I suspect you don't know when the male actually passed, which was why you didn't include this information.
Alternatively, I was trying to simplify the information dump as much as possible whilst still being helpful
you will note that I didn't say when Edinburgh went out of the species either, but it doesn't mean I don't know
that either! The species is actually one of my specialist subjects, being my favourite small cat and one I have seen several times.
For the record, I believe that the male Tibetan Golden Cat at Exmoor (Khan, born at Wassenaar Wildlife Breeding Centre in c.1999) died in February 2017, leaving a single female (Swai-fai, born at Parc des Felins in 2007) at the collection. Khan was the last Tibetan Golden Cat unrelated to all other individuals in the breeding programme, with Swai-fai, her brother Ipoh (born at Parc des Felins in 2008, and now held at Thrigby Hall) and their direct family at Parc des Felins being the only members of this taxon (
Catopuma temminckii tristis) remaining in European collections.
I briefly digress to note the fact that
tristis has recently been proposed to be synonymous with mainland populations of
Catopuma temminckii temminckii, with this scientific name reserved for the populations found in the Indonesian islands and an older name -
Catopuma temminckii moormensis - used for all mainland populations.
Swai-fai and Khan each came from Edinburgh Zoo in 2014 when the collection decided to cease keeping Tibetan Golden Cat; however Ipoh remained at the collection offshow until 2015, as the collection naturally had more trouble finding somewhere interested in a single individual than it did an unrelated pair. Swai-fai and Ipoh had arrived at Edinburgh Zoo in 2009 from Parc des Felins, their place of birth, joining an elderly and unrelated male called Bruno (born at Wassenaar in 1995). This male died in 2012, leading the collection to obtain Khan - whose provenance I have already discussed - from Rotterdam, which had been his home since 2006 when Wassenaar closed down.
Enough information included for you now?
Assuming you don't work there, is it not possible they could have acquired a new Golden Cat without your knowledge? #rhetoricalquestion
No; as noted above Khan was the last unrelated individual in Europe and as such the out-of-date website can only be referring to him #nonrhetoricalanswer
No Exmoor don't have Golden Cats they have gone so tld is correct
Interesting - I
had actually been unaware that Swai-fai had left the collection now. Did she pass away or has she been sent to another collection elsewhere in Europe? If the latter, I would be very much interested to learn whereabouts she now is.
if she has gone to a continental collection, it is possible the breeding programme is following the recent research and now treating the European population along moormensis and temminckii lines - in which case she and her siblings at Thrigby and Parc des Felins would represent fresh blood for the overall genepool.
