2-914-092 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Clouded Tigers, in the Zoological Society's Gardens, Regent's-Park, 1854. Big cats at London Zoo. 'The graceful species...is not only one of the most beautiful objects in the menagerie...but one of the rarest: the present specimens being the first which have ever reached Europe alive. They were captured in Assam [in India]...The Sumatra name for this animal is Ramau Dahan (Felis macroscelis Temm.), and Sir Stamford Raffles, we believe, gave it that of the Clouded Tiger. With the Tiger, however, it has no immediate relation; but really belongs to an interesting little group of Leopards, distinguished from the ordinary type by an immensely-developed tail, large shaded blotches of colouring...and generally lower stature, resulting from shortened and thicker legs'. [They are]...as docile as they are beautiful, playing affectionately with their keeper whenever he enters their den...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.