Hamilton Zoo New Zealand's first fishing cats arrive!

Nisha

Nisha

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Hamilton Zoo's website is reporting the arrival of 1:1 fishing cats. Just wondred if anyone knew where they have come from?
 
Hmmm... I wonder if they are brand new exhibits or altered existing ones..? I sense a trip over the bombays, I haven't been down for a while...
 
NZ Jeremy said:
Hmmm... I wonder if they are brand new exhibits or altered existing ones..? I sense a trip over the bombays, I haven't been down for a while...
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A brand new set of exhibits has been built for them. This is taken from their website...

NZ'S FIRST FISHING CATS ARE HERE

Besar and Imphal are the first fishing cats to be imported into New Zealand, and we're happy to have them here at Hamilton Zoo. We have created a set of purpose-built exhibits for the pair, which include streams where we expect they will spend a lot of their time. It is hoped that they will go on and play a part in the regional breeding programme. Fishing Cats are eager and skilled swimmers and are quite stocky and strong compared to most small cats.
 
Cool thanks, well a trip is imminent... Would rather wait till they re-open the Auckland - Hamilton rail service but then I could be waiting a while...
 
Besar was born at Singapore in 2002 and Imphal was born at Melbourne in1998
 
it's a shame this pair of cats hasn't bred here. From the dates jay gives above they are now 10 and 14 years old respectively, so they can both be considered old. I do wonder why they didn't import younger individuals to start with. Artificial insemination was attempted last year but it was unsuccessful. I couldn't find any articles on it at the time but I just came across this one (before the AI was actually attempted).

GlenBred works with Hamilton Zoo and their Thai Fishing Cats - Matamata Veterinary Services
27 November 2011

Fiona, Dr Dave Hanlon and the MVS GlenBred team (Kristie, Victoria and Lynne) have had the privilege and very exciting opportunity to work with the Thai Fishing Cats, ‘Besar’ (male) and ‘Imphal’ (queen), and the wonderful people at Hamilton Zoo as part of their breeding and genetic preservation program for the endangered Thai Fishing Cats.

The GlenBred team have successfully collected semen from the male fishing cat (‘Besar’) and frozen his semen forHamilton Zoo potential future use in breeding programs for Thai Fishing Cats in NZ and in zoo’s all over the world. The indefinite preservation of this genetic material in liquid nitrogen is very important to endangered species such as the Thai Fishing Cat. We hope to also carry out an insemination of the Fishing Cat queen (‘Imphal’) with Besar’s semen in the near future. We are very honoured and excited at GlenBred to be involved in such an important breeding program and hope we can help produce some Thai Fishing Cat kittens!
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