Zoo/Aquarium Hot Takes

ThylacineAlive said:
Detroit's Polk Penguin Conservation Center > St. Louis' Penguin & Puffin Coast in almost every conceivable way.

~Thylo
Click to expand...
I'm actually surprised to see this, as I presumed this would be everyone's opinion. Detroit's is the new standard for cold weathered penguins (at least in America) and I don't think it would be wrong to say St. Louis's is a below average exhibit. The experience is great but it seems a little small even for Rockhoppers and Gentoos.
 
Since the AZA only maintains Amur leopards, zoos in the US should just leave their leopards out of African areas. Instead, more exhibits like the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo’s Asian highlands would be nice to see.

Or, if a zoo is dead-set on including leopards in its African area, there are lots of hybrid leopards in private hands which may have some degree of African ancestry. I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to get a leopard from one of them, for something that at least looks more like Panthera pardus pardus than P. p. orientalis does.
 
evilmonkey239 said:
Since the AZA only maintains Amur leopards, zoos in the US should just leave their leopards out of African areas. Instead, more exhibits like the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo’s Asian highlands would be nice to see.

Or, if a zoo is dead-set on including leopards in its African area, there are lots of hybrid leopards in private hands which may have some degree of African ancestry. I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to get a leopard from one of them, for something that at least looks more like Panthera pardus pardus than P. p. orientalis does.
Click to expand...
One caveat with getting a generic Leopard is make sure it's acquired ethically- as it'd be very easy to get one from an unethical source, more difficult to vet the source and ensure it is an ethical breeder.
 
Neil chace said:
One caveat with getting a generic Leopard is make sure it's acquired ethically- as it'd be very easy to get one from an unethical source, more difficult to vet the source and ensure it is an ethical breeder.
Click to expand...
Then again, zoos are no stranger to taking in rescued cats - Oakland recently acquired two generic tigers from an abandoned roadside zoo in Oklahoma, in order to rehabilitate them and give them the best lives possible.
 
evilmonkey239 said:
Since the AZA only maintains Amur leopards, zoos in the US should just leave their leopards out of African areas. Instead, more exhibits like the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo’s Asian highlands would be nice to see.

Or, if a zoo is dead-set on including leopards in its African area, there are lots of hybrid leopards in private hands which may have some degree of African ancestry. I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to get a leopard from one of them, for something that at least looks more like Panthera pardus pardus than P. p. orientalis does.
Click to expand...
This is a nice idea, but it wouldn't really make sense in the grand scheme of things. The whole reason zoos include Amur leopards in African areas is to maximize facilities for breeding. Substituting pure breeding animals for generic hybrids just so it's partially more accurate seems foolish and pointless. 99% of visitors wouldn't realize the difference and it would only hurt the population of pure Amur leopards.
 
pachyderm pro said:
This is a nice idea, but it wouldn't really make sense in the grand scheme of things. The whole reason zoos include Amur leopards in African areas is to maximize facilities for breeding. Substituting pure breeding animals for generic hybrids just so it's partially more accurate seems foolish and pointless. 99% of visitors wouldn't realize the difference and it would only hurt the population of pure Amur leopards.
Click to expand...
So let’s just leave leopards out of African areas, then.
 
evilmonkey239 said:
So let’s just leave leopards out of African areas, then.
Click to expand...
There wouldn't be enough space to maintain the Amur Leopard population anymore, then:
pachyderm pro said:
This is a nice idea, but it wouldn't really make sense in the grand scheme of things. The whole reason zoos include Amur leopards in African areas is to maximize facilities for breeding. Substituting pure breeding animals for generic hybrids just so it's partially more accurate seems foolish and pointless. 99% of visitors wouldn't realize the difference and it would only hurt the population of pure Amur leopards.
Click to expand...
 
evilmonkey239 said:
This is why I wish zoos would get more creative with geographically-themed areas.
Click to expand...
Or choose themes that don't rely on strict zoogeographic themes. There are tons of possibilities out there for zoos to choose from- not the same few dime-a-dozen ideas with slight variations. For instance, maybe it'd be a good idea for a zoo to build an exhibit complex themed around climate change, featuring various species endangered because of the crisis, along with appropriate graphics, interactive displays, etc. to interpret those Conservation issues.
 
When you think about it, putting a Toco Toucan in a rainforest exhibit is technically more incorrect than putting an Amur Leopard in an African exhibit. In the latter the subspecies is in the wrong ecological context, while in the former it's a species that is in the wrong context.
 
Coelacanth18 said:
When you think about it, putting a Toco Toucan in a rainforest exhibit is technically more incorrect than putting an Amur Leopard in an African exhibit. In the latter the subspecies is in the wrong ecological context, while in the former it's a species that is in the wrong context.
Click to expand...
IK I’m probably making too big a deal about something that only the nerdiest of animal nerds (and felid nerds at that) would care about. I’ll just end by saying that albeit not as commonplace as African areas, plenty of zoos also have Asian areas with tigers, red pandas, primates, hoofstock, and so on. If a zoo has the option, I would prefer if they put their leopards there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top