Wildlife Heritage Foundation North Chinese Leopards at Wildlife Heritage Foundation

Pt123 said:
I was actually told the black Ostrich was female by a Chester keeper!

Just checked the 2007 annual report which backs up what I was told.
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Old females acquiring male plumage happens occassionally in some other bird species too, like pheasants and waterfowl. Back to Chinese Leopards......
 
mjmorg89 said:
'The North Chinese leopard is a medium sized leopard. The rosette pattern of the North Chinese leopard almost resembles a jaguar pattern. It has longer fur than other leopard subspecies and has the darkest coat of all leopard subspecies.'

Taken from wikipedia but its a start I guess.
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Surely a mistake? Melanistic leopards for a start have darker coats*. Also those from equatorial rain forests would have darker coats then those found in temporate to boreal forest. Leopards on Zanzibar have very tighted packed small spots and consequently appear quite dark. Javan leopards have a very rich coloured coat, and would be my guess for darkest subspecies. Persians (largest of the species) have thick coats, although not as heavy as the Amurs, but are very pale in colouration. I must say I've often thought that the division of North Chinese and Amurs must be on very suspect grounds.

* I know about the melanistic Amurs in captivity, before anybody picks me up on it.
 
Melanistic Leopards arn't a subspecies and the article said darkest subspecies. But I agree with you about the closeness of north chinese and amurs. There have been a few observations of interbreeding between these two subspecies in the wild and a large proportion of captive amurs carry north chinese genes due to a cross breeding in a zoo many years ago. I'm unsure of the details.
 
I would agree with that too. Indeed some authorities regard Amurs and North-Chinese as synonyms. They do resemble each other very closely in appearance.
 
mjmorg89 said:
Melanistic Leopards arn't a subspecies and the article said darkest subspecies. But I agree with you about the closeness of north chinese and amurs. There have been a few observations of interbreeding between these two subspecies in the wild and a large proportion of captive amurs carry north chinese genes due to a cross breeding in a zoo many years ago. I'm unsure of the details.
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Melanistic leopards may not be a subspecies, but the Malaysia population consists of a very high percentage of black individuals ie. not just an odd variation in colour.
 
Just want to mention that North China Leopard "Tingting" from Zoo Karlsruhe was transfered to Howletts Wild Animal Park. I have to apologise for posting falsely that "Tingting" was taken to the Wildlife Heritage Foundation.
 
North Chinese Leopards

Hey there ZooFanKarlsruhe

if you are still interested in the North Chinese Leopards at WHF you might like to watch the male, Tai'ri, in action in the following video on the WHF YouTube channel. Hopefully there might be some video footage of the female, Atara, on there soon, so keep an eye on the site.

Tai'ri looks a very fit leopard!

YouTube - WildlifeHeritage's Channel

I hope this helps

:D
 
Atara, female North Chinese leopard

OK, here is link to the video of Atara, the gorgeous and very fit female North Chinese Leopard, at WHF. I have never seen a leopard swing on a rope quite like this before! Totally amazing footage.

YouTube - WildlifeHeritage's Channel

Be sure to watch this video, it's fabulous. Check out the other videos on this YouTube site, there are some truly amazing big cats there

:D
 
That video is soooo cooool! I will be in their area in September and am still trying to decide if I want to stay an extra day and do a photo safari at WHF.

I also like in the video that the train passengers can see the WHF grounds. (Way off topic, but I wish America had a good train system like Europe - I am a huge fan of public transportation. We are getting there, though; Los Angeles now has light rail and Phoenix has it and Tucson will have it in a few years).
 
leopardsrock said:
OK, here is link to the video of Atara, the gorgeous and very fit female North Chinese Leopard, at WHF. I have never seen a leopard swing on a rope quite like this before! Totally amazing footage.
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I know some zoos who dont hang anymore ropes in the big cats exhibits, because the cats keep getting stuck with their claws in the rope, sometimes ripping them off what means a big wound at the paw and many medicine problems.
 
Animal said:
I know some zoos who dont hang anymore ropes in the big cats exhibits, because the cats keep getting stuck with their claws in the rope, sometimes ripping them off what means a big wound at the paw and many medicine problems.
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I was thinking exctly the same thing while watching this video- at one point the Leopard does get her claw caught momentarily. It could result in major damage to the toes, or even the whole leg if the cat fell and was then left suspended. It is excellent exercise and enrichment but in the process is also making the Leopard do activities that are unnatural and potentially damaging to it.
 
Agree about the rope thing. There is enrichment to the life of an animal and then there is teasing it, and i believe what is in this video to be the latter. If its set up in a way where the animal jumps up for the meat, tugs it a bit, it drops off and can run away with it to eat its fair enough. But IMO this looks like an accident waiting to happen. They used to do similar enrichment with the Jaguars at marwell, except the meat was suspended by a chain from the roof of the enclosure to which a long batten was attached. Then they would attach a hessian sack with meat in to this. Allowing the animals to jump for it, rip open the bag and run off with the meat. This would be a far more natural way for the centre to feed the leopard as the hessian acts like the hide of an animal and also rips more easily (unlike rope) so that there is no danger of caught/ripping out of claws. But what do i Know!
 
It certainly is not natural behaviour for a Leopard. If there is an accident sooner or later, they will then discontinue it- 'learning by their mistakes'

Howletts lost their first zooborn female Gorilla when she throttled herself in a rope many years ago. These accidents can come out of nowhere.
 
It's been observed that the skeletons of big cats who had access to this sort of jumping exercise in their lifetime were a lot more healthy in terms of development of arthritis, etc. than those that didn't. I guess it's a way of harnessing gravity in terms of a feline work-out.

The unexpected can happen - I've seen a tigress, for instance, get into a awkward spot when she tackled a hanging log from above rather than below her platform, and then wouldn't let it go due to her bite instinct.
 
Ting-ting and Saian the pair at Howletts produced 2:0 19/07/10

Atara and Ta'iri the pair at WHF have now successfully mixed according to facebook!:)
 
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