News Archives | Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge

Your Role in Protecting Big Cats: Reporting Abuse with the Big Cat Sanctuary Alliance

The Big Cat Sanctuary Alliance (BCSA) celebrated a huge win this year as it became a certified 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Founded in 2017, the BCSA “works to eliminate private ownership and the commercial exploitation of wild cats in the United States” (Big Cat Sanctuary Alliance, 2024). The BCSA allows sanctuaries to collaborate, support, and partner […]

December 4, 2024 View Article

Giving Tuesday 2024: Join the Fight Against Bobcat Fever & Save Lives

Giving Tuesday is an annual “global day of giving” created to empower individuals, communities, and organizations to band together for philanthropic efforts. Created in 2012 as a simple idea for people to support and give back to worthy causes, it has now become a year-round global movement inspiring hundreds of millions to give, collaborate, and […]

November 27, 2024 View Article

Fall Enrichment at Turpentine Creek: Pumpkins, Leaf Piles, and Foraging Fun

As the crisp autumn air rolls into the Ozarks, the animals at Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge experience a change of pace that brings exciting opportunities for seasonal enrichment. At the heart of the Refuge’s fall enrichment activities are pumpkins, piles of fallen leaves, and hidden treasures like acorns, which help keep the animals mentally stimulated, […]

November 19, 2024 View Article

Feeding at the Refuge – The excitement of Turkey season

As stated in our 2023 Financial Report, last year, Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge fed out 184,110 points of meat (an average of 550 lbs. of meat per day!). Carnivores require a strict, meat-based diet, and at the Refuge, we add additional supplements to account for the nutrients wild cats would obtain from feeding on a […]

November 18, 2024 View Article

Why Adopting an Animal at Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge is the Perfect Holiday Gift

As the holiday season approaches, many people search for meaningful ways to give back, spread joy, and make a lasting impact. At Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, there’s a way to do all three: through the adoption program. This unique form of giving not only helps support the big cats and other animals at the refuge, […]

November 12, 2024 View Article

How Big Cats Perceive the World – The Jacobson’s Organ and the Flehmen Response

Have you ever seen a big cat, like a lion or tiger, curl back its lips and make a funny face that almost resembles snarling? That odd expression isn’t aggression—it’s called the Flehmen response, and it’s a way for these powerful predators to get a better “whiff” of the scents around them. But to understand […]

November 5, 2024 View Article

Giving Tuesday 2024 – What to Expect at TCWR

As the pumpkins fade, our sights are set on the holiday season – and, most importantly, Giving Tuesday! This global initiative, founded in 2012 by New York City’s 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation, brings together people and organizations worldwide on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving to support charitable causes. For Turpentine Creek Wildlife […]

October 30, 2024 View Article

What is Staggering Disease and Why We Are Monitoring the Situation

Last May 2024, Douglas County, Colorado residents were shocked to find a “staggering” cougar roaming the property. They reported that the cat was hobbling around on its hind legs, dragging the rest of its body on the ground. Multiple wildlife rehabilitation organizations were called; however, Colorado Parks and Wildlife responded in the end. The cougar was […]

October 16, 2024 View Article

Pumpkins Season – When the Animals Become Just as Festival as the People

As the air cools and the fall foliage begins to take over the luscious green Ozark Mountains, many things change at the Refuge. Our summer tasks, such as cleaning pools and lawn care, are replaced with racking leaves and different enrichment for the animals. In local markets, a surplus of pumpkins arrives as we approach […]

October 9, 2024 View Article

#RememberMeThursday

Be part of a worldwide awareness movement! In 2013, the #RememberMeThursday advocacy group started a campaign to unite people globally, coming together as one voice for all orphaned animals needing homes. In 2022, around 378,000 dogs and cats were euthanized in our nation’s shelters simply because they had no safe place to call home (Best […]

October 2, 2024 View Article