Great cats adjusting to new $1.2M Forever Florida home

HOLOPAW — Strolling the big-cat facility's future tour loop, deep-pitched grunts and growls of greeting began booming from a chain-link enclosure as Kevin "Simba" Wiltz approached.

"There's Kola, our old lioness. She's been in heaven since she got here. She loves the fact that she's right at the center of everything," Wiltz said, scratching the neck of the tan-furred beast through the fence.

"In the last week, between her and Cunsi, they have finally started sounding — which is a great sign. It means they're finally comfortable enough in their house that they will call out. They were pretty quiet for a while," he said.

Both African lionesses continue acclimating to their new, roomier home at Central Florida Animal Reserve's $1.2 million complex in Osceola County. From July 22-24, CFAR transported its 25 great cats — 20 tigers, two cougars, two lions and a leopard — from a Canaveral Groves backyard to the new 11-acre private sanctuary.

Some animals were seized by law enforcement, such as Keke, a Costa Rican cougar who was smuggled into Miami in the early 2000s. Others were privately owned, then abandoned. All were born in captivity, said Wiltz, CFAR's chief executive officer and senior vice president.

One of Florida's largest big-cat sanctuaries, CFAR is located off of U.S. 441 about 8 miles south of Holopaw on land leased from Forever Florida. This 4,700-acre conservation-ecotourism operation offers nature tours, ziplines, camping and horseback riding.

By October, the nonprofit hopes to start offering educational tours for students from Brevard, Osceola, Indian River, Orange and Seminole counties, said Thomas Blue, a West Melbourne dentist who serves as board president.

Limited public tours should also begin about that same time, though some cats who remain fearful of human strangers will remain off-limits. Future plans call for a visitors center and on-site animal hospital, Blue said.

Back in 2009, the Brevard County Commission set a two-year deadline — which was later extended — for the animal-rescue nonprofit to leave its 2-acre Canaveral Groves backyard complex on Date Palm Street for a suitably zoned home.

CFAR launched a $1 million fundraising campaign, and plans emerged to move to a rural 17-acre site north of Scottsmoor, just shy of the Volusia County line. But that idea was dropped in 2010 amid neighborhood complaints and zoning issues.

Site work started in 2013 in Osceola County, and construction crept along in tandem with fundraising. Last month's 57-mile move entailed "a massive logistical effort," Wiltz said: Up to five large felines at a time were sedated and trucked inside a customized air-conditioned tractor-trailer, escorted by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers.

"We've got cats that are introverts. We've got cats that are extroverts. Those that were extroverts, they basically came out and they're like, 'Oh, this is my new place!' and started looking around and exploring," Wiltz said.

"And then we had other cats that were like, 'Whoa. Way too big. I don't recognize the smell. I don't know whose territory this is. I'm going to go find a corner inside my den, and I'm not going to come out for a couple of days,'" he said.

"We watched that gamut of personality take over," he said.

The tigers, lions and cougars occupy 16 pole barns that are designed as duplexes and single-enclosure structures. Most enclosures measure about 40-by-40 feet with swimming pools, dens and gabled roofs nearly 18 feet high to provide shade. By contrast, Wiltz said most of the Canaveral Groves enclosures clocked in smaller than 24-by-12 feet.

Charger the Bengal tiger is regaining his appetite since the move. Born April 1, 2005, in Canaveral Groves, he weighs 400 to 450 pounds, measures 8 1/2 feet long, and eats "meat, meat and more meat," Wiltz said.

Specifically, Charger is consuming up to 8 pounds per day of pork, chicken, beef and occasional horse meat.

CFAR has not accepted new cats in nearly a decade, Wiltz said, and the animals' average age is up to 13. Total cats have dwindled from 54 in 2009 to 25 today.

"When you have a population this old, we are constantly in contact with the vet. In the wild, it's wild conditions that get them: stuff like infectious disease, getting injured from a hunt. In our environment, we're more looking at things like cancer and heart disease," Wiltz said.

"Longevity breeds chronic problems. Arthritis is a huge one. We go through a lot of glucosamine chondroitin — a lot," he said.

CFAR has already fielded offers from sources offering additional great cats. Wiltz said the group may accept more animals in the future, but operating costs already hit $15,000 to $20,000 per month. Specialized veterinary care can boost those bills.

Gypsy, a declawed 16-year-old black Asian leopard from South Florida, requires continual care.

"She was a pet, and when she got too big then it was determined that she was going to be shoveled off somewhere else. We ended up taking her on, but since she'd been indoors all her life she has always had these massive allergy problems with her skin," Wiltz said.

"In fact, when she first got outside, she lost most of her fur all the way back to her shoulders. She was basically a bald leopard," Wiltz said while Gypsy paced back and forth across her enclosure, long tail twitching.

Wiltz said workers discovered a large paw print while developing the Forever Florida cat complex — and CFAR officials think their two female cougars' mating calls could lure endangered Florida panthers nearby.

"Over flat ground, I know that it's been said they can be heard from a half-mile away. Once she gains the confidence to start calling out, then it's going to be a question of, 'Well, we'll see,'" Wiltz said, watching Keke inside her enclosure.

"Should that take place, we'll be reaching out to our partners at (FWC) to get some biologists down here," he said.

Contact Neale at 321-242-3638, rneale@floridatoday.com or follow @RickNeale1 on Twitter.