Showing posts with label wild cats in captivity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wild cats in captivity. Show all posts

Sunday, 28 February 2021

Male jaguar kills female jaguar when put together at a Florida zoo. Why?

Harry and Zenta were two jaguars at Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens. Harry is still alive and he is twelve years old. He killed the female jaguar, Zenta, who was twenty-one years old. A mistake was made. They were both put into a holding complex. 

Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens
Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens poster featuring a jaguar. Is this Harry? Photo: Jacksonville
and Gardens.

Harry was put there for examination. The mistake was putting them together. Keepers tried to separate them unsuccessfully. As Harry attacked Zenta, they tried to immobilise him. I presume this means tranquilizing. They were unsuccessful and he killed the female who had arrived at Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens in 2006 they rescued animal from a private zoo. Harry was born at the zoo in 2009.

Comment: the question that I have is ,why did the male jaguar kill the female? In the wild male and female jaguar's meet to mate and reproduce. Roaring may function to bring them together for mating purposes. Females can end up being accompanied by several males. But I can't find any reports of male jaguar's killing female jaguars.

I will have to come to my own conclusion as the zookeepers at Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens don't tell us why Harry wanted to kill Zenta. There were probably two overlapping factors. Both were captive, living in confined spaces much smaller than the amount of space they naturally require in the wild which would be something in the order of up to 152 km² for a male jaguar. Females require less space but still vastly larger than is available at a zoo. This probably constantly stressed both the male and female. 

In the wild, female home ranges can be within the home ranges of male jaguars which sometimes overlap. I would suspect that stresses built up because the natural social organisation of these big cats was completely disturbed by their captivity. 

The male wanted to get rid of the female because she was on his territory and competing for that territory. This is my assessment. I may be completely wrong but it is the only possible assessment, I believe. This was about territory and ownership of it. It didn't matter whether they were male and female or male and male.

Monday, 9 June 2014

Philadelphia Zoo's Black-footed Kittens - what they don't tell you

What zoos don't tell you about small wild cats in captivity -- Philadelphia Zoo are rightly proud of the new additions to their zoo;  three black-footed kittens. They are gorgeous to look at.  This is a small wild cat species which looks very much like a tabby domestic cat except the markings are stronger.

The kittens are proving a big success at the zoo..  This species of wild cat is very rare in captivity. We are told that there are about 19 in captivity in North America and about 40 in captivity worldwide.
Black-footed cat - photo by Anne-Marie Kalus published here with her permission
See more photos - this is not one of the cats discussed in this article.

Small wild species do not do well in captivity.  I believe that this point needs to be made.  The zoo presents their animals as a first class attraction but the visitor knows little about what goes on behind-the-scenes.  It is very hard to maintain a wide and healthy gene pool in respect of these rare small wild cat species because they a reluctant to mate in captivity and as a consequence you begin to get unhealthy cats due to inbreeding. Why are they reluctant to mate? Stress possibly.

The cats are less robust due to inbreeding.  Their immune systems are less effective.  In addition, the black-footed cat is quite a physically delicate cat when taking out of its environment.

They require a lot of specialised care in captivity and the sad fact is that zookeepers do not, as yet, have a handle on how to care for these cats to a high standard.  They haven't figured it out yet.  On that basis should black-footed cat be in captivity in zoos?

We are told, that most black-footed cats die of kidney failure which may be due to the diet that is fed to them in captivity.  Although, zookeepers are not sure what is causing this high level of kidney failure.  That does not bode well for this species in captivity.

They also develop respiratory diseases when they are subjected to a high humidity environment because they're used to very dry arid environment coming, as they do, from Africa.

In addition, the black-footed cat does not cope well in cold weather and therefore they need to be kept in heated buildings at temperatures at or above 40°C.

Further, they are very susceptible to toxoplasmosis.  You can see the difficulties, the extreme difficulties in ensuring that this rare and vulnerable small wild cat species thrives in captivity.

We don't know how many black-footed cats die young in captivity but I suspect it is a very high percentage and perhaps all of them.  You could say it is not working out at all and as mentioned above you could also argue whether black-footed cats should be in captivity at all.

Featured Post

i hate cats

i hate cats, no i hate f**k**g cats is what some people say when they dislike cats. But they nearly always don't explain why. It appe...

Popular posts