porcupines move to wellington... » Wellington Zoo

27-05-2006

I love clouded leopards too, they have such GORGEOUS eyes...

Clouded leopards should be common in zoos in Thailand, Vietnam even Indonesia, but the problem is that these cats have shady origins, many are probably wild-caught animals. On the flipside, these animals also represent important genetic material since they're born in the wild. Thus the ethical debate continues...

27-05-2006

sometimes, when it comes to propigating wild animals in captivity it's not allways straight forward stuff. zoos often find particular species very difficult to persuade to reproduce - the clouded leopard being one of them. sometimes ther are very unusual and genuine excuse for the zoos failure, such as the cases of hormones, vitamin definciences etc... factors that require extensive research to overcome. then there are failures due to a lack of plain old common sense. and some of the issues surrounding clouded leopards seem directly related to these.

in the wild clouded leopards are solitary. they are not the alpha-predator. they must avoid tigers, leopards, bears and others. they are assisted at this largely because they are , even compared to ther cats, highly arboreal in habit spending much of their time in trees. they are shy even in the wild and are very wary of leaving evidence of their existance. they are almost strictly nocturnal. very little else is known of their habits in the wild but one would assume when it comes to breeding - there is a very long, cautious process of introduction before two clouded leopards mate.

compare this to they average life of a clouded leopard in captivity.

clouded leopards in zoos often live within close proximity to another clouded leopard. they often live within equal proximity to other big cats - natural predators of clouded leopards. they are not provided with tall trees to hide from these neighbouring threats. they must stay low to the ground in a small territory that forces them to alert their presence to to their enemy. they are forced to live in state of constant stress then once a year another clouded leopard is thrown into their territory. so the male, refusing to be outsted from his territory by the female - who shows no interest in breeding since their is no way shes planning on raising cubs next door to a tiger - kills her.

of course zoos are just starting to work some of these factors out. and i look forward to greater success with breeding clouded leopards in the future. hopefully australian zoos can contribute to that. even if the leopards need be off display. i'de just be happy that we were breeding them.

i usually find the trick to breeding any animal comes down to how well you can replicate the natural situation. some need very little stimulation, others need more. however do your research and mimic the right scenario - and all species will breed in captivity.

28-05-2006

I will tell u a little story i have read on many occasions, that put different aspects of conservation to the fore front

15 yearss ago, the javan tiger roamed the jungles of indonesia, unaware that it was 1 on the last of his species.

zoo based biologists aguged "let us get some of these tigers in captivity, so we have a back up population, in case of the worst. " for heavens sake'

" no, life finds a way and they will surrvive leave them in the wild, where they can be free to breed, its not nessicary, we're going to preserve them in nature' stated the conservationists

then one day the question arose, how many javan tigers do we have left' the answer was none - extinct , gone.