The Desert Carnivores House

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  Orycteropus

• 1 May 2009

The Desert Carnivores House was officially opened on the 10th July 2002, and it is located next to the African Aridlands exhibit. The house has two outer, glass-panelled Arabian Sand Cat enclosure on each side of it (You can see the other one in the attached photo). Species are exhibited inside: Arabian Sand Cat, Cusimanse, Egyptian Tortoise.

 

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  Orycteropus

• 1 May 2009

An other part of the building ...

 

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  Zambar

• 1 May 2009

This house also held a female Black-Footed Cat shortly after it opened but sadly she died before a male could be sourced. Other past species' include meerkat, yellow mongoose, dwarf mongoose, arabian spiny mouse and spiny-tailed lizard.

 

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  James27

• 1 May 2009

Do the roofs open on these outside exhibits? They look like conservatories

 

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  Zambar

• 1 May 2009

No, they don't. And exactly what I think!

 

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  James27

• 1 May 2009

It seems a bit pointless having an outdoor enclosure that doesn't allow the animals into the outdoors then lol.

 

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  Orycteropus

• 2 May 2009

Yeah, actually the cats do not have any real outdoor enclosures, that is the reason why I used the word outer enclosures.

 

J

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  James27

• 7 Jun 2009

Just lets them outside all the time I guess, I read sand cats can't go outside in the UK as it's too humid and gives them respiratory problems.

 

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  Cat-Man

• 20 Mar 2021

Sadly many of these species are long gone. When I visited last September all the enclosures were given over to Mongooses (not that I can remember the species)

 

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  Cat-Man

• 20 Mar 2021

If anybody knows what happened to the sand cats that would be appreciated.