Phoenix Zoo Phoenix Zoo News 2021

Arizona Docent said:
Just like San Diego Zoo and The Living Desert and several others. :(
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Yeah, several zoos have Amur leopards in African exhibits. This is due to Amur leopards being more weather tolerant and they are more threatened than African leopards.
 
This may be my hot take, but I'm honestly ok with certain subspecies substitution. There aren't many African leopards in the US anymore to build a sustainable population, and if there were, they'd just be competing for more spaces with the Amurs. Since many zoos have African geographic areas, I feel like it's not a question of Amur leopards vs African leopards, as much as it is Amur leopards or no leopards at all (besides, even a lot of the Asian-themed exhibits that have Amur leopards depict tropical Asia instead of northeast Asia... I'm looking at you, Bronx Zoo JungleWorld).

Similarly, if a zoo was having a Great Plains or Northern Woods exhibit and opted to house Mexican gray wolves instead of one of the northern subspecies, I'd respect that. Accuracy is nice, but maintaining a sustainable population so we keep these animals going in zoos is more important.
 
Aardwolf said:
This may be my hot take, but I'm honestly ok with certain subspecies substitution. There aren't many African leopards in the US anymore to build a sustainable population, and if there were, they'd just be competing for more spaces with the Amurs. Since many zoos have African geographic areas, I feel like it's not a question of Amur leopards vs African leopards, as much as it is Amur leopards or no leopards at all (besides, even a lot of the Asian-themed exhibits that have Amur leopards depict tropical Asia instead of northeast Asia... I'm looking at you, Bronx Zoo JungleWorld).

Similarly, if a zoo was having a Great Plains or Northern Woods exhibit and opted to house Mexican gray wolves instead of one of the northern subspecies, I'd respect that. Accuracy is nice, but maintaining a sustainable population so we keep these animals going in zoos is more important.
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I beg to differ on leopards. The current amalgamation of all Africans into one ssp. begs for revision. Habitats and biotopes define subspecies as much as ECU and not DNA genetics on the basis of slim sample sizes. It would be nice to have a few leopard subspecies around in zoos worldwide. North African, Arabian, Somali, Central African, Himalayan, China leopards.

AZA focusses on Amurs. Strange as so does Europe. It would be nice to have different continents focus on different subspecies to increase effect.
 
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Aardwolf said:
...Since many zoos have African geographic areas, I feel like it's not a question of Amur leopards vs African leopards, as much as it is Amur leopards or no leopards at all...
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Yes but Phoenix does not already have an African exhibit for leopards. They are purposely building an African exhibit to hold an Asian species. Absurd IMO. If you want to house Amur leopards and you are building them a new exhibit then build an exhibit based on their native range. (This is ignoring the obvious question of why a zoo in a desert with triple digit temperatures is acquiring a species from Siberia).
 
Arizona Docent said:
Yes but Phoenix does not already have an African exhibit for leopards. They are purposely building an African exhibit to hold an Asian species. Absurd IMO. If you want to house Amur leopards and you are building them a new exhibit then build an exhibit based on their native range. (This is ignoring the obvious question of why a zoo in a desert with triple digit temperatures is acquiring a species from Siberia).
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I'm saying that since no one is going to be importing African leopards into the US for these exhibits, it's a question of, does the zoo want leopards to round out their large African carnivore collection? If they do, then they likely will have to accept Amurs as a stand in. If they decide that they'd rather have strict purity, they can make it a caracal or serval exhibit. I worked with African leopards for years back when they were more prevalent in the US; they've long since gone, and my zoo has Amur now, still in the Africa-themed exhibit. I consider it a perfectly good ambassador representative.

Now, if you have concerns about it being too hot for Amurs, that's where a good argument could be made for that caracal...
 
Arizona Docent said:
Yes but Phoenix does not already have an African exhibit for leopards. They are purposely building an African exhibit to hold an Asian species. Absurd IMO. If you want to house Amur leopards and you are building them a new exhibit then build an exhibit based on their native range. (This is ignoring the obvious question of why a zoo in a desert with triple digit temperatures is acquiring a species from Siberia).
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Question how humans live daily in a desert!
 
I know what it feels like in the Arizona heat, If you remove that my account says i’m an anglerfish from the deep I know what it feels to live in such hot heat, good thing air conditioning comes to the rescue!
 
Arizona Docent said:
Some of us (myself included) like it hot. Of course most people don't and one of my pet peeves is the absurdly low temperature that most public buildings set their air conditioner at.
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I remember wearing a sweater indoors in the summer because the AC at work was set so low.
 
Indu hasn't had a good track record with getting along with other elephants, so I imagine that factors into that decision. After Indu passes, I'm sure they will reevaluate their elephant program from there.
 
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