Leopards & Jaguars
- Thread starter MARK
- Start date
I haven't heard anything to say that snow leopards are being phased out. I thought that they were staying, especially as a Melbourne keeper told me that Mel was going to be importing one or two.
Other types of leopards - yes are being phased out.
Jaguars - not if the keepers can help it.
Other types of leopards - yes are being phased out.
Jaguars - not if the keepers can help it.
From the 2005 Carnivore TAG Action Plan:
"One of the aims of animal collection planning is to build larger, more robust populations. As a rough guide, for many of the carnivores held in Australasian zoos, populations of less than 20 (adult) animals are a short-term prospect only, relying on regular replenishment from stocks outside Australasia. Populations of 20-50 may be expected to persist over the short-medium term (> 20 years) though for longer term persistence they too would rely on being closely linked to overseas programs."
The region currently holds or plans to hold the following large cat species: lion, cheetah, puma, jaguar, Sumatran tiger, hybrid tiger, white tigers (show animals), African leopard, Persian leopard, snow leopard and clouded leopard. Excluding the hybrid tigers, and the white tigers, that would still mean that the region needs to have a minimum of 180 large felid spaces in order to manage this number of species for just the short-medium term, and our zoos have indicated that they do not wish to provide this amount of space to large cats.
Although discussions are ongoing, the current recommendation from the zoos themselves, is to concentrate therefore on lion, cheetah, Sumatran tiger and snow leopard and manage these effectively, with sustainable population sizes, and eventually phase out the other species (and not acquire additional large felid species). Collection plans are always changing, and are never finalised, and as such are reviewed by the zoos, on a yearly basis.
I'll try to find some more current plans for large cats in the next few days, if they exist.
"One of the aims of animal collection planning is to build larger, more robust populations. As a rough guide, for many of the carnivores held in Australasian zoos, populations of less than 20 (adult) animals are a short-term prospect only, relying on regular replenishment from stocks outside Australasia. Populations of 20-50 may be expected to persist over the short-medium term (> 20 years) though for longer term persistence they too would rely on being closely linked to overseas programs."
The region currently holds or plans to hold the following large cat species: lion, cheetah, puma, jaguar, Sumatran tiger, hybrid tiger, white tigers (show animals), African leopard, Persian leopard, snow leopard and clouded leopard. Excluding the hybrid tigers, and the white tigers, that would still mean that the region needs to have a minimum of 180 large felid spaces in order to manage this number of species for just the short-medium term, and our zoos have indicated that they do not wish to provide this amount of space to large cats.
Although discussions are ongoing, the current recommendation from the zoos themselves, is to concentrate therefore on lion, cheetah, Sumatran tiger and snow leopard and manage these effectively, with sustainable population sizes, and eventually phase out the other species (and not acquire additional large felid species). Collection plans are always changing, and are never finalised, and as such are reviewed by the zoos, on a yearly basis.
I'll try to find some more current plans for large cats in the next few days, if they exist.
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I guess because there are thousands of species in the region's zoos (granted there are many fish, inverts and other small critters), all fighting for extra space. Some of them will win, and some will loose. Maybe you need to try to convince one of the zoos to become a big cat specialist and hold loads of cat species. But if they don't hold enough individuals, they'll soon be inbred and die out, or need to continually be replaced with expensive overseas imports.
Just one of the problems of being a very small region in terms of decent zoos, I guess
and everyone wants their favourite animals to be held in greater numbers. Sadly, we just can't have it all.
Just one of the problems of being a very small region in terms of decent zoos, I guess
and everyone wants their favourite animals to be held in greater numbers. Sadly, we just can't have it all.Unfortunately Mark, that's the way it is
With the limited resources (financial and people) that we have here, we'll never be able to compete with the big US zoos.We can however, specialise in all of the wonderful native species that we have, many of which are endangered and in need of serious conservation work.
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I think their website is out of date. For the past two years, they have reported having only one animal, a female.
There's also a 14 year-old male at Adelaide, and a desexed 15 year-old female at Melbourne.
i was informed from someone from melbourne some time ago that the persian leopards in australia are of liniages that are well represented overseas. when our zoos decided to phase the species out some years ago (a bit of a backflip since i was told the program was developed only in the eighties) they offered the stock back to the european program but they were not required.
MARK
Well-Known Member
Yes what you say is right Pat, again our zoos do a backflip with an endandered species, as we have spoke before about the rare Javan Langers, letting them dwindle down to only one pair left in the Nation, we shold be displying and breeding these animals not getting rid of them.
for me, when considering a collection, i think about how important a role the species plays in its particular ecosystem, how different it is from other species displayed in our zoos, its status in the wild and other zoos, how represented their ecosytem is expected to be and how logical it is to aquire them.
for this reason i look at jaguars and leopards and think this..
1) without either species the golden rosette spotted cat (cheetah and snow leopards are quite differnt looking) or "black panther" would not be represented in our zoos, which is a shame, since they represent an very distinctive example of big cat diversity.
2) since the two species are so similar in appearance and of roughly equal conservation value and that space is at such a premium in our zoos it would be somewhat unnecessary to hold both species.
3) both species live in multiple habitat types over large ranges and would be suitable for a immersion exhibits at both open range and city zoos.
5) both are reasonably common and aquirable in captivity.
6) however, whilst the jaguars native environment has no other program big cat species represented in our zoos (pumas are phase outs), the leopard shares space in africa with two program species (lions and cheetah) and asia with another two (tigers and snow leopards)..
7) thus if we want a big cat displayed in each of our immersion exhibits then the only one that is missing one is south america!
jaguars it is for me!!
for this reason i look at jaguars and leopards and think this..
1) without either species the golden rosette spotted cat (cheetah and snow leopards are quite differnt looking) or "black panther" would not be represented in our zoos, which is a shame, since they represent an very distinctive example of big cat diversity.
2) since the two species are so similar in appearance and of roughly equal conservation value and that space is at such a premium in our zoos it would be somewhat unnecessary to hold both species.
3) both species live in multiple habitat types over large ranges and would be suitable for a immersion exhibits at both open range and city zoos.
5) both are reasonably common and aquirable in captivity.
6) however, whilst the jaguars native environment has no other program big cat species represented in our zoos (pumas are phase outs), the leopard shares space in africa with two program species (lions and cheetah) and asia with another two (tigers and snow leopards)..
7) thus if we want a big cat displayed in each of our immersion exhibits then the only one that is missing one is south america!
jaguars it is for me!!