Four rather big Yukon kittens have found a new home in Quebec.

The three brothers and one sister born at the Yukon Wildlife Preserve last May were donated to the Zoo Sauvage de St.-Félicien, in Quebec's Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region.

They are still in quarantine following their recent arrival at the sprawling, 485-hectare spread.

It's expected they will remain there for a couple of weeks. Then, they will be released into a much larger enclosure that they'll have all to themselves for now.

"It'll be a beautiful place to play,” zoo biologist Christine Gagnon said Thursday afternoon.

As the young lynx get used to the larger enclosure in the 1,200 acre zoo the three older adult lynx at the zoo will stay in a smaller enclosure that's available for isolation or situations like this.

After a few months, the three adult lynx will move back into the larger enclosure with the younger cats.

With its lynx getting older, the zoo was looking for younger cats to add to its Canadian lynx exhibit.

Initially, officials were seeking a male and female. When they heard the Yukon Wildlife Preserve had a set of four siblings, however, they thought it would be a good opportunity to have a group that are used to being together.

As Gagnon explained, it can be difficult to introduce animals to others which aren't used to them.

The public is anxious to meet the youngsters, with the zoo getting frequent calls from people wanting to know when they will be out of quarantine.

The quarantine is necessary, Gagnon explained, whenever an animal is transported in from another facility. It's done to ensure they adapt to their new diet and don't have any sickness that can be triggered with the stress that can come from moving from one facility to another.

So far, the Yukon lynx don't appear to have any problems. They will remain in quarantine for a bit longer to make sure nothing comes up before it's safe to release them to the larger exhibit.

"We are really happy to have them,” said Gagnon, who had seen them earlier in the day. "They are beautiful.”

The lynx will even get some time in the spotlight, as they're among the species at the zoo where the public can view daily feeding time and listen to a presentation by a naturalist about the animals.

As for whether the Yukon lynx will be given names, Gagnon said while the zoo keepers may come up with their own names, those are usually kept private. The zoo wants the public to focus on the species rather than a specific animal.

Greg Meredith, the Yukon Wildlife Preserve's executive director, said Thursday the facility north of Whitehorse donated the lynx to the zoo after they learned through Gagnon the zoo was looking at adding to its lynx exhibit.

With three adult lynx at its facility (two males which have had to be separated), Meredith said, the preserve wasn't looking to keep the kittens, but rather wanted to see them go to an accredited facility.

The kittens didn't leave the preserve until they had been weened from their mother.

"We only deal with accredited facilities,” Meredith said, noting the zoo is unique in that it only deals with northern animals.

Meredith said blood-lines for captive animals are followed closely. The lynx which fathered the kittens is one of the few lynx in captivity to have come from the wild, making the kittens unique in having wild bloodlines.

The preserve is also looking at the possibility of donating two mountain goats born earlier this year to a facility in the United States, but details of that haven't been finalized.