Big changes for big cats

class=”sc-3778e872-0 gWjAEa”>

What do the Federal Council have in common with Panterra, our future habitat for endangered big cats at the Zurich Zoo? In both places, the claws are sometimes extended. And both places are rotated. In the case of the Federal Council, rotation means the annual one-time change of the Federal President. In the case of Panterra, the rotation is much larger than in the case of the Federal Council. The principle of rotation describes the consistent further development of our animal husbandry.

When excavators start excavating at the Zurich Zoo from the summer of 2023, Panterra will create a real residential complex. In the future, the home of our endangered big cats – the snow leopard, the Siberian tiger and the Asiatic lion – will consist of four different territories. All cats can use each area, but certainly not at the same time, because communication with these species would not be a good idea. For example, when our tiger crosses a bridge from one area to another a few weeks later, a lot has changed there since his last visit. He smells different. And traces of predecessors are clearly felt. Because a few weeks before that, lions or snow leopards inhabited the site, marked their territories and shaped the habitat in their own way. So the tigers have something to discover. If everywhere smells like lions, maybe there is a lion somewhere else? The tiger must mark, urinate, scratch, or rub against trees to let everyone know that the area is now tiger territory again. And once this has happened, it may happen that the player will move to the next habitat area, and the game will start over.

The idea of ​​a system exchange was not conceived within Panterra. Here at the Zurich Zoo we already have a system exchange. Our wolves may occasionally enter a tiger enclosure for a few hours and find it extremely entertaining for the reasons mentioned above. While there have always been only short-term unilateral changes (tigers were never allowed into wolf enclosures for safety reasons), the principle of rotation in Panterra needs to be fully thought through and hopefully the quality of life, this is also what “animal welfare” talks about, will continue. increase. In all our construction projects (Masoala Rainforest, Kaeng Krachan Elephant Park or Lewa Savannah) we have strived to promote animal husbandry in an innovative way. It will be some time before we know how the principle of rotation is perceived in Panterra. The big cat habitat will not be open until 2025. If you still want to see tigers, snow leopards and lions in their current enclosures, then you need to hurry. In a few months, our cats will be transferred to other European zoos during the construction phase.

Source: Blick