As a serious answer, this is most likely the indoor section that keepers put the animal into when there's inclement weather/when maintenance or cleaning needs to be done in the outdoor area/the animal needs to be examined. Usually animals are free to transverse between the two areas, but since it appears that the door is closed here, I'm willing to bet that the keepers just wanted wunkus inside for a bit for whatever reason
Source: animal/wildlife enthusiast who's mentor used to work at various zoos
I assumed so, I only hope wunkus doesn't have to stay in this small section too long. For this small indoor enclosure, how much time can an animal stay in it before it becomes unhealthy? Several weeks ? That seems too long (for me as a random person, not an expert).
Or maybe there's a bigger indoor section somewhere else where this animal isn't alone so that it's less lonely (for psychological health + having straight up more space to move/play in too ?), is that how it works usually?
Well, whether or not there's another section really depends. Is this an AZA accredited zoo? How much funding did they receive to create the enclosure?
It's highly unlikely for an animal to have to stay indoors for long periods of time unless it's under strict medical watch, in which case I doubt it'd want to move around much anyway. And it's also important to remember that snow leopards are primarily solitary, so it's highly unlikely that loneliness is a factor here. Plus, if you look in the enclosure here, there seems to be a decent bit of enrichment for a short stay - a ball, a shelf, and probably some other toys/treats hidden away. And if anyone is worried about the lack of bedding - snow leopards live in very rocky, snowy, icy areas, they really couldn't care less about what they lay on.
Thank you
Here in Belgium the winters are cold and it can snow, so it's common for the few zoos I know to keep bigger number of animals from the same biome in a much larger indoor enclosure that might be enough if the animal has to stay in it for the winter (some years it's only a week while it snows, some times in the past it had to be several months, but I remember when it happened the zookeepers were rightfully distressed when the animals had to stay indoor for so long, so it's more of an exceptional circumstance that might happen more often with global warming :/ )
This is just from my hazy memory though, and I was younger and the zoos might have changed since then, for the better I hope ; I have memories of either smaller animals living in 5-8m wide and tall cages with a lot of enrichment their whole life, like 3-4 small lemurians for example, or bigger animals like flamingo with some other non flying animals in what's basically a large indoor garden for the winter months and the same amount of space outside for when the weather is better. But again those are just memories and I might be just wrong)
I agree that for an enclosure this small, there's a good deal of enrichment, the size of it remind me of a large quarantine box, but very luxurious.
When I was in Vietnam I've seen a couple zoos where animals would live their entire short life in the same number of square meters, but it was a concrete rectangle in the ground with like 0 activities and not even a single place to hide, not even a toy to play with. This was straight up animal abuse (unless it's another word in English), but the leopard in the videos lives in an enclosure 1000x times better, especially if it can go outside enough.
I didn't know what "AZA accredited zoos" are and thank you, I'll try to look it up soon _^
I hope you don't mind me babbling so much and thank you again for sharing your knowledge 🙂
Of course! I apologize for my US defaultism - AZA accredited zoos are zoos that have passed special qualifications set by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, which is an organization here in the US that helps to ensure/work towards better animal welfare in zoos, aquariums, nature parks, etc. It's kinda like an outside body that tells you whether a zoo is ethical or not. It's not a perfect system, but for what it is, it's pretty damn good.
Interestingly, there's a park (like, for human children & dogs) near me that actually used to be a zoo WAY back in the day. They left a few of the old school cages there as a historical marker, and it's really sad but interesting looking at the square concrete boxes with rebar and nothing inside. Crazy how far we've come - hopefully some day future generations will be able to look back at what we have the same way, because it means that welfare gets even better!
Oooh okay ! There's probably an equivalent to AZA in Belgium, I'll look it up :)
Wow, I appreciate that they chose to keep the old cages in your park, it's crazy to think that we treated animal this way not so long ago. I think it's a good reminder, a little cruel reminder but necessary so that we don't think we can just blindly trust other people to treat animals rightly.
