You mention that with such a casual demeanor, as if to say oh yeah my corner ice cream parlor has chocolate ice cream! You have no idea how HUGE, COLOSSAL, EARTHSHATTERING this news is to me. Still I am very, very curious. I have never in all my reading on wild cats heard of any subspecies of wildcat (other than domestic) being melanistic (discounting the so-called Kellas cat as a Scottish-domestic hybrid). I wonder if this African cat could be a hybrid and get the black from domestic genes. I will cross post this in the black panther thread in hopes of an answer... Edit - If you have a photo PLEASE POST!
Photos are up! Great Cats World Park is very proud of not only the black African Wildcat but also their cloned African Wildcat. The tour guide said that the cloned cat is the highlight of the 54 felines at the small zoo.
Very nice read SL Thank you for entertaining us and giving us knowledge of these places. (But I am sure you enjoy it as well)
A shame it's over so soon - I really enjoyed reading the mini-reviews, especially Out of Africa, and returns to places like Houston and Fort Worth.
It is amusing to me when I receive emails or posts on this thread about how the trip is over already or that it seems like I just left. Tell that to my wife...haha. Being home with 4 young children is incredibly busy and there are days where I rarely sit down for more than 10 minutes at a time as it is just go, go, go around here. I am incredibly fortunate that I've been able to venture off on back-to-back solo road trips in the past couple of summers and I try to never take that for granted. For next year I've tentatively been tinkering away at a California trip as while I've already visited 24 zoos in that state there are still a number of other ones that I've never been to and of course the Sunshine State has some great zoos worth revisiting. If I actually do this trip next summer then the plan is for perhaps two weeks as anything more is far too long for the rest of my family. I can imagine perhaps a couple of small places in Washington that I've never seen, maybe Oregon Zoo as the last stop on the way home as I'm dying to see the $60 million Elephant Lands, and the entire rest of the trip would be between San Francisco and San Diego in southern California. However, here is why scheduling a California zoo trip (even for two weeks) is awkward as there are so many places that are not open daily: Outback Kangaroo Farm (Arlington, WA) (closed Mon + Tues) Wolf Haven (Tenino, WA) (closed Mon-Thurs; pre-booked tours only) Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary (Folsom, CA) (closed Mon) California Raptor Center (Davis, CA) (closed Sun) Serpentarium (Lodi, CA) (closed Mon) Lindsay Wildlife Museum (Walnut Creek, CA) (closed Mon + Tues) Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo (Palo Alto, CA) (closed Mon) Project Survival’s Cat Haven (Dunlap, CA) (1.5 hour guided tour only) Emerald Forest Bird Gardens (Fallbrook, CA) (closed Mon) Santa Monica Pier Aquarium (Santa Monica, CA) (closed Mon) Gibbon Conservation Center (Santa Clarita, CA) (only booked tours) Star Eco Station: Exotic Wildlife Rescue Facility (Culver City, CA) (1-hour guided tour only) America’s Teaching Zoo: Moorpark College (Moorpark, CA) (closed Mon-Fri) Hesperia Zoo (Hesperia, CA) (guided tours only) Feline Conservation Center (Rosamond, CA) (closed Wed) Try taking those 15 zoos with very specific time-slots and then adding in another 25 for a total of 40 zoos in two weeks...and coordinating the dates and times is an immensely enjoyable but time-consuming task. It is interesting to note (now that I've had 6 big summer road trips in the past 8 years) just how much time each journey takes to organize and plan in order to see the maximum number of zoos without ever being rushed. I spend a year tinkering on-and-off with my schedule and then after the trip is done I have a mountain of zoo maps and memorabilia to sort out and then plenty of lists to update on my laptop. What a life!
Just an FYI that the guided tours at Cat Haven do not have to be prearranged. They work the same as Great Cats, just show up and they will take you on the next tour (usually within 10-15 minutes).
