Scan of a slide taken in March 2000. At the time this species was grouped with the oncilla (Leopardus tigrinus), which is seen in several zoos in Europe. A recent taxonomic split has declared this southern form (L. guttulus) a separate species from the northern form (L. tigrinus). At the time this was the only specimen of either form on exhibit in the United States, and of course now there are none. At the same time there were a couple specimens at a private breeder in San Diego County called SOS Care, but those are now gone as well. SOS was off limits to all visitors (believe me I tried), but for a few years Santa Ana Zoo gave Americans the chance to glimpse a beautiful creature.
@Arizona Docent If I'm remembering the details correctly, Parc de Felins and Dortmund imported animals from Brazil to be new blood for the tigrinus population, and then they turned out to be guttulus when the two were split. @TeaLovingDave might be able to explain better than I.
Yep, Thylo pretty much covered it accurately - although the Dortmund and Parc des Felins imports of L. guttulus were coincidental and took place at different times from one another.
Dortmund held tigrinus from 1994 until 2014, and has held guttulus from 2012 until the present, and has bred both species several times. However, they presumably obtained tigrinus again at some point recently as I saw one there in April - just the single surplus individual though, I think.
Parc des Felins has held guttulus from 2008 until the present, and first bred the species a month ago.