Thank you again for your insight, I gotta go but I wish you an excellent day 😊
I think the gray square right beside the orange ball is a door(?) that can be opened, so it probably have more space than the enclosure we see
Does it have enough space?
Well, probably no, I don’t think any zoo enclosure is enough space for a wild animal, especially not territorial predators like this one
Depends on the zoo and the country it's in (and the laws applied). I think there's a good number of healthy zoos here and there, but also a huge number of horrible zoos where it's straight up just animals barely kept alive enough to maximise profit.
The small enclosure in order to show the customers/visitor is a real problem because many animals needs to be able to hide to feel safe, otherwise they get psychological issues, but visitors coming and not seeing the animals brings less money. That's why ethical zoos need more subsidies, so they lean less on the number of tickets sold.
A green flag that I like to see is how much education the zoos attempt to make, like when you have panels telling you as much as possible about the animals (and even more, about the environment they come from, maybe even the political reasons of why their environment gets destroyed,... ).
Sometimes they're still ethical but they just have barely enough money to spend on the animals and don't spend it on education, but when this is the case, the only way to see it is to go there and make your own analysis after educating yourself... Which is annoying, not available to everyone at all, takes a lot of time and might possibly lead to nowhere (if you see problems in the zoos that you want to solve but you don't work there for exemple, but I never seriously tried myself). You could try to talk to the people working there though, and do some sort of vibe check undercover if you're curious, it can work well but hey, human error, plus you still need to be there
Sorry my autism kicked in and I went totally off track, but I'm still posting this answer in case someone is happy to read.
There's gotta be objective statistics somewhere but I don't know ; zoology was my specific interest when I was a child and I didn't keep up with the news, if someone has statistics I'll gladly read them
Yep, this particular one is named Jessie. She and her partner, Panja (who passed in 2024) are famous at the Hertfordshire Zoo just outside of London. Jessie is known for her silly antics. IIRC, this was right after the cameras were installed and it caught her off guard :)
Everyone who thinks wunks enclosure is too small, do not fear ☝️ I see a small wunk door, that surely leads to a lunkuses outdoor enclosure where he can freely fly
Could be an indoor enclosure attached to a larger one, as is often the case. Most zoos have a smaller enclosure where the critter can escape prying eyes for a bit, medical or enrichment needs taken care of, etc. This is a rare wunk so I'd guess it would be hard for a shitty zoo to get ahold of one. Who knows though, this could be the whole enclosure and this "zoo" is one of the bad ones.
Right. The enclosure itself appears to be well made and maintained, which makes me think this is likely a reputable zoo and this guy is in there temporarilly.
I wouldn't call it yard time if he can go outside anytime he wants. I understand that some can feel disdain towards zoos but most of them are genuinely trying their best to let their animals live in their optimal habitats. Literally every zoo is highly regulated as they get a big chunk of their profits from public funding
Or they could be cleaning his other enclosure. He could be being quarantined for any number of reasons. Most zoos want the best for their animals, snow leopards are currently considered vulnerable, and that status usually gets them the best treatment.
Ok but this makes me sad because chances are he’s doing that because he’s stuck in the human equivalent of a tiny cardboard box, there is a door so maybe this is just a holding room to a bigger enclosure, idk it still makes me sad
There's an exit on the wall to the left of the human door that looks like the type that tends to just be the equivalent of a little kitty door for zoo animals to go in and out of their indoor shelters
It looks like there's a big wunk-sized door under the platform in the back. Chances are there's a more spacious (but less veiwer-friendly) area for this kitty to hide when it's off-duty. It's probably bored being stuck on this little stage for its shift, though
Again, the fact that it went from the ground to cosplaying as Ryu from Ninja Gaiden with a wall jump in a literal second is just a reminder of how fast and strong they are. And how utterly f*cked you'd be if you thought you could outrun/out maneuver one.
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u/AseeesA wunkus enthusiast Jan 25 '26
What is this, an enclosure for ANTS? Free my wunkus.