Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge has been growing steadily for many years, and with each expansion, the need is always there to improve the refuge’s infrastructure as well.
That just happened again, with the acquisition of a 6,500 gallon water tank.
“Adding a new water tank may not sound quite as exciting as rescuing a tiger,” says Turpentine Creek Vice-President Scott Smith, “but it’s those rescues – for example our rescue in 2013 of 28 big cats from Mountainburg – that have led us to expand habitats, and in this case double our water capacity. We not only have all the habitats down at Rescue Ridge where we have to supply water, but Bam Bam’s pool is pretty big. So we’ve increased our water storage capacity to 13,000 gallons. It’s a good thing and makes a big difference here.”
Smith adds that while utility and infrastructure costs sometimes slip by in people’s estimations of what it takes to maintain a facility like TCWR, without maintaining and expanding all those factors, providing adequate care on all levels for the exotic big cat population would simply not be possible.
“You can only go forward or backward, and we are heading forward in our mission here,” said Smith. “We plan to keep doing this for a long, long time to come.”