Hello everyone! I was wondering what everyone's opinions on Leopard habitats and husbandry are. Being shy, stealthy, crepuscular or nocturnal predators, they have a unique mix of behaviors. What is the best Leopard habitat/exhibit you know of? Where have you seen Leopards most active? How should Leopard's lives be enriched? How can Leopards be encouraged to be more active during visitor hours? In what social groupings should Leopards be housed in? Looking forward to your responses!
Compared to lions and tigers and cheetahs, for which there are a number of good exhibits across the country, leopards and snow leopards get shortchanged with subpar exhibits. Jaguars and pumas, from my experience, are somewhere between the two. I think this is mainly due to the incredible climbing ability of leopards and snow leopards and the virtual necessity of completing enclosing their exhibits. I have seen a few open top exhibits (example Out Of Africa in my state of Arizona), but these are very few indeed. Some US states actually mandate closed tops in their state laws. As a cat fanatic, I find this situation somewhat depressing and I wish zoos would do better for these fantastic felines. Since I assume your thread applies to common leopards (and not snow leopards), here are the very few good ones I know of: USA Out Of Africa The Living Desert Minnesota Zoo (maybe - not personally seen) Staten Island Zoo (maybe - currently under construction) Philadelphia Zoo FRANCE Le Parc Des Felins (4 distinct habitats - black leopard, amur leopard, sri lanka leopard, persian leopard)
Thanks for your replies! I never knew that Out of Africa had an open-top leopard habitat. Of all Leopard habitats, 'Leopard Hieghts' at Yorkshire Wildlife Park is the grandest; although I've never seen it for myself. I found a great article on this habitat at: The Yorkshire Wildlife Park Oh, and yes, this is just a 'Spread the knowledge' effort to fuel my zoo design hobby!
Not sure what is so "ground breaking" (their own words) about a bunch of fake climbing structures. Honestly I do not get you Britons and your excitement over putting animals in man-made jungle gyms (a la Aspinall parks). I am also not sure that really is the biggest leopard enclosure in the world (Out Of Africa and Parc Felins have some pretty big ones), but as I am terrible about judging the size of things (square meters is meaningless to my mind), I cannot say for sure.
