Hi all, In the next couple of days I plan on attending Melbourne Zoo a place for which I have not been in 10 years! Prior to this I looked up the current list of animals and the zoo map and was shocked to see that one thing I remembered from last time in the big/small cat ally which I remember from my last visit appears to no longer be there and I just have some questions and thought this was the best place to ask - What happened to the different types of big and small cats in this area - did they die out or were they sent to other zoos - what happened to the enclosures in this area and what is there now - would anyone be able to help with a timeline of when the animals passed/left the zoo - when the enclosures were bulldozed and when they were built etc Thankyou in advance!
Welcome to ZooChat Hodgey. Small Cat Alley was demolished to make way for a redeveloped of the African Lion and Wild Dog exhibits. The remaining species were generally already housed elsewhere in the zoo (red panda, otter, coati), while the remaining cat species (just serval) went to another zoo as the rest had already died out. The Big Cat Area just has Sumatran Tigers (also displayed elsewhere in the zoo) and Snow Leopards, as well as the Syrian Brown Bear exhibit. I don't know how much of this is off-display at present - the map notes this area is "under construction", but I think the bear at least will still be on display.
Thanks for the reply! So effectively the ally was demolished to extend the Lion and African Wild Dog area? Why didn't they replace the other cats they had like Jaguars and Pumas from memory, did they have trouble breeding them or could they not find pairs and just chose to let them pass on, I feel as if they would have been quite the attractions for the zoo?
Melbourne Zoo's bred and exhibited Temminck's Golden Cat from the late 1960s to 2009. Their last Golden Cat was called Cim, she was born November 1991 at Melbourne Zoo and died September 2009. She was also the last Golden Cat in Australia. Melbourne Zoo decided to phase them out as the Australasian region decided to give up breeding this species. You can read more on the 'Asian Golden Cats in Australia' thread, it's in the Australian forum and was last updated March 2015.
Yes, although also those cages were old and not in keeping with the Zoos more modern bar-less approach to exhibits. Jaguars and Pumas, as well as Leopards have been almost completely phased out of Australasian zoos, as they focus on holding sustainable populations of other species (for big cats these are African lions, Sumatran tigers and cheetah). For more information on this read some of the older discussions on regional collection planning in the Australian forum.
