Little adventures

A Visit With OJ The Jaguar At The Vancouver Zoo

For Sean’s birthday present, I surprised him with a behind-the-scenes tour at the Greater Vancouver Zoo. The experience offered an up close encounter with either a hippo, lion, tiger, jaguar, baboon, black bear, red panda or variety of reptiles in a fun and safe environment. Course, this did not mean being able to touch the animal or being in the same enclosure, as the zoo is a no contact facility. But as it’s a private tour, we would be in areas where the public is not generally allowed.

For $175 for 2 people, we would spend 45 minutes to an hour learning about our chosen animal and an opportunity to feed them a snack or treat. And the zoo team would take pictures of our encounter, so we didn’t have to and we could just focus on the experience at hand.

As Sean is a huge cat lover, he chose a visit with OJ the jaguar.

We arrived at the zoo bright and early to meet with Menita and her team. While we walked over to the facility, Menita gave us some background information on OJ the jaguar, OJ for “our jaguar.” He’s 18 years old, born and raised in captivity. We had chosen a really great animal encounter, as he’s a very social cat and likes being around humans.

We were brought into the Animalasium (their education centre), so that we could create an enrichment item for OJ, in this case, a cantaloupe stuffed with straw, jerky and cinnamon. The cantoloupe shape and the straw was to encourage OJ to paw and hunt for his treats.

We headed over to OJ’s space to meet him. The team beckoned him into his secured indoor enclosure (where he sleeps when it was cold outside), so that we could go into his pen and lay down his treat. Once we left the area, the indoor enclosure door was opened so that OJ can go back outside, into his pen.

No doubt he could smell us in his pen. But as much as he may have been curious about us, he seemed pretty happy with finding his yummy treat. He tore into it, a plume of cinnamon smoke being released into the air, while rolling around on the grass, as if it was catnip.

Although he was a senior jaguar, he acted like a kitty cat. OJ was social and came up to us and rubbed himself on the fence. Then he sat right against the fence, while we knelt down on the other side. We were so close, we could see all his teeth when he yawned. OJ is a really sweet animal and we were really glad we chose an encounter with a jaguar, instead of Sean’s alternate choice, the giraffe.

Here are some #DYK facts about jaguars aka panthera onca:

The jaguar is the largest member of the cat family found in the americas.
All jaguars are spotted with rosettes, which are large open spots which ring smaller spots.
The coat may be tawny yellow colour with very visible spots or may be melanistic (the black colouration) with the spots barely visible.
As excellent swimmers, jaguars are generally found in areas near bodies of water, with dense coverage and plenty of prey species.
Built for power, not speed – large jaw, lean body with muscular limbs.
Hunt by pouncing on unsuspecting prey from a concealed location with a direct bite to the neck or skull.
Males on average are 10-20% larger than females.
Jaguars are solitary animals, as well as, territorial, except during mating season when they will seek out a female in estrus.
Most active during dust and dawn, and will choose to lay in deep shade during the heat or high up in trees.
Jaguars communicate through vocalization – often described as “grunts.”

Some conservation facts:

Jaguar numbers in the wild are continually declining due to loss of habit, poaching for fur and persecution as a predator.
They are found mostly in central and south americas, in the forest and wetlands. their lifespan in the wild is 12 years, compared to 22 years in captivity.
Humans are primary predator of jaguars, often poaching illegally.
Jaguars are a keystone species and their population directly affect population of other animals that share the same ecosystem.
Conversation efforts thus far has been focused on increasing legislation to protect from illegal poaching.
The jaguar is classified as near threatened by IUCN (international union for conversation of nature).

After bidding OJ goodbye, we walked around the zoo to see all our favourite animal friends: arctic fox, capybaras, lemurs, African lion + lionesses, squirrel monkeys and the newest addition, the red panda!

View more photos of our day at the zoo on my Flickr album.