SANCTUARY AND EXPERIEMENTAL
BREEDING CENTER
AND MARK D. KLEMPERER, MS ZOOLOGY
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animals of all kinds and the wild places that they come from. My interests have led me to some very exotic
places such as the bayous of South Louisiana where I worked with green anoles and gulf killifish and
Tsavo East National Park in Kenya where I assisted with research on African Elephants during my graduate
work in Zoology at Louisiana State University. My interests have led me on a wonderful, educational
journey and I have learned a lot along the way, but I am still acquiring knowledge as I go. There is always
something new to learn when you work with animals!
These days I Teach biology to teenagers here in Southern California and work with animals on the ranch.
Although I love breeding and raising many species of domesticated animals and exotic birds, my true
passion is working on long term, selective breeding programs that allow me to breed some very exotic,
wild looking, wild x domestic hybrid animals with companion animal temperaments. I've been working with
many kinds of animals since I was a young kid in the 1960's and I've been selectively breeding hybrid
animals for over 22 years now! I find that working with them becomes more and more rewarding as I make
progress towards my goals with each generation. I also keep and breed many species of exotic birds, a
few more mundane barnyard animals (I graze my sheep in the hills to keep the fire danger down and I feed
my table scraps to my hogs). I even have a few reptiles.
Wildcat Canyon Ranch is a private animal sanctuary and consulting, training and breeding facility perched
high on the side of a wild canyon in Southern California. Although only about one hour's drive from
downtown Los Angeles, this canyon is home to bobcats, coyotes, burros, mule deer, desert cottontail,
kangaroo rats, numerous birds of prey (owls, hawks, ravens and an occasional golden eagle), many, many
reptiles (including rattle snakes) to name just a few, and is even visited by mountain lions on occasion.
The animals I keep and breed here are used for educational purposes with my students, are sometimes
used for Hollywood projects in nearby Los Angeles, and each year some of the offspring are sold as
companion animals. BTW, my animals are also my companions and they are the center of my existence. If
you have any doubts about that, just ask me sometime what I did when the local police put up a road block
when a wildfire was raging through my canyon and I needed to get to my animals to protect them!
Why breed and keep wildcat and other hybrids as pets? Well, the bottom line is this: I, like many other
people absolutely love the looks and intelligence of wild cats, wolves and other wild species. However,
the sad truth is that in general, a full blooded wild animal really leaves a lot to be desired as a pet! There
are those of us that are willing to provide a wild animal with everything that it needs to be happy and
healthy in captivity, but very few people are prepared to deal with a wild animal for the full lifetime of that
animal. That is why I feel that carefully bred, wild x domestic hybrids are probably the best choice for most
people who want to experience the excitement of the wild in a companion animal because they will retain
exciting wild looks and have great, pet temperaments.
In general, the goal of my hybrid animal breeding programs is to create healthy, VERY wild looking,
exotic animals that have enough wild genetics in their backgrounds to really look like wild animals and to
preserve the amazing intelligence and lust for life that the wild relatives of our domestic pets still retain.
However, there is another, equally important goal which is to have these very intelligent, wild looking,
exotic creatures grow up to have very loving, gentle temperaments that make them suitable as true
companion animals. These very unique creatures must possess both exotic, wild looks and outstanding
temperaments or I have failed at something I care very much about. Breeding animals with wild looks and
domestic temperaments is quite a challenge and that is what I find the most rewarding and exciting about
working with these animals. I have to carefully select the wildest looking individuals with the most loving,
gentle, temperaments for each generation and I can see them becoming closer and closer to the ideal
with each generation. For example, believe it or not, the temperaments of the wildcat hybrids that I am
breeding at this time far surpasses that of normal domestic cats because they are much more intelligent,
trainable and affectionate than domestics. They bond more strongly to humans than domestic cats and are
just simply much more rewarding companions than a domestic cat because of this!
This website is meant to provide information on the types of animals I work with here at Wildcat Canyon
Ranch. This site is a work in progress, but I hope you enjoy what I have managed to put together so far.
Please do not duplicate any images found on this site. Thank you for visiting!
email: wildcatcanyonranch@wcatcr.com
phone: 619 204-0941
URL: www.wcatcr.com