A light brown domestic kitten inside a metal cage, likely indoors with artificial lighting.

3:03

Arizona Game And Fish 285K views Save

Libby the mountain lion cub pulls through

Name: Libby the mountain lion cub pulls through
Uploaded: 2016-03-31T23:37:04Z
Duration: 3 min 3 s
Description: An animal control officer found her at the top of a tree on tribal land in southeastern Arizona. The mountain lion cub was alone, and she was in very bad shape.

An animal control officer found her at the top of a tree on tribal land in southeastern Arizona. The mountain lion cub was alone, and she was in very bad shape. more

Her mother was nowhere in sight. The officer, from the Tohono O'odham Nation, believes a dog or dogs killed the cub's sibling, found at the base of the tree. At this age a young mountain lion still needs her mom for food and for lessons in how to hunt.

So the tribal officer called the Adobe Mountain Wildlife Center, run by the Arizona Game and Fish Department, and asked for medical help. The center cares for orphaned and injured wild animals of every kind. The cub came in scared and badly dried out.

Anne Justice-Allen, a vet and wildlife health specialist for Game and Fish, sedated the cub and gave her a full exam. Her teeth told part of the story. They were still baby teeth, baby canines, in a cub about 5 or 6 months old.

Gloved hands hold the mountain lion cub during a medical check of her mouth and tongue. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third. — During her first exam, the vet checks the sedated cub's mouth and finds baby canines.

The scale told the rest. The cub weighed 13 pounds, and a cub her age should be about 30. She had no fever and no sign of injury or disease. The team gave her fluids under the skin and into a vein. They also ran blood work to see if days without a drink had hurt her kidneys.

Nobody could promise anything yet. So many things could still go wrong, the vet said. "But I think she's got a pretty good chance of surviving."

Before the cub woke, the team settled her into a kennel, where caregivers would nurse her back to health. Then she pulled one leg up. She was starting to wake. "Hi, baby," someone in the room said.

A light brown domestic kitten inside a metal cage, likely indoors with artificial lighting. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third. — An animal control officer found her at the top of a tree on tribal land in southeastern Arizona.

She was in guarded condition at first, and the plan was plain. Lots of food, lots of water, and a close eye on her. It worked. The cub, now called Li:Bi, said like Libby, got well and moved to a new home at Out of Africa, a wildlife park in Arizona.

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