Melbourne Zoo Small Cat at Melbourne Zoo

i dont see why you need jaguars to create a good south american exhibit? given the range of south american species represented in australia i am quite sure that a gret south american precint could be developed around existing species
 
glyn said:
i dont see why you need jaguars to create a good south american exhibit? given the range of south american species represented in australia i am quite sure that a gret south american precint could be developed around existing species
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Zoos want a 'flagship' species to build any thematic set of exhibits around. They're what bring in the punters. Melbourne has gorillas for the African rainforest (and precious little else at the moment, it must be said) and elephants for the Asian rainforest. A typical zoo visitor isn't going to drag their kid into a section of the zoo so they can see the marmosets and capybaras. Whether jaguars would cut the mustard as a flagship, I don't know - but it's the most likely South American species to do so. Perhaps importing a mix of standard-patterned and melanistic individuals would help.

Mind you - I think a program is plausible. Australia Zoo, Mogo and National Zoo and Aquarium would all jump at the chance to exhibit jaguars, I'm sure. You just need one or two of the public sector zoos to come in and you've got the space required for a program.
 
Darling Downs Zoo wouldn't say no either!

But it's not going to happen while the current zoo-political thinking prevails.

However, priorities have been known to change so don't ever give up hope.
 
I've been viewing ISIS and apparently Melbourne Zoo have recently obtained a second serval. Can anyone confirm or is this an error?:confused:
 
Chlidonias said:
is it just because he's old that he's the odd colour? All the caracals I've seen were a reddish colour (including ones in Australia in the past)
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Caracals are fairly common in U.S., I've seen over a dozen, but never seen or heard of a reddish color. All are tan, and I've seen both turkmenistan (asia) and south african as well as generic. This one in the photo appears a bit darker than the ones I've seen, but not at all off color. (By the way, perhaps the best caracal shot I've seen - getting the eyes that clear is not easy).
 
I remember when he was at adelaide (which wasn't very long ago) you could get excellent footage of him climbing, jumping and running. I think I have all together about 1 hours worth.

I think one reason why he left adelaide is because he was rotating in that exhibit with a serval (which I have only seen from behind the scenes) and recently adelaide acquired another serval to form a breeding pair. Maybe they sent him to melbourne for more space for the servals.
 
Arizona Docent said:
Caracals are fairly common in U.S., I've seen over a dozen, but never seen or heard of a reddish color. All are tan, and I've seen both turkmenistan (asia) and south african as well as generic. This one in the photo appears a bit darker than the ones I've seen, but not at all off color. (By the way, perhaps the best caracal shot I've seen - getting the eyes that clear is not easy).
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I guess it depends on the interpretation of what the word 'reddish' or 'tan' means to different people. I just now put 'caracal' into Google images and the pictures that came up were all what I expect caracals to look like (what I personally would call reddish), but very different to the colour of this one at Melbourne Zoo
 
Most caracals I have seen are the reddish tan that everybody is referring to, but I understand the Turkmenistan variety (of which I understand the ex-Adelaide animal is) tends to be more washed out and silvery. It could also be due to age.
 
Sadly the caracal at Melbourne Zoo died of old age. He was a great cat and I will always remember him. He was my favourite animal at Melbourne Zoo
 
tetrapod said:
Very different to caracals I have seen in the past (so few zoos seem to keep them these days). I believe he is one of the Asian/Middle East subspecies.
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Agreed, tetrapod. A very distinctive animal indeed. C. c. schmitzi is CITES Appendix I, so maybe somebody should be looking at building up a captive population.
 
I remember seeing it when it was at Adelaide, a very interesting animal that is for sure, and a very special animal for a collection.
 
From what I remember it was a very active animal, and was always out doing something, much more energetic than the servals that replaced it, I think I have only seen them once since they arrived many years ago.
 
IanRRobinson said:
Agreed, tetrapod. A very distinctive animal indeed. C. c. schmitzi is CITES Appendix I, so maybe somebody should be looking at building up a captive population.
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The captive population is growing, and spreading at a good pace - we now have a specimen in the UK. ;)
 
devilfish said:
The captive population is growing, and spreading at a good pace - we now have a specimen in the UK. ;)
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Given the fact the subspecies is endangered and persecuted in the region and a fair number now are in Middle Eastern collections and the obvious link EAZA - Middle East, it might not be too out of the ordinary to expect EAZA making moves into setting up a captive ex situ population for known origin caracal (I know several southern African and Central Asian caracal exist in European collections and most others all have unclear histories).

It would be a particularly valuable addition to say arid land carnivore exhibits with sand cat, bat-eared fox, striped hyaena ..).
 
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