San Antonio Zoo broke ground today on a “world’s first” jaguar habitat. The new jaguar catwalk and expanded habitat system will be the first-of-its-kind and provide our jaguars more room to roam while affording different vantages for them to explore across three zoo habitats. For the first time at a zoo, jaguars will move through another habitat that features other species as they move to different spaces.
“We are incredibly excited to bring this one-of-a-kind habitat to San Antonio,” said President & CEO San Antonio Zoo, Tim Morrow. “In the wild, jaguars are natural climbers as they explore tree canopies and are skilled hunters on river edges. This new habitat provides jaguars opportunities to be overhead in the treetops as well as near the river inside the Amazonian Aviary.”
In recent years, San Antonio Zoo has seen unprecedented growth and expansion. Although fundraising for the Jaguar Catwalk began in 2016, the zoo was forced to shift focus on other projects, including welcoming southern white rhinos to the zoo into an expanded Savanna habitat which opened in March of 2019. The jaguar catwalk project was further delayed by rising construction costs and challenges from a global pandemic, leading to an increasing need for further fundraising. The zoo is proud to bring this unique project to San Antonio, which will provide for the jaguars both mentally and physically.
Since jaguars are solitary animals, guests to San Antonio Zoo often see one of the zoo’s animals out in the current habitat at a time. The newly expanded habitat will provide the zoo’s staff enough space to have two jaguars out at one time. The new habitat will afford the animals multiple terrain options that closely match their native surroundings, include a high, perched perspective or lower, closer to the water vantage point, multiple waterfalls, and increased vegetation.
“As we have been doing across the zoo with upgraded habitats, we are going to provide larger, more naturalistic, and more enriching spaces for our jaguars that closely match their surroundings in the wild,” said Morrow. “The jaguars will now have the ability to choose in which habitat they want to be in and move between multiple spaces.”
Jaguars live in tropical rainforests, savannas, grasslands of Central America, the Amazon Basin, and the Pantanal, the largest wetland in the Western Hemisphere. There are approximately 15,000 Jaguars in the wild, and they have a Near Threatened conservation status. They are jeopardized primarily from poaching, negative interactions with human development, and habitat loss.
San Antonio Zoo has been dedicated to jaguar conservation for many years as a part of the Wildcats of Tamaulipas project, which began in 2012 in Tamaulipas, Mexico. Through support from the zoo, biologists and field technicians from Conservación y Desarrollo de Espacios Naturales have documented ocelots, puma, bobcats, jaguarundi, and jaguar presence in the southeastern area of the state. Data collected will support the proposed protection of natural areas and corridors for these threatened cats’ long-term survival.
Funding for the Jaguar Catwalk project was through generosity from donors and businesses alike. As a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, San Antonio Zoo relies on donations, grants, and ticket sales to fund daily operations and provide habitat enhancements like this jaguar catwalk. A new jaguar paver design is also scheduled to be completed this year and will welcome patrons to the Jaguar Catwalk and expanded habitat.
San Antonio Zoo has a long history of conservation both in Texas and around the world. In September 2016, the zoo welcomed a pair of Jaguar cubs which was the first significant Jaguar birth for the zoo since 1974. For more information on the zoo’s conservation efforts, visit https://sazoo.org/zoo-conservation-efforts/.
Photos courtesy San Antonio Zoo.