Whether an animal is orphaned and needs your help depends on their age, species and behavior. Babies of some species are left alone all day and rely on camouflage for protection, while others are tightly supervised by their parents. It’s common to see baby wild animals outside during spring, as a new generation makes its way into the world. Baby wild animals might seem like they need our help, but unless the animal is truly orphaned or injured, there is no need to rescue them.
The unfortunate woman discovered that the pet kitten she had rescued months earlier was actually something else when a trip to the veterinarian didn’t go as planned. Explaining how the mix-up went down, the woman, Florencia, said that while in the northwest Argentinian province, she and her brother had found two kittens next to a dead adult cat. “We thought that it was an abandoned cat who had given birth,” she told the outlet, noting that while one of the cats, a female, did not survive, the male, whom she named Tito, did.
However, although everything seemed to be fine with Tito’s health, when she took him to a vet appointment two months later, she found out he wasn’t actually a house cat after all. “The vet didn’t know what it was but said it was not a normal cat,” Lobo told the outlet, adding that they gave her the number of a local nature reserve.
After getting in contact with the nature reserve, it was confirmed that Tito was actually a jaguarundi, a type of small wild cat that’s native to North and South America. Jaguarundis, whose full scientific name is puma yagouaroundi, are just slightly larger in size than regular cats, typically weighing between 8-16 lbs., according to the experts. According to Reuters, Tito is currently under the care of the nature reserve, and there are plans to return him to his natural habitat.