The muralist was John Agnew and his mother. If I remember he was forth generation museum muralist. His mother developed major cataracs after the job and I think this was her last mural. John went on to do a lot at the history museum in Cincy.
KCZoo fan - I don't understand your problem with the exhibits - remember they were built in the 70's and received a lot of good responses including Honorable mention for AZA - going againest Jungle World at the Bronx.
I will admit that I have never been to Cincinnati. However, this exhibit seems much too small and I don't think a large cat should be kept indoors, except under the most extreme conditions. Maybe it was great for the 70's, I wouldn't know, but it just seems like a poor exhibit, and an AZA award is not a very good way to justify an exhibit; the Tropical Rainforest at the Topeka Zoo, while innovative, is not a great exhibit. But I'd love to be proved wrong.
Well I have seen it in person and they were way too small - especially the puma and snow leopard cages. This has been mentioned on other threads. I have not seen one single person on ZooChat defend these exhibits - you are the first.
actually the cougar exhibit back then that this one is in was and still is the largest exhibit in the building. Have you seen my photo of the Aardwolf exhibit, well that was it. Also this exhibit held Coatimudis and it has a beautiful outcrop of the Grand Canyon with many simulated mountains.
Arizona Docent- I will be the second. I actually only found a few minor problems with the Cat House.
Too small exhibits: Caracal, Bobcat, Bat-eared fox, Snow leopard
Too rocky and poor floor: Meerkat, Clouded leopard
Needs more climbing structures: Ocelot, Snow leopard
Most beautiful exhibit in the building and still is: Serval (now Aardvark, Giant fruit bat and Greater bushbabies are in it)
But I respect your opinion and I am not willing on changing that
After reviewing all of the posts, I have to say a couple of things, one is, as I said before, the exhibits were too small, that was said during the design phase, and through we shouldn't have built them that small, that was the directive we had from the director. Yes I guess I should have quit, but I needed the job!!! Also I must be getting old - I said it was built in the 70's and that is wrong, we opened in 1989.
After reviewing all of the posts, I have to say a couple of things, one is, as I said before, the exhibits were too small, that was said during the design phase, and through we shouldn't have built them that small, that was the directive we had from the director. Yes I guess I should have quit, but I needed the job!!! Also I must be getting old - I said it was built in the 70's and that is wrong, we opened in 1989.
I only have one printed poster hanging in my place (everything else is big enlargements of my photos). It is a poster I bought at Cincinnati Zoo gift shop a decade ago for the Cat House. The caption says "Dedicated June 29, 1985."
