Australasian Leopard Population

Zoofan15 said:
If Melbourne Zoo did acquire Sri Lankan leopard, it wouldn’t surprise me to see them fulfill the role Adelaide Zoo was meant to play in holding a breeding pair. Most of the holders are non-breeding; with the Canberra’s female now retired from breeding and their facility at capacity. Melbourne Zoo easily has the space to build two on display exhibits for a male and female (with decent sized BOH facilities to support breeding).

Adelaide intended to acquire a breeding pair comprised of Australian bred leopards; but an alternative could be pairing Canberra’s breeding male with the young female at Darling Downs Zoo (or swapping him for his son at Mogo, who would then breed). Ankesh has no breeding application at Canberra and due to being closed in age to his daughter than her ageing mother, will ultimately be a roadblock to acquiring a mate for her once Yakalla passes.
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I am surprised that Adelaide didn't import a pair instead of waiting until others to do all the work and then bailing out altogether. It would be nice if there were a hand full of breeding pairs in the region to support the species in the long term future, also if there were a couple of pairs in NZ zoos.
 
Zorro said:
I am surprised that Adelaide didn't import a pair instead of waiting until others to do all the work and then bailing out altogether. It would be nice if there were a hand full of breeding pairs in the region to support the species in the long term future, also if there were a couple of pairs in NZ zoos.
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I too was surprised when I heard that as they were the first zoo in Australia to announce plans to acquire the species, with the National Zoo and Darling Downs Zoo subsequently taking the initiative to import pairs.

Adelaide’s plans reminded of the genesis of the region’s Sumatran tiger population, where a first generation pairing made from cubs from Taronga and Melbourne’s pairs. However, I agree that having a founder base of three breeding pairs would have offered greater long term stability to the regional population.

Hamilton, Wellington Orana have no plans to acquire Sri Lankan leopard; but I’m not entirely ruling out Auckland given they’ll be undertaking significant redevelopments over the coming years.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
Huh, how peculiar these choices...!

What is the rationale behind all this here?
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Noise is presumably behind the gibbons, lions and male tigers (male tigers roar to attract females).

Leopard vocalise like a saw, which is less offensive; but in a historical context, they’ve proven notorious escape artists across the region.

No idea about African wild dog… They’re vocal enough, but not to the degree where I could see it becoming a nuisance over long range.
 
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