BigCatDerek

Overview

BigCatDerek is the screen name of Derek Krahn, the operations director of the Center for Animal Research and Eductation (CARE) located in Bridgeport, Texas. He has become famous on various websites such as Youtube and Vine for posting videos of the various big cats in the center’s compound.

Origin

Derek Krahn, originally from Wisconsin, moved to Texas in 2006 to be a weekend volunteer at CARE. He would eventually become part of the board of directors a year later, and would also go on to marry Heidi: the executive director and founder of the
center.^[1]

About

In December of 2013, Derek would start posting videos of the big cats at the center, the earliest one featuring one of the cougars named Cassie.

Walk Around the Compound

Walk Around the Compound is a series that Derek started on his Youtube account, with the first episode posed on July 24, 2014. The series basically features Derek filming Derek walking around CARE’s facility and talking about various topics while interacting with the various big cats.

The series helped popularize Derek’s reputation further, and the series would go on to make over 100 episodes. Derek also would add captions to videos to explain various things as well be humorous, by using the persona “Editor Derek”. Several catch-phrases and words also helped with the popularity, such as “peets”, “crazypants” and “KillPlayKillPlayKillPlay”.

The Cats

Aside from Derek himself, the big cats that have been featured in his videos have gained popularity. Some of the most notable cats include:

Cassie

A cougar who has show great affection to Derek and others. She would go up to him and start to purr and then make a squeaky mew voice.^[2] This has lead to the popular phrase made by Derek “try not to squeak”.

Solano

A white tiger who had his eye removed in mid 2014 due to a cancerous growth.^[3] He has become popular due to the droning sounds he would often make, which Derek calls “moos”.

Mwali

A lion who was brought to the center in 2012. He is well known for his affectionate attitude towards Derek and for his large mane, to which Derek would make jokes about him begging for hair gel.^[4]

Ace

A black leopard, who unlike the rest of the cats, is constantly hostile towards Derek (this is due to his unfondness of men).^[5] This has lead to Derek making jokes of Ace being a grumpy man who has a pure hatred of him.

Araali and Zuberi

Lion brothers, who also known as the “beebees” since the time of their birth, are the offspring of Mwali and his mate Noel. They also has a third brother, Jelani, who sadly passed away at only 3 months old.^[6] The boys also faced trouble when they were diagnosed with Wobbler’s Syndrome, luckily with support from viewers and donors, they were able to overcome it and are healthy to this day.^[7]

Spread

Derek has now become well known for his work, earning over 35,000 subscribers on Youtube^[8] and over 1 million followers on Vine^[9], he has since given the name to his followers “The Pride”. According to the 119th episode of Walk Around the Compound, Derek has enjoyed how his content has been featured on various sites such as iFunny and Imgur^[10]. He has also started two other series on his Youtube account: Compound Karaoke, where he sings songs in front of other cats, and The Conservation Equations, where he talks with experts about conserving exotic animals.