In terms of pure fact, I know for sure that the recently deceased "Bruno" was a pure ssp of Golden Cat, but not the same one - C. t. tristis - as the female "Swai-fai" or her sibling "Ipoh" also at Edinburgh. Unfortunately the keeper I spoke to didn't know which one he was.
However, I have very strong suspicions that he was a Chinese Golden Cat - C. t. dominicanorum - like the individual at Thrigby Hall. This is my belief for two reasons:
Firstly, when I consider photographs of all three Asiatic Golden Cat subspecies, the Chinese ssp looks a lot more robust when compared to either the Indochinese or Tibetan ssp. This is a feature which Bruno very much shared with the Thrigby cat, and which made him very distinctive in comparison with the two other cats at Edinburgh.
Secondly, I have attempted to trace the line of origin of both Bruno and the Thrigby cat. According to the official Edinburgh website, which has not been updated for some time in this regard,
Bruno was born in April 1997 and came to us from Holland’s Wassenaar Wildlife Breeding Centre in April 2006.
When I look at the ZTL listing for the Thrigby cat, it says that this individual arrived from Rotterdam in 2006. When looking at the prior holding listing on ZTL for this individual at Rotterdam, it states he came to them from Wassenaar Wildlife Breeding Centre in 2003.
Circumstantial, and as Wassenaar was a private breeding centre which is now closed, probably impossible to prove for sure - but with the morphological observations, it's as close as we can get.
Thanks for that TeaLovingDave, I suspected C. t. dominicanorum as I was told it was a Chinese Golden Cat, but I've also seem the nominate referred to as Chinese golden Cat.
as Wassenaar was a private breeding centre which is now closed, probably impossible to prove for sure - but with the morphological observations, it's as close as we can get.
Interesting - the most up-to-date information I have heard was the 2006 announcement in the EAZA summer newsletter which read:
The Wassenaar Wildlife Breeding Centre (WWBC) announced its official closure and ending of most of its activities as of April 2006; the reason being the advanced ages of the owners of the WWBC, Jan and Hanneke Louwman. This couple has worked in the zoo world for most of their lives, spending the last 23 years full-time at the WWBC, also having been the last directors of the Wassenaar Zoo until its closure in 1985. The WWBC successfully bred many cheetahs; during at least the last twenty years one to four litters of cheetah cubs were born per year. All cheetahs and the four remaining Temminck’s golden cats will be or have been transferred to institutions participating in the respective EEPs. The bearded vulture and black vulture pairs will stay at the breeding centre, at least until the end of the breeding season. Some animals of well-advanced age will also stay at the WWBC, e.g. a pair of white-whiskered spider monkeys (of 45 years old!) and seven Aldabra tortoises. Jan and Hanneke Louwman will remain active ambassadors for cheetah conservation and are still eager to share their valuable knowledge gained over the years. The WWBC will also remain an Associate Member of EAZA.
So it sounds like it may just be Aldabra tortoises onsite at this point, as 6 years on the continued survival of the white-whiskered spider monkeys is less likely.
