Features Wildworks: An Endangered Species MOON By Penny Taylor I'm one of the privileged few who have seen a mountain lion in the wild. One Topanga resident watched a lion sit on top of her child's rabbit hutch sunning itself in the afternoon and contemplating a tempting but inaccessible lunch beneath. We know they're out there in the mountains, but they have large roving territory and first-hand sightings are few.

VOL.25 NO. 05 March 8- 21, 2001 FEATURES INDEX: Wildworks: An Endangered Species CLICK HERE TO VIEW ENTIRE INDEX

The Nature of Wildworks has three-Envy, Sage and Phoenix. They are the connection with these mountains we live in and too many of us know so little about them. They are what take us beyond "Oh, what a nice view," and "Isn't that a pretty flower." To touch a mountain lion is to touch strength, cunning and swiftness, softness and warmth, playfulness and predatory power. The minute you step into the compound, Sage's eyes are watching you. Mountain lions have the most incredible eyes.

THE FILE ON WILDWORKS

Mollie Hogan's early love for animals led her to found Wildworks to care for wild refugees.

The Nature of Wildworks is a non-profit wildlife care and educational organization. I don't use organization in the sense of a board of directors, extensive publicity, an infrastructure and staff. Wildworks is Mollie Hogan, her animals and a handful of dedicated volunteers who give non-releasable wild animals a place to call home, while educating the public about these animals through programs that bring people into direct contact with these amazing animals.

Although Mollie has always been a child of nature, she didn't work with wild animals until she was 30. A musician, she made her living as a singer and lived in Montana. "Singing, that's what I did for a living. I never got my hands dirty and it was a completely different thing for me."

She became a student at the Moorpark College Teaching Zoo. It's a 2-year program that trains people to work at animal facilities. "I got into the program at Moorpark and it changed my life. The first animal I saw was the mountain lion and I thought, "This is great." So I worked with the cats and did a circus thing. I got hired at the Los Angeles Zoo. I went to watch the show and thought, That's what I've got to do. I met Sneakers (the African serval who was only a cub then) and I loved my job at the zoo and they were wonderful people."

Budgetary cuts necessitated closing the shows and the animals were going to have to be relocated. Mollie raised Phoenix as a cub, taking him home at night and going to McDonalds drive-thrus with a lion cub in the passenger seat. To relocate Phoenix would have been like giving up family. She wasn't having any of it.

It took her a couple of years to bring the animals home to her. She needed to get the licenses, permits from the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Fish and Game, and a wild animal rehabilitation permit.

It bothers many people that these animals are in captivity. Mollie's not a fan of captivity.

PHOTO BY KATIE DALSEMER Many wild ones, like Tara the Red-tailed hawk stand to lose if Mollie loses Wildwood.

"We do release animals if we can, but with these animals the alternative is to destroy them. We attempted to train the hawk to hunt. She can't see well enough.

"Wildworks has really opened my eyes to the problem the exotic pet trade has created. You can order basically anything you want over the Internet. Why would anyone want to have a wolf for a pet? The most destructive animal. Jaws seven times the power of a dog. Macaws are lethal. I know one that chewed up someone's grand piano while they were at work. They need to chew on wood."

"I had my bobcat in the house for a while. One night she jumped on my head in the middle of the night. They're wild. Their instincts are more on the surface. They are beautiful and interesting animals, but if you want a pet go to the animal shelter."

THE WILDWORKS BUNCH

PHOTO BY KATIE DALSEMER Mollie watches vet tech Alice Urquhart introduce Mollie's dog Hopi to the stuffed pup used for CPR at a Wildworks class.

Along with the mountain lions, Wildworks has one wolf, a Bat-eared Fox named Sally, a squirrel, a blind crow, kinkajous, a red-tailed hawk, a screech owl, a snake, a couple of tame rats, Miska the fox who needs eye surgery, a macaw, a kestrel, and an assortment of other animals. It's not a large facility, nothing on the scale of Tujunga's Wildlife Station. It houses no more than 35 animals at any given time.

Wildworks has an agreement with the State Park service to provide education in the parks. Wildworks does packed shows at Leo Carrillo and Malibu State Creek Park and throughout the Santa Monica Mountains. This is where people from all walks of life can learn about our animal friends. Mollie smiles, "If you see a red-tailed hawk up close you recognize what you're seeing in the wild." And their most recent program at the Nature Center in Topanga State Park was a first aid class for animals presented with the help of veterinarian technician, Alice Urquhart. They even brought along a blow-up dog to do CPR on.

