Meet the new baby cougars at the Minnesota Wildlife Science Center

When you hear them, the sound is more chirp than roar: a high-pitched call three young cougars use to keep in touch with one another and the cat who will soon become their adoptive mother.
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In August, sisters Lysandra and Elide and their brother, Gavriel, arrived at the Wildlife Science Center from Washington. The kittens were orphaned after their mother was killed by a landowner while preying on goats.
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The center had been hoping to take in young cougars after the death of an older cougar, Pandora. So when Washington’s Department of Natural Resources called, the center’s executive director and co-founder Peggy Callahan sent her team west. A biologist examined the kittens before the team brought them back to Minnesota — a round trip totaling more than 40 hours on the road.
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The kittens have been quarantined at the Stacy non-profit educational and research facility while undergoing vaccinations and deworming before they’ll live with their new mother, Nice Kitty.
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📹 Anthony Soufflé/The Minnesota Star Tribune