Yes I am fully aware they are part of the EEP but so are the Sri Lankan Leopards of which have shared young bred in this country to other regional zoos. Perhaps there is more interest in this species than you maybe aware of as you well know zoos don't always put out there what they are planning to do!
Wild Cat Conservation Centre News
- Thread starter Riley
- Start date
I'm sure that if there was zoos interested regionally, there would have been consideration placed there.
Perhaps the Clouded Leopard pair at WCC are valuable to the overall program, hence the desire to pair Mirri up quite quickly. To be fair, the intention is still to breed from their pair again, so I would still hope for a chance that the next cub/s could make their way to another facility regionally.
Mirri is a single handraised cub with minimal socialisation with her species. The alternative to taking proactive action to pair her up with a male while she’s still sexually immature is for her to live her life in isolation as introducing a socially deficient female Clouded leopard to a male would likely be fatal.
If the next litter is twins, it may be deemed appropriate to designate them non-breeding and relocate them to a facility within the region who will house them as a display pair. Ultimately it’ll depend on how genetically valuable this line is.
This was reported on the previous page. The cubs were born June 1 and have been sexed as 2.1.
However, a more recent post from yesterday confirms the mother is Emmy @steveroberts.
The Cheetah Cubs have been named
From instagram:
Exciting news - our cubs have names! Meet Enzi, Eshe and Davu! They are growing so well, wrestling all day long and their favourite toys at the moment are mums ears
My guess is that Eshe is the female, given that’s a name generally given to girls
From instagram:
Exciting news - our cubs have names! Meet Enzi, Eshe and Davu! They are growing so well, wrestling all day long and their favourite toys at the moment are mums ears
My guess is that Eshe is the female, given that’s a name generally given to girls
I agree. Davu is a male name meaning ‘the beginning’; Enzi is a male name meaning ‘powerful’; and Eshe is a female name meaning ‘life’.
An update on Edie from Instagram:
We just returned from spending a few days with Edie at @mziki_safari_lodge, and it makes us so proud to see her living as a wild cheetah back in Africa! She is doing so well - living a wild life!
Stay tuned for more videos and photos this week, including a big surprise Edie had for us before we left!
I’m so glad to see that Australia’s first re-wilded cheetah is going so well. I’m placing my bets on Edie being pregnant as the big surprise!
We just returned from spending a few days with Edie at @mziki_safari_lodge, and it makes us so proud to see her living as a wild cheetah back in Africa! She is doing so well - living a wild life!
Stay tuned for more videos and photos this week, including a big surprise Edie had for us before we left!
I’m so glad to see that Australia’s first re-wilded cheetah is going so well. I’m placing my bets on Edie being pregnant as the big surprise!
It’s been around 18 months since Edie’s rewilding, so it’s certainly not beyond the realms she may have produced a litter by now - the pinnacle of success.
I visited the WCCC today for a guided tour, and again had a fantastic time. Due to the change in weather in Sydney, almost all of the cats were out making the most of the sunshine - Compared to when I visited in March where a few were tucked away. We started off again at Cinta and Tai, the clouded leopard sibling group, before seeing Blanca and Zane & Ziva, the cheetahs. Zane and Ziva are both large cheetahs, coming in at 37kgs and 40 kgs respectively (compared to Blanca at 27kgs). When Ziva stood next to the fence she looked huge - easily the biggest female cheetah I've seen, and would probably give most male cheetahs a run for their money. The keeper did say that since the WCCC got the run/lure system last year - Which Ziva loves and uses twice a week - They've noticed that she's gained a lot of muscle mass. The run/lure system is the same one that's used at Cincinnati Zoo.
We next saw the caracals Kaia and Kato, which we missed last visit. They are the most chill caracals – Not a hiss from either of them! We then were able to spot Finnegan the fishing cat. The keeper said they’re interested in breeding from Finnegan, but the females at Hamilton and Taronga were too old and so they’re waiting for a cat/recommendation from the EAZA at the moment.
Next up we saw Emmy and her three cubs - Enzi, Eshe and Davu. The keeper noted that Davu was a lot more confident than his brother Enzi, who was a bit cautious, while Eshe is a ‘typical female – confident’. They’re all incredibly cute (as expected from 10-week-old cubs!), and it was fantastic to see and hear the vocalisations from Emmy first hand. The keeper did note that Emmy had quite a large belly this time around and they were concerned she might have a similar issue as she did with the last litter (The first cub was difficult and came out breech), but she had an easy labour for the three cubs. They’re waiting to see how the cubs develop further and their personalities for rewilding in the future, but did say that the metapopulation required more females.