Wildworks has also been the takeoff point for new careers for some of its volunteers. Larry had a wolf (Levon) and a mountain lion (Envy) at home. The state took them from him and Levon and Envy, who had been raised together, were split up. Envy came to Wildworks. Mollie heard about Moon and arranged for the lion and the wolf to be reunited. Larry came to volunteer at Wildworks to be near his friends and has since started working at the zoo. Leslie Gordon is now an animal care technician at the Natural History Museum. And many volunteers are working at Wildworks to help qualify to get into Moorpark College Wildlife Teaching Zoo.

Mollie's also proud that Wildwork's safety record is exemplary. They've also worked in conjunction with T-CEP drills, actually moving the animals in case some emergency should necessitate the evacuation of the center.

SOON TO BE HOMELESS

PANAMA

But Wildworks has a problem. They need a home. Mollie's landlord allowed her to build the center around her home, but this meant more cars coming into the area. Someone put in an anonymous call to zoning. Then it became a zoning problem. Where Mollie and the animals live cannot be made legal and they are in a holding pattern while they look for a place with more access. She has curtailed any extra traffic to the center and volunteers are trying to be sensitive to speed and noise conditions along the road leading to Wildworks. But this has taken away one of the purposes for which Wildworks was created, which was to educate people about the animals and the mountains by bringing them together.

Mollie tries to maintain a positive attitude. She describes her landlady as a gift from God. "She's just a wonderful person who really cares about people and animals and without her this never would have happened. Wildworks would have never been possible.

"We can't stay at this particular residence even though my landlady would go along with a fight. And I've cut the traffic down considerably. But it doesn't go along with our mission to provide lifetime care and teach people about them. So we need a place that has access and where people can participate and have some special events. Topanga has been the perfect place. Wildworks is my life's work, so I'll take it where I have to. But I've lived in a lot of places. Topanga is the only place I've never wanted to leave. I have the greatest staff of volunteers here that would do anything for Wildworks....They donate their time and their love and their money. I don't know if I can generate that kind of help anywhere else. It's just the kind of people who live in Topanga. They are caring, giving, loving people."

My favorite story Mollie ever told me was about the train. She'd found a place to live in Pasadena that was close to the zoo where she worked and had reasonable rent. She snapped it up without investigating it too closely.

In 1986, Mollie Hogan gives supper to Sirocco the camel.

"The first night I was laying in bed a train went by 100 yards from my head. And I was horrified, because I thought, 'I'll never be able to sleep here.' And one day I was outside and I saw the train in the day and I looked at this train and it was kind of neat. And on my day off I would sit and walk and watch the train and all these kids would see me and then they started coming up and then it become a kind of an event and then we'd count the different boxcars and then we started waving at the engineer and he started recognizing us and waving back and then I thought it would be a great thing to meet the engineer and I took the kids to the station and we met the engineer and they got to tour the train. By getting to know the train and being involved in it changed my relationship to it.

"A lot of children have come to Wildworks....There are people that have been permanently changed by putting their hand on a mountain lion and hearing it purr. Tons of people call who have an animal they need information on, or need to find care for. I have over 20 years experience taking care of animals and training them, and a lot of information and knowledge to share. People like to appreciate nature and live in the wilderness. But no one wants to deal with the problems that go with it. You have to take the bad with the good."

Mollie has this wonderful menagerie of friends. She laughs, "Our most dangerous animal is the blue and gold macaw, Jammy, who lives in the house and is like a 2-year-old spoiled child. She is very jealous of certain people and animals. She takes a shower with me, but still loves everyone more than me. Her new favorite person is Carol Feer who comes over and works on the computer and then Jammy charges at my ankles and tries to bite me because she loves Carol and doesn't want me sitting near her or talking to her."

STEP UP TO THE PLATE

These are just some of the staff and volunteers who have made Wildworks work.

Now Jammy and Sneakers and the hawk who's blind in one eye, and all the others need a new home. So if you can donate funds for a move, know of a piece of property that has easy access to the main boulevard and can be leased, please think of Wildworks. You can get to know Wildworks better by checking out the web site at www.wildworks.com or phoning (310) 455-0550. Donations can be sent to Nature of Wildworks at P.O. Box 109, Topanga, CA 90290. The e-mail address is wildworks1@aol.com. You can also find out about educational programs for all ages that are available to private parties and organizations.

"Although I have the USDA and Fish & Game Permits, when I acquired the animals from the zoo it was a huge problem. It was a bunch of bureaucratic red tape. But it's a problem you can solve if you persevere and work with it."

As Mollie once said, "There's always going to be those people who can never appreciate the train because all they hear is the noise."

Topanga may lose one of it's most valuable assets. The face of Topanga is continually changing. The Indians are gone; there are areas of Topanga where you can't even have chickens anymore. Can't we find a way to keep Wildworks with us?