Leopard Heights at Yorkshire WP, 05/08/12

Lovely tall climbing frame and always nice to see an open-topped leopard exhibit, but it's rather barren - hopefully the planted conifers will take hold quickly and provide a bit more cover.

I am consistently puzzled by photos of this relatively new exhibit because for a brief moment I always think that it has been designed for primates. I'm not sure if I've ever seen an open-topped leopard exhibit before, and with the lack of cover here it appears that in Yorkshire it is probably a sure thing to at the very least see a leopard in this exhibit.

The leopards really make use of the climbing frame - that seems money well spent (you can see a cat basking on the right-most platform). I think I'm correct in saying there is only one other open-topped enclosure for P. pardus in the UK (for Sri Lankan Leopards at Banham), but I'm now waiting to be put right on that!

The leopards don't seem too concerned by the lack of cover, but this will be a much better exhibit once there's a bit more vegetation.

Right-most, even.

I plead Monday morning! Yes, right-most.

This is an excellent exhibit for displaying Leopards. Will hopefully be seeing it/them before the year is out.

Banham was the first, and as far as I know the only other collection which has an open-topped enclosure for leopards, and as said before, in this case Panthera pardus kotiya.

Funny you shuld say that. Of all their exhibits I've seen on here, this is my least favourite.

Really? I agree they should have a little more plantation and foliage however as open top Leopard exhibits are nowadays rare in the UK I feel YWP have done well and gone for something different rather than the typical netted enclosures.