Rio is a male African serval who came to The Wildcat Sanctuary in 2005. He wasn’t even a year old at the time.
The US Fish and Game Department in Arizona had seized Rio along with two other servals. An unlicensed person had several exotic cats confined to crates and was breeding them illegally.
When you can google “baby serval” and find so many listings every single day offering them for sale, we wonder how many more are out there in the same situation Rio was in?
Life at the Sanctuary
Rio and his sister, Mesa, were very young when they arrived at The Wildcat Sanctuary. But Rio quickly became a very dominant serval and was being aggressive to the other cats he was living with.
For their safety, Rio was introduced to a new habitat mate, a bobcat named Nikko. Nikko’s a very large bobcat and helped temper Rio’s big ego. Nikko has been able to deal with this very large and lanky serval and they’ve lived together for many years and become one of our most well-known odd couples.
How You Can Help
Caring for a wild cat for life – even a medium sized wild cat like Rio – can be very expensive. Our sponsorship program helps support the cats and allows you to form a special bond with them. Would you consider being Rio’s sponsor parent?
Or even a one time donation toward his care would be so appreciated. It’s easy to do using the buttons at the top of this page.
Thank you for your generous support!
