Adelaide Zoo Unfortunate News on Persian Leopard

Electus Parrot

Electus Parrot

Well-Known Member
I went to Adelaide Zoo on Thursday and found that there was no animal nor sign at the Persian Leopard exhibit.

That night I went home onto the Adelaide Zoo site and found this unfortunate blog:

Zoos SA. Adelaide and Monarto Zoos. Australian Panda home.

Unfortunatly Ambar (also known as Cubba) had to be euthanised on Sunday (10th April) due to cancer related illness.

Very unfortunate news on such a great animal. Information on his background and illness is on the link.

R.I.P Cubba.
 
That's a shame, I only saw him a few weeks ago.

:(

Hix
 
That is sad news.

There can't be many left in Australia now. I know Melbourne still has one that bit off a kids finger a few years ago.
 
PAT said:
That is sad news.

There can't be many left in Australia now. I know Melbourne still has one that bit off a kids finger a few years ago.
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There's only the one Persian left.

There's also a melanistic African leopard at Gorge. Cairns, NZA and Gorge are all interested in maintaining African leopards. Maybe there's hope for the species to be maintained in Australian collections long-term, but it's by no means a sure thing.
 
I guess they'll give the lions access to Cubba's enclosure now.
 
Re: African Leopards

CGSwans said:
There's only the one Persian left.

There's also a melanistic African leopard at Gorge. Cairns, NZA and Gorge are all interested in maintaining African leopards. Maybe there's hope for the species to be maintained in Australian collections long-term, but it's by no means a sure thing.
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In South Africa in January I met an expat Aussie mining executive whose employees had brought in to him 4 African Leopard cubs whose mother had been accidentally killed.

He was unable to place these cubs with carers or with any South African zoo.

With the sanction of the SA government he endeavoured to place them in Australia. Firstly at Perth [his home town] Zoo where he claims that a staffer told him very brusquely to leave them alone - they were not going to come to this country.

He then rang Taronga where it took several people a lot longer to tell him more or less the same thing!

He eventually placed them in a European zoo.

Although I haven't spoken to anyone from Perth or Taronga about this case it would appear strange that the importation of wild caught specimens of a priority species that had export clearance from both CITES and the country of origin could not have been facilitated.

I doubt if Aussie zoos will get too many chances like this.
 
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but African leopards ate listed as CITES I, and therefore, wild-caught specimens are subject to CITES import restrictons. Also, DEWHA only allows import from approved zoological institutions, and zoos here would almost certainly not be allowed to import from a private holder, especially of wild-caught CITES I specimens.
 
Asian Elephants are CITIES I and the last import didn't come from an approved Zoological intitution.
 
They were exported by the Zoological Park Organization of Thailand, and they were all captive bred, unlike the leopards Steve is talking about. Wild-caught CITES I animals cannot be imported.
 
ZooPro said:
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but African leopards ate listed as CITES I, and therefore, wild-caught specimens are subject to CITES import restrictons. Also, DEWHA only allows import from approved zoological institutions, and zoos here would almost certainly not be allowed to import from a private holder, especially of wild-caught CITES I specimens.
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Thanks ZooPro.

They are certainly CITES 1 which made securing a safe and potentially productive future for them all the more imperative.

The CITES office in Johannesburg was prepared to facilitate the necessary paperwork for their export as was the SA government. Maybe they could have been exported under the PAAZAB banner in much the same way as the elephants were exported from Thailand under their zoo association banner.

They eventually went to a European zoo so all is not lost for them. They, as specimens of a priority species, are lost to Australia.

Perhaps DEWHA needs to lighten up a bit in the interests of animals like these. Robert Hill's EPBC Act is much tougher than CITES requirements so we can't blame CITES for a situation such as this.
 
Steve Robinson said:
They eventually went to a European zoo so all is not lost for them. They, as specimens of a priority species, are lost to Australia.
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Are leopards a priority species for Australia? I thought (like it seems with most exotic species, these days) that they were on the deleted list. Or are you just referring to the interest in the previously mentioned collections?

Surely if there is a push to have leopards in the country again then ARAZPA would tag on to an established program from Europe or US, such as Amurs, Persians or Sri Lankans.

I know, I know we've been down this road before as that was why there were Persians in the country in the first place! And they were breeding too.
 
Steve Robinson said:
African Leopards are now back in favour!
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Great to hear. Do you think Africans were picked because Australian zoos have built up a relationship with South Africa re: lions, cheetahs, hunting dogs and rhino, and so are 'easier' to bring in? Also they fit in better with African savannah displays?
 
I don't know. These decisions are made by people higher up the tree than me. As a matter of fact, I'm not even in the tree!

Certainly many African species are more suited to much of Australia's climate. Also, some zoos in this country do have a good relationship with suppliers in South Africa particularly.

African Leopards could definitely do with some conservation breeding support. Mind you, so could Snow Leopards so it would seem that Australia has the balance pretty right as Snow Leopards are a regional priority species too.
 
I was talking to a lady the other day who was very annoyed that there were so few leopards in the country, and of the remainder the majority aren't even in public display facilities.
 
Jarkari said:
I was talking to a lady the other day who was very annoyed that there were so few leopards in the country, and of the remainder the majority aren't even in public display facilities.
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Where are there leopards other than Melbourne and Gorge?
 
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