Two young female bobcats are being nursed back to health at a New Brunswick animal reserve that specializes in working with injured wild animals.

One bobcat was found injured near Saint John last week, while the other was found on a highway in Richibucto earlier this month.

“It looks like it was probably hit,” says Pam Novak of the Atlantic Wildlife Institute in Cookville, N.B. “It wasn’t able to stand properly, but it is also extremely underweight.”

Dr. Paula-Marie Mather, a Moncton-based veterinarian, assessed both animals.

“Poor condition, like emaciated, very thin, poor body condition, and the last one we saw had a gash on her thigh, so we had to sedate her even to examine her and then had to clean up the wound because it was an older wound,” says Mather.

Novak says they take great pains to ensure the animals don’t become socialized and lose their natural instincts.

“It’s really giving them their space, keeping them quite quiet, keeping them isolated a lot from different animals,” she says. “They don’t get visualized by people. I am usually the only one or if there is another caretaker.”

Novak says if the progress continues, it’s looking good for the bobcats.

“Right now, with fingers crossed, they are both showing forward progression, where I am feeling a little better knowing that I think we are going to be able to get them out and on their way,” she says.

If all goes well, the bobcats will be released back into their respective environments over the next few weeks, depending on how much snow cover is on the ground.

With files from CTV Atlantic's David Bell