Here's an interesting thing to ponder. In the 2002 IRA for importing zoo Felidae into Australia, I found a sentence (on page 16) which states that the 1999 ARAZPA census lists "21 [twenty-one] species of non-domestic Felidae held in Australasian zoos."
http://www.agriculture.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/ba/memos/2002/animal/2002-08a.pdf
I had a count up of what I know was in the region in 1999 and came up quite a bit short. Starting with the eleven species
still in Australasia we have lion, tiger, snow leopard (now just in Aus), leopard (now just in NZ), cheetah, puma (now just in Aus), serval, fishing cat, bobcat (now just in NZ), caracal (now just in NZ), and ocelot (now just in Aus). Then the four species which we've lost since 1999: jaguar (c.2010), clouded leopard (2008), Asiatic golden cat (2009), and leopard cat (2008). The last leopard cat was in NZ, the other dates were the last in Australia.
So that only gives us fifteen species. There were a few other species around in the 1980s (jaguarundi, jungle cat, Pallas' cat, margay, and Geoffroy's cat) but none of those lasted anywhere near to 1999 so couldn't be on the census.
I'd imagine they must be including all taxa (i.e. subspecies as well as full species), which adds on maybe one lion (the Asian hybrids which were at TWPZ), Persian leopard, and two or three tigers (Sumatran, Siberian, white). The tigons don't count because they were in a circus until 2000. But that does take us up close (19 or 20) to their total (21). Maybe there were a couple of other subspecies listed for the smaller cats.
Here's the interesting part though. While the paper simply says that there are 21 species on the ARAZPA census without specifically listing them, it
does have an unaccompanied list of "Common and scientific names of exotic Felidae" (on page nine of the document). This clearly isn't a comprehensive list of the world's Felidae, and the implication seems to be that it is a list of what is in Australasia - even though it's a slightly odd list.
Here's what is has listed:
Cheetah
Acinonyx jubatus
Asiatic golden cat
Catopuma temminckii
Caracal
Felis caracal
Domestic cat
Felis catus
Wild cougar, puma, mountain lion
Felis concolor
Florida Panther
Felis concolor coryi
Wild cat
Felis lybica
South American ocelot
Felis pardalis
European wildcat
Felis silvestris
Jaguarundi
Herpailurus yagouarundi
Ocelot
Leopardus pardalis
Serval
Leptailurus serval
Lynx
Lynx canadensis
Lynx
Lynx lynx
Bobcat
Lynx rufus
Clouded leopard
Neofelis nebulosa
Lion
Panthera leo
Jaguar
Panthera onca
Leopard
Panthera pardus
Siberian tiger
Panthera tigris
Tiger, Bengal tiger
Panthera tigris
White tiger
Panthera tigris
Snow leopard
Panthera uncia
Fishing cat
Prionailurus viverrinus
Puma
Puma concolor
It broadly corresponds to what I was suggesting earlier, with the species which I know were around in 1999 (minus leopard cat) plus some additional subspecies (except, strangely, Sumatran tiger and Persian leopard), but there are 25 names on the list. Puma and ocelot are both listed twice (with different generic names), so it can be taken down to 23. Take off domestic cat to make 22. But then there are some odd ones on there which I have to question. It's like they listed most of the Australasian taxa but then just threw in some random other ones.
*Jaguarundi - these surely weren't still around in 1999?
*Florida panther - did anywhere really list their pumas as this subspecies?
*European (
silvestris) and African (
lybica) wild cats?
*Eurasian (
lynx) and American (
canadensis) lynx?
Anyone remember any of these from the late 1990s (or earlier)?
I guess the most likely answer is that they are listing the species which are mentioned in the document - but that doesn't work because some species mentioned in the document (e.g. Sumatran tiger) aren't on the list and some of the ones on the list aren't otherwise mentioned in the document. I don't think it can be a list of species which the IRA covers for import either (e.g. Sumatran tiger isn't on it). So it's an odd one.
The main point is that the ARAZPA census for 1999 listed 21 "species" of cats in the region. I'd love to get hold of the old census records from the 80s and 90s. They would be so interesting.