Clouded leopard cubs Koshi, foreground, and Senja slowly leave their
crate to explore their new habitat during their public debut at the
Houston Zoo Thursday, Sept. 11, 2014, in Houston. The brothers were born
at the zoo June 6.
Photo: Pat Sullivan, AP
HOUSTON
(AP) — Just a few years ago, red pandas were introduced to Houston as
the world's cutest animals. Now they have rivals for the title: Two
clouded leopard cubs that made their debut this week at the
Houston Zoo.
The
cubs, Koshi and Senja, garnered headlines all over the world, earning
the nickname "precocious playboys," after photos showed them frolicking
in the grass before their public introduction.
But
the 3-month-old cubs are also the freshest faces in the argument for
keeping animals in captivity: The revenue they help generate in ticket
sales goes toward conservation efforts for endangered species around the
globe. The crowds they draw are also a captive audience for
conservation campaigns, which some argue are the only way to save their
wildlife counterparts.
"Clouded
leopard, like many other species, face extinction if nothing is done to
stop habitat destruction, degradation and fragmentation,"
Benoit Goossens, director at the
Danau Girang Field Centre
in Sabah, Malaysia, wrote via email. The center received more than
$26,000 from the Houston Zoo last year, part of a total of $1.6 million
given in 2013 to fund global conservation efforts. "The funding coming
from Houston Zoo is extremely important."
Just
last month the center used money, in part from Houston, to successfully
fit a satellite tag to a wild female clouded leopard for the first
time. The hope is that the information collected will help guide
conservationists as they try to preserve the animals' rapidly
disappearing rainforest habitat.
"Capitalizing on the times of something new is a wonderful celebration," said
Shelly Grow, director of conservation programs at the
Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
"It's pretty hard to turn down the appeal of the baby leopards ... I
think it's hugely important that people are excited and inspired by the
animals they see."
Creatures
like the beautiful and charismatic clouded leopards and the red pandas,
which debuted in Houston in 2009 after a lengthy "cutest animal in the
world" campaign, don't just bring in money for their own species. Zoo
revenue is used to help breed and release the somewhat less attractive
Houston toad and the Attwater's prairie chicken, two local Texas species
nearing the point of extinction, with numbers down into the
low hundreds.
The
225 facilities across the U.S. accredited by the Association of Zoos
and Aquariums give $160 million toward projects that have an impact on
animals in the wild. For
some, though, that is not enough to justifying keeping animals in
captivity. The clouded leopard cubs play in a 450-square-foot exhibit
that stretches 30 feet high. "Unless
the intention is to breed highly endangered species, it's really just
about entertainment and just about doing something because we can," said
Adam Roberts,
chief executive officer at Born Free U.S.A. "In general, the
overwhelming numbers of animals (in zoos) are never having a
conservation benefit to animals in the wild."
Roberts
argues that the money zoos donate to conservation programs is small
compared to their revenues and pales in comparison to what's spent on
designer enclosures. A
new enclosure set to open at Houston Zoo next year will be the largest
gorilla habitat at any zoo in the world. It will feature a waterfall, a
flowing stream, natural and artificial logs, and a boardwalk for
visitors to get a closer look at the gorillas. The cost: $28 million,
part of a total of $50 million spent on the
African Forest Exhibit. According to Born Free, that's an amount that could fund conservation projects for lifetimes. "Money is not being put in the right place," Roberts told the
Houston Chronicle (
http://bit.ly/1uLA3Sz ). "Wildlife belongs in the wild."
At
the zoo, officials say the money they donate is only a portion of the
work they do, arguing that their main aim is educating patrons who come
to see Koshi and Senja. "We don't look at our conservation dollars in terms of a bump in attendance from having cubs like this," said
Beth Schaefer,
curator of carnivores at Houston Zoo. "It's really great to use the
cuteness as a platform to reach our guests ... and have a captive
audience to talk about clouded leopards in the wild and the plight
they face."
The
clouded leopard's Southeast Asian habitat is being destroyed by
producers of the palm oil used in many products on our grocery stores
shelves, including cookies, soap and shampoo. The zoo promotes two
smartphone apps that enable visitors to scan bar codes to see if their
shopping contains palm oil from new or existing plantations, although
there's no way to tell if any visitor actually takes any action.
For Koshi and Senja's distant cousins in the rainforest, money does seem to be the key. "Houston
Zoo has been supporting our elephant project, our carnivore project,
our banteng project, our camera trapping and wildlife corridor
monitoring project, and several other projects," Goossens said, adding
that the zoo is probably the only one in the United States that also
funds graduate scholarships for new conservation researchers.
___
Information from: Houston Chronicle,
http://www.houstonchronicle.com
source
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Clouded Leopard cubs, born at
Houston Zoo on June 6, are growing and developing their big cat skills. So far, the pair has mastered the art of being adorable!
Photo Credits: Houson Zoo/Stephanie Adams
The cubs are a result of the first pregnancy for two-year-old Suksn,
who gave birth in a private den off-exhibit. A few hours after their
birth, in June, the cubs were moved to the veterinary clinic to begin
receiving 24-hour care by the zoological team at Houston Zoo.
The birth is not only the first birth for Suksn, but also the first
Clouded Leopard birth for the Houston Zoo. This is also the first
offspring for the cubs’ father, Tarak, also two years old. Suksn and
Tarak have been residents of the Houston Zoo since 2012.
Clouded Leopards are classified as ‘vulnerable’ on the
IUCN Red List,
due to deforestation and hunting. Since this animal is so rare, it is
important to do everything possible to ensure the health and well-being
of every Clouded Leopard born in captivity. The common practice among
zoos is to hand-raise all newborn Clouded Leopards.
See more photos below.
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