Up next was Moana and Mark, the breeding pair of clouded leopards. Moana finished cycling last week, and while no mating behaviour was exhibited by the team they’re hopeful she was able to conceive this time around. She was very happy to see us and chuffed quite a bit at the keeper, but were weren’t able to spot Mark. We spoke about how pairing usually works with clouded leopards (Introduced as cubs and paired that way to reduce the male aggression), and the keeper noted that occasinally they'll pair an older female with a younger male, as the younger males are both smaller and generally less confident and are more likely to 'listen' to the female when they're begining to mate etc, which is what happened with Moana and Mark. Next we saw Crunchie and Simba, the two older servals, who look great for their age and were making the most of the sunshine. We then passed their Aldabra tortoises (5 in total) and their leopard tortoises, before seeing Mirri – The clouded leopard cub born late last year. She’s grown quite a bit since my visit six months ago, and is now weighing in at 7kgs. They’re still waiting to hear when she’ll go, but they expect it to be sooner rather than later due to her future pairing. I made a comment about it being a shame she couldn’t stay in the region, with the keeper saying they’d love to have kept her and imported another leopard to partner with her but they don’t have the finances to cover the costs of another breeding clouded leopard enclosure. Mirri also was chuffing at the keeper through the mesh, and they believe she’ll be similar in size and temperament to her mother once she’s grown. Overall, a pretty fantastic 1.5 hours at the WCCC!
We next saw the caracals Kaia and Kato, which we missed last visit. They are the most chill caracals – Not a hiss from either of them! We then were able to spot Finnegan the fishing cat. The keeper said they’re interested in breeding from Finnegan, but the females at Hamilton and Taronga were too old and so they’re waiting for a cat/recommendation from the EAZA at the moment.
Next up we saw Emmy and her three cubs - Enzi, Eshe and Davu. The keeper noted that Davu was a lot more confident than his brother Enzi, who was a bit cautious, while Eshe is a ‘typical female – confident’. They’re all incredibly cute (as expected from 10-week-old cubs!), and it was fantastic to see and hear the vocalisations from Emmy first hand. The keeper did note that Emmy had quite a large belly this time around and they were concerned she might have a similar issue as she did with the last litter (The first cub was difficult and came out breech), but she had an easy labour for the three cubs. They’re waiting to see how the cubs develop further and their personalities for rewilding in the future, but did say that the metapopulation required more females.
Up next was Moana and Mark, the breeding pair of clouded leopards. Moana finished cycling last week, and while no mating behaviour was exhibited by the team they’re hopeful she was able to conceive this time around. She was very happy to see us and chuffed quite a bit at the keeper, but were weren’t able to spot Mark. We spoke about how pairing usually works with clouded leopards (Introduced as cubs and paired that way to reduce the male aggression), and the keeper noted that occasinally they'll pair an older female with a younger male, as the younger males are both smaller and generally less confident and are more likely to 'listen' to the female when they're begining to mate etc, which is what happened with Moana and Mark. Next we saw Crunchie and Simba, the two older servals, who look great for their age and were making the most of the sunshine. We then passed their Aldabra tortoises (5 in total) and their leopard tortoises, before seeing Mirri – The clouded leopard cub born late last year. She’s grown quite a bit since my visit six months ago, and is now weighing in at 7kgs. They’re still waiting to hear when she’ll go, but they expect it to be sooner rather than later due to her future pairing. I made a comment about it being a shame she couldn’t stay in the region, with the keeper saying they’d love to have kept her and imported another leopard to partner with her but they don’t have the finances to cover the costs of another breeding clouded leopard enclosure. Mirri also was chuffing at the keeper through the mesh, and they believe she’ll be similar in size and temperament to her mother once she’s grown. Overall, a pretty fantastic 1.5 hours at the WCCC!
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scallywag2024
Well-Known Member
It was fantastic! There was only one leopard tortiose out while we were there, but the keeper did refer to multiple - I'm sure on my last visit we spotted three. No further plans for additional species that they're sharing at this time, though my personal opinion is they'll keep what they've got for now - unless they can get another fishing cat or maybe an exchange on their breeding cheetahs. Maybe when their servals pass they might look at a different species, but they seem very happy to be holding onto the rarer small wildcats and rewilding cheetah at the moment
Mirri the clouded leopard has been exported to Howlett’s in the UK
From Instagram
We're so happy to share that Mirri has arrived safely at her new home at @howlettspark in the UK. Moves like this take a lot of planning and preparation, including our staff making the journey to the UK with Mirri to ensure she settles in well to her new environment!
From Instagram
We're so happy to share that Mirri has arrived safely at her new home at @howlettspark in the UK. Moves like this take a lot of planning and preparation, including our staff making the journey to the UK with Mirri to ensure she settles in well to her new environment!
Hopefully they can send something in return as they have/had a large population of them and Australia really need more than one breeding pair!
Yes fingers crossed! Would be great if the next cub that is born here we could retain within the region with an overseas mate, but time will only tell
I believe there are some zoos within the region that hold a real interest in them!
How could you not, they’re such an engaging and charismatic species, and their enclosure and food needs are smaller/lower than most of the other felids in the region!
Hamilton Zoo has publicly expressed an interest in acquiring them; but there’s several others including Melbourne, Taronga and Mogo that I could see them being a good fit for.
The region would really benefit from having some additional pairs come in. Zoos in Europe and North America have the luxury of multiple pairs breeding at the same time, so pairings can be made between juveniles. This was never going to be an option for Mirri within Australasia.
Am I correct in saying that Howletts still has loads of clouded leopards in different enclosures around its site?
That's certainly how it was when I went in 2019... I wonder how many were released into the wild as Howletts did with other animals
That's certainly how it was when I went in 2019... I wonder how many were released into the wild as Howletts did with other animals
I found a blog from a few years ago that stated they had ten Clouded Leopards, so it does seem they hold a fair amount.
As far as I can see they've rewilded at least one male in Cambodia thus far.