Thank you, no its still just the one panel down. I was talking to one of the zoo regulars i see often and he said that they will be taking down one panel a week.
As far as I know, these two leopards have never been on display before (off-display at Nashville Zoo and the male before that at the National Zoo), so a soft opening is probably what's best for them, especially with groups of students visiting during the week and crowds on weekends if the weather is nice.. The pair is also still being introduced to one another. No reason to add additional stress by removing all the paneling at once.
Yeah, Keeper told me these Clouded Leopards weren't on exhibit in their respective home. So them being on exhibit here, is new to them. Removing one panel a week sound like a good plan in getting them used to seeing people on a daily basis.
I believe both Nashville and the National zoos keep all or most of their breeding pairs in their breeding facility. The most of the cubs stay off display too at both zoos despite all cubs being hand reared. So its highly unlikely they would have been on display at Nashville where Pavarti was born and amingma was transferred there shortly after his birth to begin his pair bonding with his future mate.
I wonder how the zoo will handle cubs in the future. Will they be almost immediately pulled for hand rearing like most other zoos? Or will they leave them to be mother reared? I would guess both owning zoos will get a say since most cubs will belong to both of them.
