The Oncilla is a small spotted cat found from central America to the Central Amazon. In 2013 it was proposed to split the species into two, as they did not interbreed, however I would argue that this should be at the subspecies level. The Southern Oncilla lives in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, while the Northern Oncilla ranges from central America to central Brazil – time will tell if these two cats are subspecies or are distinct enough to be considered different cat species
The Serval is a cat slightly bigger than domestic cats. It is a formidable jumper, and uses this to its advantage. It will usually hunt some rodents by stalking them until it is close and then leaping in the air and coming down on its back. It is also one of the few cats that regularly catches birds in flight, given its ability to jump as much as 4m up (indeed, if you see them in a zoo, it is not unusual for there to be a pile of feathers somewhere in their enclosure. The are a nocturnal savannah animal, and are found in most protected areas of sub-Saharan Africa. They are generally plentiful in any savannah with a good supply of water.
If you live in the UK, there is relatively little wildlife to watch (when compared to somewhere like South Africa), which is why zoos are often such popular places.
As people have come to have better thoughts about keeping animals in zoos, these places have greatly improved. Long gone is enclosures such as “bear pits”. Now zoos give the animal relatively large enclosures with (as much as possible) plants and other items that make the area similar to the animals wild habitat. Also a great deal of progress has been made in understanding the various conditions that are required in order to make the animals happy enough to breed.
I have, in the past, been a wildlife educator at the zoo. This has consisted of me visiting the zoo a few times each month, and spending a few hours beside specific animals. I am there to engage visitors – in some cases help them see the animal, as well as talking about its wild habitat and the threats that the animal faces to its ongoing survival. Due to covid, this has been impossible in the last few years.
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Marwell zoo has been particularly good on its big cats. Unfortunately since our last visit, they have lost their Amur leopards and their cheetah – however, as with both of these, the animals were old, and the zoo is perfectly set up for breeding of these species, therefore if new cheetah or Amur leopards arrive this can continue. One of the main ways that these zoos can work in this way, is to have two enclosures next to each other, this allows the connecting gate to be opened or closed depending on circumstances, allowing male and female to spend times apart and together – as close to mirroring how they would behave in the wild as possible.
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The Amur leopard is a stunning animal and with its wild population being so threatened (a superb decade has allowed the population to grow back above 100 (WWF estimates that there are now about 100 wild adult Amur leopards) from a population of as few as 20 adults at the turn of the century. As such breeding is essential, and I hope that in the long run, the zoo can have similar success with another pair. Cheetah, while less endangered overall (though the Saharan cheetah and the Iranian cheetah are both this endangered) is famously hard to breed, so we can only hope that in the future cheetah will once again live in this place.
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When visiting a zoo, I like to go on a very quiet day, as the animals tend to behave more naturally so I like to go outside weekends. However with children that is not currently possible due to school. Nevertheless we had a lovely day, and despite the missing wildlife saw many lovely things.
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Whether you believe that animals should ever be caged or not, it should be clear to everyone that at the current time, without zoos many species might well be lost from the world. It is also true that many zoos do essential work in the wild to conserve remaining wilderness.
Many wild species cannot be bought or sold for profit, as a result of their endangered status. These have been seized on the basis they are not being looked after properly, and include 46 tigers, 7 tigers, a jaguar and 15 lion tiger hybrids.
African wild dog are some of the most efficient hunters on the planet. Significantly smaller than lion or leopard, often even than cheetah, African wild dogs are astoundingly efficient when they come to hunting, with one of the highest percentage success rates in the animal kingdom. Due to their need for huge reserves, to have a viable population, it is not unusual for them to spread into unprotected land.
12 of the African wild dogs in the West Midlands Safari Park got out of their enclosure. Before they could be caught, they had killed six Persian Fallow deer and 10 Barbary sheep. Their escape was not down to negligence or incompetence, but down to storm Clara.
Wild dogs are small predators compared to Lions or Leopards, but are highly effective. They have a higher success rate than any other savannah top predator. Although in the wild they would run if approached by humans, when escaped from a zoo they will be scared and so their behaviour would be unpredictable
However because of this need for large amounts of space they are seriously endangered. This means that more than many other animals In order to ensure their long-term survival as substantial population of captive wild dogs need to be built up in case they need to be reintroduced to the wild.
It should be noted that despite the damage, the wild dog whenever anywhere they were capable of attacking people. It should also be noted That generally wild dog are not a danger to humans.
Due to their need for large areas of land, there is only thought to be about 1400 wild dog left in the whole of Africa.
Drought hit animals too, and in this instance a Drought in Zimbabwe has hit hwange national park so hard that the animals have started to die in large numbers.
While the number of tourists that come to Zimbabwe have fallen dramatically since Mugabe started doing his more destructive policies, these fall in tourists has started to reverse again. Furthermore, with the economy gradually on its way to recovery people can afford to buy food and thus the pressure on wild areas from poaching has decreased significantly.
The translocation is not insignificant, plans to move 600 elephant 2 prides of lions a pack of wild dogs, 50 buffalo 40 giraffe and 2000 Impala.
In other parts of Africa water is pumped into these areas to refill the watering holes. It is unclear whether this was impossible in this case or merely prohibitively expensive- though the cost of moving this many animals will be significant and does not solve the water problem permanently so so a longer-term solution must be found.
Zimbabwe is calling for the relaxation of rules about utilising animals (in ways other than photographic tourism) , and while this would be capable of giving the Zimbabwean government the money needed to protect these animals given the way they have behaved in recent years the international community cannot be sure that the Zimbabwean government will will behave responsibly towards their are flora and fauna.
It is certainly true that looking after animals like elephants that can hurt humans ( in recent years as much as 200 people have died in human animal conflict) is not cheap, however before the disastrous policies of Mugabe the animals of Zimbabwe bought in a large amount of money for it’s people. Returning to this situation can allow the animals to thrive alongside a higher income for people of the country.
Zimbabwe moving 30 young elephants to China, more to follow
Zimbabwe is also under pressure for sending roughly 30 young elephants to China deal in a did with a country. Supposedly this has to be done for the health of the animals as hwang national park where they come from is suffering from a horrific drought that has killed many elephants. However undercover camera work has already shown these young elephants in concrete and metal enclosures having their will broken, flowers to be more easy to control the circuses and zoos in China. Unfortunately it appears that despite Mugabe having left power in Zimbabwe the current government of Zimbabwe still looks on the wildlife as simply a commodity to be traded away and not say something to be preserved for the future. Tourists should look very carefully before being prepared to spend money on safari in Zimbabwe. In total 90 elephants have been moved to China and Dubai in return for 2.7 million dollars.
