i think that is a silly example for all sorts of reasons....
firstly, as rare as king cheetahs are in the wild in captivity, they do seem to crop up a little bit more commonly than white lions, who now require human intervention to ensure persistence. i think king cheetahs are kind of like black leopards and jaguars, and there is no reason why Canberra's king cheetah couldnt be intergrated into the mainstream breeding program for this species.
if there was a breeding program for jaguars or leopards in this country i would have no problem integrating black animals into the program. i am not aware anyway that there is even a plan to do this. but either way it must be easier to pay for a single King cheetahs upkeep when people are paying through the nose to meet him than it would be to pay for a whole pride of rapidly multiplying lions.
offloading surplus white lions onto the wider zoo community is something which cannot be done with the white lions, as the major zoos have policies to display only 'type' representatives. by definiton, white lions and tigers are not 'type'.
if mogo is to have an ongoing commitment to the white lions it will require topping up stock with imported animals, or sourcing normal animals from other australian zoos. any offspring which resulted from this second option would carry the white lion gene and then could not be exchanged back within the broader zoo community because they would break policy.
if another private zoo came on board with this species then perhaps the white lion could be managed a bit more effectively. but at what cost to other species? would you be happy if canberra zoo, one of only four instituions with snow leopards in this region, decided to downscale that program in order to maintain white lions.
ive touched on the financial reasons against white lions before. through the birth of its white lions mogo has recieved widespread media coverage and secured funding from Peurgot. however, any lion birth in any zoo receives media attention. and lions are often amongst the most 'sponsored animal' in any zoo, big or small. there is no reason why a smart marketing campaign on Mogos behalf could not be just as succesful for type lions. or sumatran tigers, or any other species. certainly, their 'first in a decade' litter of snow leopards secured enduring levels of international PR.
the final point is that as a small private zoo Mogo will always be needing to be a cost effective business. maintaining a diverse collection of animals which are relatively easy to source from within the region rather than expensive to import white lions makes more sense.
besides colour what is the big difference between type and white lions? with the average zoo visitor finding it difficult to distinguish between gorillas or chimps, or red pandas and monkeys, or tree kangaroos, what difference does it really make if you have two different coloured lions?
from bits and pieces mentioned on this site Mogo is not in the very best shape at the moment. better if it concentrated on widely available species and if it could get onto a more cash flow positive footing put that money into something like the much awaited chimpanzee exhibit, or white rhinos, or the acquisition of silvery gibbons (when youre trying to secure a hard to get species wouldnt it be best from a professional point of view if you followed policy?)......
when even big zoos like WPZ find it hard to establish a new species, against inevitable setbacks you think the sensible thing to do would be to follow guidelines.
