mouse catcher in the cat family. They can catch about 4,000 mice every year.

"The Serval cats have pretend eyes—the white spots at the back of their ears," said Barbara. "It helps them because predators do not attack something that is looking at it.

Barbara added that their Serval cat is 15 years old and was born in a facility, and the interesting thing about Serval cats is that they are not listed as endangered. Rather they are listed as a rare type of cat.

The fourth cat that was brought out is the Geoffroy's cat. The Geoffroy's cat, they explained, is usually found in South American countries such as Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil. The Geoffroy's Cat likes to live in brush, under leaves or climb high in a tree to hide from predators like monkeys, pumas, jaguars, hawks, lizards and others.

"The Geoffroy's Cat is the second most hunted animal for the fur trade," explained Barbara. "In some civilizations a long time ago, they used to believe that the Geoffroy's cat was a personification of the devil and they would stone the cat to death."

The last cat that was brought out was the cougar. There are 65 different types of names for the cougar, from puma to mountain lion, depending on their location, said Barbara. The 10 states west of the Rocky Mountains use the name cougar.

"Everyone respects the cougar because of their beauty and their strength," said Barbara. Cougars can jump about 20 feet into the air. The females can weigh up to 100 pounds and males can weigh up to 160 pounds and their long tail helps them to balance.

Barbara added that, for the past 100 years, the cougar has been a protected species.

http://www.sonomastatestar.com/features/big-cat-show-educates-students-to-prevent-extinction-1.2686702#.TrmGUbKwW7A