Tigers, Lions, & Leopards OH, MY! (Big Cats)

Collins Exotic Animal Orphange, MS, USA has at least one Jungle Cat as of 2004 (severly outdated information, though). I believe some Kodkod are found in South American zoos. I think at least 1 Spanish zoo showed Iberian Lynx to the public. As of 2005, BREC's Baton Rouge Zoo in LA had a Margay and Houston Zoo had one as of 2009 (again, outdated info.) Europe, I believe, is the continent taking care of Asian Lions. Europe, in my opinion, does a lot better in their breeding of endangered Big Cats then America does in terms of the species they're breeding.

I don't think any zoos outside of Borneo have the Sunda Clouded Leopard and I don't think Bay Cats can be found in captivity (except mabye in Borneo). Are Iriomote Leopard Cats found in any Japanese zoos still? Are there any Leopard Cats left in the U.S. at all?

BeardsleyZooFan & Arizona Docent- Thank you for appreciating my thread. Glad I asked that unrelated leopard question on Beardsley Zoo News!!

 

Most of the margays in the US have died - maybe even all by now. If not, there are only one or two left - really sad.

Jungle cats can be found in the private sector - I photographed a black one at a breeder in Florida years ago and their website is still up so I think they are still breeding.

Guignas (aka kodkods) are in one private institution in Chile which recently had the first ever breeding of the species in captivity.

A bornean bay cat is purportedly held (illegally I assume) by a wealthy asian gentleman on his estate.

African golden cats are (according to two ZooChat sources) held in private facilities in South Africa and Gabon.

Andean cats have never been in captivity as far as I know and likely never will be. (However small cat researcher Jim Sanderson has seen them in the wild - he has the only clear photos - and he is a friend of mine and I am sure if I ever had the means I could go down to Chile with him in hopes of sighting one).

Marbled cat is in an off-show breeding center in the UAE (name escapes me) and on show at a zoo in Thailand (Nakhon Ratchasima I think).

Jaguarundi used to be in the US - was phased out by the AZA - and now they may want to phase them back in. Felid TAG lists them as a phase-in species and I had a long talk with one of my zoo keepers who went to Felid TAG this year and she said they did discuss it.

 

That's good about the Jaguarundi. I think they should have a small breeding compund for Andean Cats in the Andes (along with other endangered Andean species).

We need to phase-in more cat species (a lot of other species as well).

How about Leopard Cats? Are they still in U.S. zoos?

 

Iberian Lynx is kept in Spanish and Portuguese breeding centres, and in Jerez Zoo (off-show). There´s almost no chance of Iberian Lynx ending up in the US. Unless a very rich guy came to the iberian peninsula and showed a large amount of money...

As this is not only about US Felines, what are the zoos with the best collection of big cats, besides "Le Parc de Felins"?

 

Never heard of "Le Parc de Felins", what does it have?

The Exotic Feline Breeding Compound in Rosamond, California has one of the best cat collections in the U.S. that I know of.
Exotic Feline Breeding Compound Gallery

They have Amur, Persian, and North Chinese Leopards. Also, Geoffrey's Cat and Jaguarundi. The exhibits aren't the best but they do great breeding work and only give cats to AZA zoos (as far as I know of).

 

Well, that looks really bad. Le Parc de Félins is much much better than that. Without a doubt the best on the world in this case (zoos specialized in big cats). Here´s the gallery:http://www.zoochat.com/gallery/parc-des-felins&daysprune=-1&x=a&order=desc&sort=replycount
Here´s the wiki page: [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parc_des_F%C3%A9lins"]Parc des Félins - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
Here´s the site (not working for me): http://www.parc-des-felins.com/

 

I'm hooked!! Might have to plan a trip to France just to see this zoo!!
(If only)

 

Are their white tigers pure Bengals or mixed. Also, is there a chance that their black leopards are pure Indians or Indochinese.

 

Wow!!!!!!!
That's almost every cat species. They just need the Kodkod, Iberian Lynx, Flat-Headed Cat, Bay Cat, Andean Cat, and Black-Footed Cat.

 

Oh yeah there's also the African Golden Cat, Sunda Clouded Leopard, Marbled Cat, Margay, Chinese Mountain Cat, Colocolo, Pantanal Cat, and the many subspecies of felines. Still, a very impressive collection. One that would be very hard to match. If I ran it, though, I wouldn't have anything that was as genetic as Black Leopards and White Tigers, I'd have to have pure Bengals (even if I had to have them imported from an India Zoo) and Indochinese Black Leopards (or Indian).

 

They do have margay. Also, chinese mountain cat is no longer considered a full species, but rather a subspecies of wildcat (although I am sure this is still being debated).

There are probably a few leopard cats in private collections in the United States. I would think some bengal cat breeders still have them.

 

Well, there's still some debate on how many tiger species there are as well.

 

Say it ain't so!! The simplest explanation is that it is heaven on earth for arizonadocent!!

 

JBZvolunteer- After doing some research on it, it's heaven on Earth for me, too. All they need is pure Bengal Tigers and Black Leopards, African Forest Elephants, Sumatran Rhinos, New Guinea Singing Dogs, and pretty much everyother rare species. A Thylacine would be pretty nice, too.

jbnbsn99- Aren't they considered the two extinct island subspecies as a different species (why isn't the Sumatran included then?) splitting the species into Panthera Tigris (Bengal, Caspian, Sumatran, Indochinese, Sumatran, South China, Malayan, and Amur subspecies) and Panthera Sondaica (Javan and Bali subspecies). Where does the Trinil Tiger (Panthera Tigris Trinilensis) fit into all of this?

 

They actually have a really great and successful breeding record. The reason the exhibits are like that is because they have too many cats and not enough exhibit space (which is still not an excuse).