Oakland Zoo cares for 2 more mountain lion cubs

Captain Cal, the badly burned mountain lion cub being nursed back to health at the Oakland Zoo, now has two female companions.

Firefighters battling the Zogg Fire in Shasta County found two more orphaned cubs — likely sisters — near Redding this week. A zoo official drove north to pick them up from a U. S. Fish and Wildlife facility on Friday.

Though untouched by the flames, the two asyet-unnamed female cubs still need careful handling from zoo veterinarians. Roughly a month old and deprived of a mother, they can no longer survive in the wild, said zoo spokeswoman Isabella Linares.

“Usually mountain lion cubs stay with their mother until they are about 2 years old,” Linares said. “Their mother would teach them how to hunt and how to hide from predators.”

In videos posted to social media Saturday, zoo staff swaddled the cubs in blankets and checked them on an examining table. They will be bottlefed and

Xrayed to detect signs of smoke inhalation. The sisters sleep together in a carrier, instinctively baring their teeth whenever humans approach.

Captain Cal is steadily improving, his fur still singed and mottled, his injured paws wrapped in gauze and duct tape. Named for the Cal Fire mountain lion mascot, he has come to symbolize the devastation of climate change and the resilience of Californians adjusting to a longer and more vicious fire season.

Eventually the state Department of Fish and Wildlife will place all three mountain lions in a new facility.

Oakland Zoo Two female mountain lion cubs, who would not survive in the wild without their mother, were rescued from the Zogg Fire and are being cared for at the Oakland Zoo, as is a male cub.