Any idea on how many being held there?
Australasian Leopard Population
- Thread starter Zoofan15
- Start date
It’s great to hear that two facilities in their natural range hold them. I imagine through wild rescues etc, there’s reasonable potential for new founders to join the international breeding programme. This is vital to maintain genetic diversity and it’s been unfortunate that the international Sumatran tiger breeding programme seldom has the same opportunity.
I am wondering if any possible captive bred cubs could be imported at some stage in the future?
Kestrel
Well-Known Member
I believe Pinnawala Zoo has 4.3, Ridiyagama Safari Park has 3.2 and Dehiwala the national zoo has 1.2 (These animals are a mix of rescues and captive bred individuals). Ragunan Zoo has around 10 leopards (as of 2021) originating from 2.2 which were imported from Sri Lankan in 2002. (Singapore's current male is descended from these 4 imported individuals)
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Thanks for that information. That’s great to hear new genes are still coming into the captive population. I’m not sure how many generations down from wild founders our two Australian pairs are. I’m inclined to believe Europe sent us unrelated pairs, but not their most genetically valuable leopards. It’d make sense logistically considering our geographical isolation. The Singapore male is surely valuable (compared to Europe’s population) and they’ll likely receive a number of breeding recommendations.
Taronga Zoo has worked with Ragunan Zoo in the past and could possibly negotiate with them to receive Sri Lankan leopards in the future. I’ll discuss this further in the Taronga speculation thread.
Thank you
It's a little surprising that none of the NZ zoos have taken an interest in acquiring SL since they are attractive, interesting, and not an overly large species that that's lots of resources. Not to mention that cubs are being bred within the region now with minimum costs with transportation and distance.
Sri Lankan Leopard in New Zealand Zoos
Auckland Zoo:
I’ve often thought the old Sumatran tiger exhibit (2006-2019) at Auckland Zoo would be ideal for either a single Sri Lankan leopard or even a sibling pair. It’s an area of the zoo that’s not part of any precinct, but could be linked to the adjacent Nepalese red panda exhibit to form a South Asian sub precinct.
As you can see from the photo below, the vertical space was wasted on the Sumatran tiger that inhabited it; and nobody can ever see the lemurs that live in it now because of the darkened windows. The Sri Lankan leopard is the happy medium in terms of size.
Hamilton Zoo:
Hamilton Zoo have threatened to build a third Sumatran tiger exhibit in the past, which would be a massive mistake. Auckland Zoo already have a world class complex; so rather than try and compete with it, they should focus on establishing a point of difference. If they built a third big cat exhibit and put a leopard, it’d bring in more visitors than a third tiger exhibit ever would.
Wellington Zoo:
Unfortunately I can’t envisage Wellington Zoo acquiring them anytime soon. I feel like the general public regard snow leopards as the ultimate leopard (even though they’re not a leopard subspecies); and since it’s taken them over a decade to get snow leopards, I can’t see them going the extra mile to secure Sri Lankan leopard.
Orana Wildlife Park:
Never say never, but as New Zealand’s only open range zoo, their focus is predominantly on African species. They’re not government funded either, which limits their expansion plans sadly.
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It just seems a bit of a shame to me why some zoos just limit themselves to just one only of this or that, Lets face it if a zoo held a pair of Snow Leopards and a pair of Sri Leopards its hardly going to break them, they don't take up lots of room, they don't eat lots compared to lions or tigers and there are big points of difference between the two species. another point is the zoo/s can push the endangered captive breeding message even more.
Good point. I’d also argue their behaviour is different enough to warrant the inclusion of both in a collection. Although snow leopards are mysterious, alluring cats; part of the mystery is finding them in the first place. Sri Lankan leopards are naturally more confident and therefore make for a more engaging exhibit.
I would have lived to have visited some of the Australian zoos in the mid-late 20th century and within a single collection, seen multiple subspecies of leopard, multiple subspecies of tiger, jaguar, snow leopard, lions, cheetah and puma. I accept zoos must downsize their collections, but at least focus on retaining the stuff people want to see. The popularity of big cats and bears will never cease.
I know this may of been mentioned before,There has been a trend in a lot of collections to down size, some to the bare minimum, Some of this could be a way of cost cutting, less enclosures, less food bills, utilities power/water and less staff. This could backfire upon a zoo as was mentioned by a long time member on here a year or so ago when he exited Taronga Zoo behind some of the zoo paying public, with them saying "Saying there was not much to see in there", If this is the type of impression it leaves to families on their visit how soon are they wanting to return again if they feel its just not worth the money?. Good thinking zoos should be thinking about wanting to get those people coming back again for more visits.
The general public have undoubtably noticed. Many visitors are taking their grandchildren to these zoos, with memories of what it used to be (a wide range of felids and ursids) and comparing it to now; and even as a younger person, I’ve noticed a decline from when I visited as a child in the 2000’s.
I accept cut backs need to be made, but the focus should be on finding the happy medium between saving money and maintaining popular species. Sri Lankan leopard are ideal. They live alone or in small family groups and like many felids, are popular with the public. They link nicely to red pandas and other South Asian species, which adds diversity when collections are very South East Asian centric these days.
Singapore's male died of old age about a year ago, and unfortunately never sired any cubs. There's just one female left now.
Thanks for the update. That’s a shame his genes were never passed on. Hopefully Singapore plan to continue with this species long term and if so, will get the opportunity to import from either one of the Sri Lankan facilities or the Ragunan Zoo. The European population has no wild born founders as far as I’m aware.
Kestrel
Well-Known Member
Oh that's sad, maybe one of the male cubs in Australia might make the journey to Singapore, or is Singapore planning on phasing them out entirely?
Banduka at Darling Downs Zoo is the best candidate for export at this point in time. The two brothers at the National Zoo are living together as a bonded pair and their younger sister is still with her parents.
Long term, Banduka and Kelani could form a pair (either breeding or non breeding), but between that and transferring out her brothers, two additional holders within the region would be required.
1.0 Banduka (26/03/2022) Ecko x Maysha
I'm not sure. Singapore has held Sri Lankans for the longest time but it alos held Persians for a very short period more than a decade ago.
There’s 39 facilities holding Persian leopards, all within Europe, so it remains a possibility. I also note they were upgraded to endangered in 2016, which may make Singapore Zoo give consideration to them.
If Singapore Zoo do go the route of continuing with Sri Lankan leopards, it’ll be interesting to see if any are sent from our region e.g. Banduka and Kemala. Though these two young leopards could potentially form a pair at another zoo within Australasia, my assumption would be that it would be a non-breeding pair for now (until more holders emerge).
Since all the SL Leopard population within Australia are part of the EEP I wonder if sending any to an asian zoo is allowed if they are not in the EEP?
I’m tempted to say no on the basis of the stringent acceptance criteria within our zoos with regards to receiving them; combined with a lack of history of these transactions occurring (exports to Asia) within a European context. Without knowing the rate at which wild rescues (founders) come in to their zoos, it’s difficult to predict how interested they’d even be in receiving leopards from the EEP programme.