The Oregon Zoo exhibit is nicely planted but disgustingly small. I would disqualify it for this reason alone.
Whilst I'm not a fan of Twycross's Amur Leopard enclosure (what used to be the chimpanzee enclosures sometimes called 'death row'), their Snow Leopard enclosure is pretty good. That being said the zoo has had success breeding both.
Bronx Zoo houses their Amur Leopard inside Jungle World. While I generally think most of the exhibits at this zoo are well done I was very disappointed in this on two accounts. First, Amur Leopards do well outdoors in New York’s climate and changing seasons and being kept in the constant warmth and humidity suited for the majority of the other animals housed there doesn’t seem appropriate. Second reason, exhibit space specific to the leopard is narrow and small with the lowest point well below the observation level. Many people miss seeing the Leopard entirely. I was there when a person with a service dog came over and the Leopard didn’t even realize the dog was there. From past experience a dog typically provokes a lot of attention when passing a Leopard (albeit not the kind of attention the dog wants).
Sorry, was just adding to the thread and didn’t mean to quote anyone. Thought this was an Amur because saw somewhere that Kazho from Potawatomi Zoo moved here in September 2018.
I never knew leopards were kept in open top exhibits anywhere. Can't they jump very high like mountain lions?
Indeed they can. They are probably the most agile of the big cats in trees, and can jump up to 20 feet high if needed. However, snow leopards have been reported, perhaps unreliably, to jump 49 feet high...
The best UK leopard enclosure in my opinion is the one at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, followed by Banham Zoo.
Yes but there are open top mountain lion exhibits too (including one where I live). You just have to design it with the appropriate overhangs.
I've visited several zoos over the years and I personally think that leopards are some kind of "forgotten" big cats. Most zoos don't seem to realize how attractive these animals are and how much attention they should pay on keeping it. Most subspecies are really endangered (especially the asian ones) and need more zoological institutions that keep and breed them. Most zoos would rather build a new enclosure for lions, tigers or ounce instead of leopards. That's one of the reasons why the ZGAP (Zoological Society for Conservation of Species and Populations) in coorporation with other zoological NGO's selected the Leopard as "zooanimal of the year 2016". I think it's hard to rank one enclosure over another, but it's relatively easy to mention some of the better exhibits in europe. Here's my list of enclosures that come to my mind spontaneous in random order (Zoos I've not visited yet excluded): 01. Leipzig Zoo P. p . orientalis 02. Cologne Zoo P. p. saxicolor 03. Hamburg Tierpark Hagenbeck P. p. japonensis 04. Cottbus Tierpark P. p. japonensis
05. Arnhem Burgers Zoo P. p. kotiya 06. Plzen Zoo P.p. japonensis 07. Prague Zoo P. p. melas 08. Olomouc Zoo P. p. orientalis No enclosure photos available 09. Bogor Taman Safari I Panthera pardus melas
