I visited the zoo yesterday (Oct. 8th) and I was tremendously impressed with the brand new clouded leopard exhibit. It is located in the Asian Forest Sanctuary section of the zoo, directly across from the Asian elephant barn, and the width and height available to the leopards is extraordinary. A keeper told me that it is easily the tallest and most spacious clouded leopard exhibit in any North American zoo, and this could well top the excellent habitats at National Zoo and Nashville Zoo in terms of overall quality.
In the large main habitat there was a full-grown male leopard, and it was exciting to see him prowl through the dense undergrowth at the floor of the exhibit (I uploaded several photos of the jungle section of the enclosure). The real treat is when a leopard races upward as visitors have to crane their necks to follow the path of the cat on the high branches.
Just slightly to the right of this photo is the basic den area, which held 4 clouded leopards on my visit. There were two keepers in with the cats, and a pair of cats there are 3 months of age and another pair are about 6 months of age. All 4 of the cats were in together with the keepers, and so combined with the adult male it was a treat to watch 5 different cats at practically the exact same time. The zoo has a grand total of 8 clouded leopards, and there is a smaller habitat to the side of the main exhibit that also appeared to hold another cat and once the youngsters get older I'm sure that the zoo will have its hands full rotating all of the cats through the various areas.
Apart from being metal rather than wood, those outdoor exhibits are structurally incredibly reminiscent of the Aspinall cages. No indoor viewing there though, of course.
Apart from being metal rather than wood, those outdoor exhibits are structurally incredibly reminiscent of the Aspinall cages. No indoor viewing there though, of course.
Except that this exhibit cost just over a million dollars while the Aspinall small cat cages cost 100 bucks each in wooden beams and rusty chicken wire. Seriously, you have a good point in terms of appearances, but this exhibit has a huge pair of glass viewing windows on the main exhibit and the den area also allows for some up-close viewing. If this enclosure was at Port Lympne or Howletts it might well be even more densely packed with climbing structures but set far off the main path so that visitors would struggle to glimpse one of the elusive cats.
@reduakari: there doesn't seem to be any connection whatsoever to the rotational exhibits in the Asian Forest Sanctuary.
Except that this exhibit cost just over a million dollars while the Aspinall small cat cages cost 100 bucks each in wooden beams and rusty chicken wire.
a) who buys rusty chicken wire? No-one!
b) it's not chicken wire!
c) I'm sure they cost a good deal more than $100
d) since when was being cheap inherently bad?
Probably best not get into that again!
My main point is that the cage layout here is more-or-less identical from the animals' perspective, it's only the viewing that is different.
One glaring difference between this and the Aspinall enclosures is just how open the sides are whereas at Howletts they are covered giving a shaded and from what I can gather, better quality of life for such a secretive feline! http://www.zoochat.com/54/clouded-leopard-cage-howletts-26-11-a-118837/
It would be wonderful to see a scaled-up version of this housing regular leopards / pumas / jaguars & with enrichment features coaxing the cats to the upper levels.This would quite literally add a new dimension to such exhibits.
