2008 Daily Journal

Friday, July 25, 2008

Today we visited the Belize Zoo — “the best little zoo in the world” — and had an absolutely incredible time. Sharon Matola, founder and director of the zoo, talked to us about the zoo’s Problem Jaguar Rehabilitation Program. Sharon explained that when wild jaguars come into contact with domesticated animals, such as sheep and cattle, they become marked for destruction by farmers, who fear losing their livestock to predation by the big cats. Through their rehabilitation program, the zoo modifies the aggressive behavior of these wild cats and then finds good homes for them in other zoological facilities around the world.

In addition to rehabilitating “problem” jaguars, the zoo provides opportunities for the public to learn about and interact with these amazing cats, so that people will become interested in and committed to protecting jaguars in the wild. During our visit to the zoo, we met with Wild Boy, who was brought to the zoo because he repeatedly preyed on the cattle of poor farmers. Wild Boy is not so wild now, judging by the high-fives he gave to all of us and by his willingness to roll over whenever we gave the command.

Continuing our “Jaguar Interaction Adventures,” we headed over to visit with Junior. Junior was born at the zoo in February 2007 and was hand-raised by zoo staff. (His mother, who had been put into the zoo’s Problem Jaguar Rehabilitation Program in November 2006, rejected her cub shortly after he was born.) Sharon led us into a small cage within Junior’s enclosure and then called, “Junior Buddy.” As soon as he heard the call, Junior came up to the cage to be scratched, rubbed and generally loved on. When told to “alley up,” Junior jumped on top of the cage, which allowed us to observe and rub his belly. Of course, Junior couldn’t resist giving some affectionate kisses to those below.

Awestruck, amazed, enthralled and incredibly grateful, we can’t believe how fortunate we are to have had the opportunity to interact up-close-and-personal with these two great cats!

July 25 Q & A

Previous | Journal Home | Next