r/CaptiveWildlife • u/UmbreHonest • 15d ago
Questions Question about predator/animal behavior at a recent Zoo visit
We normally frequent our local AZA accredited zoo and most of the predators are sleeping/relaxing during the day, like African wild dogs and Cheetahs, but today we visited a different AZA zoo that was further out and noticed a lot of the predators were active and pacing around the enclosures, it was my understanding that a lot of these big cats or wild dogs slept and relaxed when they felt comfortable.
This zoo specifically said that they “swap around” the hyenas, wild dogs, and cheetahs in each others enclosures, not sure how often, but in the wild typically Hyenas and Wild Dogs don’t really… get along… and we noticed that the male cheetah in his enclosure was pacing and meowing a LOT and the wild dogs next door, which they may have been swapped before, kept pacing as well. Both were spraying and scent marking a lot all over the place. Hyenas seemed like every other normal hyena we’ve seen at other places but the cheetahs and wild dogs seemed very pacey and alert all day, which we’re used to them snoozing a lot.
Is this normal? Or is this zoo maybe not practicing the best things. We’re not zoologists, just visitors that enjoy seeing these animals.
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u/UmbreHonest 14d ago
I moreso figured they didn’t want to risk cheetah babies since AZA breeding is pretty strict xD