Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum - Bobcat Exhibit

August 2008.

Great exhibit!

I'd say that at least 90% of all the exhibits at this museum/park/zoo are excellent, and that's why it made my top ten list. It's a really fascinating place to visit.

Cat Canyon is a great set of exhibits. I just wish they'd bring back the jaguarundis and margays.

What is truly amazing is that Cat Canyon opened in 1973 and thus is almost 40 years old! The enclosures are now a little on the small side but they are still far superior to the majority of small cat exhibits that can be found in countless other American zoos.

Small Cat Canyon has four exhibits of similar design. For decades, they housed four species of cats: margay, ocelot, bobcat, jaguarundi. They currently house racoon, ocelot, bobcat, gray fox. There is an upper level viewing area (seen here) and a lower level viewing area. For decades also, all four had open tops like this. Now, only the bobcat has open top and the other three have mesh covers. Also, the racoon (former margay) exhibit has mesh inside to close off the far left end, making the exhibit unnecessarily small.

Why they need a mesh cover for a fox when jaguarundis never climbed out is beyond me. These are still good exhibits, but not as good as they once were. In fact, this whole zoo in general seems to be going a bit downhill. (Case in point: the raptor cages were torn down and replaced with a low chickenwire covered herb garden).