Because it'll be a cat. And that aside, the old maned wolf enclosure (where the butterfly house is now) was a tad larger, so I doubt Chester would regress, albeit suitable for carnivores. Nor would the species fit the zone - notwithstanding the giant anteaters are already in the wrong place.
Actually, one of, if not the earliest cheetah enclosure was located pretty much where KT and her daughter are now, albeit a tad more northerly. It butted up to a tea room, located roughly where the waterbus terminus was (it pre-dates the canal network in that part of the zoo). I've some really old B&W photos of the enclosure, but they're not mine so can't post publicly.
The enclosure where KT and daughter are living was previously home to serval, bush dogs and red-bellied pademelons. It was larger in those days.
The current enclosure used to be smaller and has held bush dog, serval, dingo and was originally built for cheetah. In 1974 until around 1976 both the current cheetah enclosure and the current bush dog enclosure held cheetahs.
between the aviary and the original bush dog/cheetah exhibit was a small pen holding Arctic fox (as mentioned by Gentle Lemur).
The Nissan Hut aviary has held Lar gibbon, silvery gibbon, hyacinth macaw, blue and yellow macaw, kea, red-billed blue magpie, great hornbill, Siberian lynx and Cabot's tragopan. Probably a few I've forgotten also.
I'm not sure the 'zone' will really matter in this instance, as I doubt this exhibit (much like the anteaters) is intended as a long-term fixture. Chester has tended to use a fair number of 'stop-gap' enclosures in recent times (e.g. anteaters in former kangaroo paddock, sun bears in old tiger enclosure, tapir in the cattle house) and I suspect whichever species occupies this exhibit will move elsewhere within the zoo within 5-10 years.
It's potentially an exciting time as far as carnivores at Chester are concerned. This development is taking shape (although it looks to me as though there is still a little clearing up to do before anything goes on display); there was work going on in the empty side of SotJ this morning and the current Sun Bear enclosure will once again be vacant next year.
Of course, after all this speculation we could just as easily end up with the two female cheetah moving back across.
Maybe, to try and avoid yet more, we could post an old map and dates. Those not intimately familiar with the history of the zoo have got to be finding all of this really hard to follow.
No-one was working there when I checked things out today, but it was clear that work is not complete yet. I think it will look very nice when its finished, whatever we find inside
