@FunkyGibbon The enclosures along the canal date from the early 1960s when the Cotton Terraces first opened; these enclosures were originally intended for deer and antelopes.
Various ungulate species were housed there over the years; it was changed into a carnivore exhibit specifically for the hunting dogs.
@FunkyGibbon
I don’t think that the area along the canal, now occupied by the hunting dogs enclosure, was built on prior to the deer and antelope accommodation being constructed there as part of the early 1960s Cotton Terraces development, although it was still within the zoo boundaries. (The nearby Giraffe House, of course, had already been standing for more than a century by this time.)
You will notice the now closed-off steps along the walkway between the upper terrace exhbits and the Hunting Dog exhibit- these led down into the long public passageway past the inside 'underground' stalls when this was an ungulate area, and which is presumably now dens for the H dogs with the rest just a storage area or empty.
The London blackbuck were very successful, though also very inbred- over the years progeny went to a number of other zoos and their genes may still be present in the UK population, though I am not sure where, and currently the only one I know of is the 'last' single male at Whipsnade (but not their new females), which would have come from this ZSL group when they moved.
