Detroit Zoo Why So Few Cats at Detroit?

evilmonkey239

evilmonkey239

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
In the great (Lakes) state of Michigan, there are five AZA facilities that are conventional zoos rather than aquariums. Listed in order of collection size, from smallest to largest, they are…
  • Binder Park Zoo (~140 species
  • Saginaw Children’s Zoo (~150 species)
  • Potter Park Zoo (~160 species)
  • John Ball Zoo (238 species)
  • Detroit Zoo (245 species)
Of these facilities, Saginaw Children’s Zoo does not seem to have any felid species from looking at Wikipedia and their website. This isn’t very surprising considering the park’s small campus size. However, Binder Park Zoo, which is slightly smaller in species count (although much larger in acreage) has four wild cat species. Potter Park, despite having a relatively small campus, has five species of felid with the recent addition of Canada lynx. John Ball, whose utilized area is smaller still, has six species of wild cat!

However, Detroit, which has a much larger utilized area than all of these except Binder Park (and even that’s mostly because of Wild Africa, and mostly because of a single enclosure), has a mere two species of felid. They are, you guessed it, the big two, the wild cat species with major sports teams from the city named after them: the lion and the tiger.

This is something I have always found a bit strange, considering how, as highlighted above, even many smaller zoos have more cat species than this. I know that they had snow leopards until the early 1990s (apparently in an outdated barred cage), and according to this website, cougars sometime prior to then. However, I do not know of any other big or small cats they have had over the years.

It seems to have been just lions and tigers at Detroit for 30+ years now. The main reason for this is probably because there aren’t really any preexisting enclosures in the zoo that would be suitable for a third cat species, thus if they did decide to add one, the enclosure would have to be built from scratch. Something which Detroit hasn’t seemed to seriously explore the idea of. Nonetheless, I have heard whispers online for many years about the possibility a new felid species arriving at Detroit Zoo. In a post on this site from 2012, they were, according to a keeper at the zoo, planning on eventually adding snow leopards, African leopards, and an unspecified fifth big cat. Since then, I have seen on Zoochat that according to an unreleased master plan, they are still planning on bringing in snow leopards at some point, and apparently at one point jaguars as well but those plans were dropped. However, all of this is from second-hand sources; I have not seen any official plans or documents from the zoo stating they want to add new cat species.

So I posted this thread because I was wondering: does anyone know more about the history of different cat species held at Detroit Zoo? Or possible plans to add more in the future?

BTW if this post seems like an irrelevant ramble, don’t waste your time here. I’m just genuinely curious to learn more about the past and possible future of cat species held at the Detroit Zoo.
 
You've brought up an excellent point in that the Detroit Zoo has been exhibiting Lions and Tigers for decades and not any other felines. It's quite remarkable, especially considering the fact that Detroit is a top zoo and one that I would personally rank in the top 15 in the USA. There's just never been a major focus on cats.

By looking through my pair of Detroit Zoo history books (The First Fifty Years - 1974; Wonders Among Us: 75 years - 2003) I did find a couple of minor facts. The very first Snow Leopard to be part of the zoo's collection was in 1969, which was a male (Illyat) and then a female (Sonya) joined in 1970. This was during an era when the zoo still had Chimpanzee circus-style performances and a couple of Tuataras in the Reptile House. A new Cheetah exhibit opened in 1973, as part of a divided African Veldt. But there is hardly a word on any cats other than Lions and Tigers in both books.

On a side note, does the Saginaw Children's Zoo not have Black-footed Cats these days? I was there in 2018 and here are my photos:

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snowleopard said:
You've brought up an excellent point in that the Detroit Zoo has been exhibiting Lions and Tigers for decades and not any other felines. It's quite remarkable, especially considering the fact that Detroit is a top zoo and one that I would personally rank in the top 15 in the USA. There's just never been a major focus on cats.

By looking through my pair of Detroit Zoo history books (The First Fifty Years - 1974; Wonders Among Us: 75 years - 2003) I did find a couple of minor facts. The very first Snow Leopard to be part of the zoo's collection was in 1969, which was a male (Illyat) and then a female (Sonya) joined in 1970. This was during an era when the zoo still had Chimpanzee circus-style performances and a couple of Tuataras in the Reptile House. A new Cheetah exhibit opened in 1973, as part of a divided African Veldt. But there is hardly a word on any cats other than Lions and Tigers in both books.

On a side note, does the Saginaw Children's Zoo not have Black-footed Cats these days? I was there in 2018 and here are my photos:

full


full
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I didn’t know Detroit had cheetahs previously, that’s interesting. Also, I will be visiting Saginaw for the first time this year, so I will be able to verify whether or not they still have black-footed cats.
 
evilmonkey239 said:
I didn’t know Detroit had cheetahs previously, that’s interesting. Also, I will be visiting Saginaw for the first time this year, so I will be able to verify whether or not they still have black-footed cats.
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Well, I did visit Saginaw last week and did not see any black-footed cats. They’re nowhere to be found on the zoo’s map, nor is there any mention of them on their website. Where in the zoo were they when you visited?
 
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