Reed cat enclosure in Moscow Zoo

Aqua Logo Engineering designed and built a spacious enclosure for a reed cat named Zauri at the Moscow Zoo. The enclosure is located next to the "Fauna of Russia" pavilion and is similar in design to the wolverine enclosure we created earlier. It is smaller in size, but also to ensure natural insolation is built without a roof, fenced with large glass windows, has a small pond. The top of the aviary is covered with a special woven stainless steel mesh. This is the first use of such mesh in the Moscow Zoo.

Unlike most domestic cats, the reed cat (Felis chaus) is a good swimmer by birth and is adept at catching fish with its clawed paws. In summer, Zauri's menu is enriched with live fish, which he can catch in his pond. In nature, reed cats can swim more than a kilometer not only during hunting, but just for fun.

The Moscow Zoo has many representatives of the cat family, but the reed cat Zauri is alone, and only slightly less famous than the symbol of the Moscow Zoo, the manul Timofey. 

The reed cat is similar in appearance to the lynx, it is just as slender and muscular. It reaches 90 cm in length and weighs up to 12 kg. Zauri arrived in Moscow as a kitten from a French zoo in 2015. Since then, keepers have been training him for half an hour every day, gaining the trust of the wild ward and monitoring his health.

In Russia, only about 500 individuals of the reed cat live in the plain part of Dagestan. Further along the coast of the Caspian Sea, the range reaches the mouth of the Volga, along the Terek and Kuma rivers to Stavropol and North Ossetia. The reed cat is listed in the Red Book of Russia as a rare and protected species.

Show feeding of cat Zauri in Moscow Zoo is held on Tuesdays and Fridays, don't miss it!

A reed cat of the Moscow Zoo got a new enclosure at the "Fauna of Russia" pavilion

The enclosure is roofless, but the cat has shelters from the weather

The aviary is built on a plot with live trees, shrubs and natural change of seasons

Handsome reed cat Zauri is in great physical shape

The cat is accustomed to receiving food after touching the keeper's stick with his nose

For keeper safety, the feed is always fed with steel tweezers

The keeper's magic wand and experience can put Zauri on the back foot

Feed is dispensed in different areas of the enclosure

Following the keeper's commands, Zauri approaches the glass fence, paying no attention to the gathered spectators

A cat found a piece of meat hidden by a kipper in a tree 

"I think I ate all the hidden stuff. But I'll take a look around just in case."

Zauri, a well-fed reed cat, can sit for hours on an elevated position in the far corner of the enclosure, occasionally glancing around

This photo shows how neatly the protective steel mesh interfaces with the tree trunks in the aviary area