Contact Us

Tel: 01983 403883
enquiries@isleofwightzoo.com

Isle of Wight Zoo,Yaverland Seafront
Sandown, Isle of Wight
PO36 8QB

Meet the Jaguars...

Found in Central and South America, jaguars can live in a variety of habitats. They are best suited to rainforests, where their dappled coats provide them with excellent camouflage. We currently have two jaguars at the Isle of Wight Zoo, females who live next door to each other.

Chiquita

chiquitaDespite a difficult and questionable background as a victim of the illegal animal trade rescued from somebody's garage, Chiquita is a lovely trusting cat with a calm temperament and a loving, playful nature. She shows no aggression towards her keepers, and (as with her adjacent Jaguar buddy Tequila) her face lights up in something almost like a smile when she runs to greet you.

Chiquita is the more cautious of our jaguars, being graceful and guarded in everything she does and wary of any new objects in her enclosure. Once new enrichment items have been thoroughly checked out, however, Chiquita will attack with gusto, and among her favourites is a suspended feeder log that can be loaded with meat treats. She is able to hang from this with all legs off the ground, displaying her climbing abilities as well as her fantastically powerful claws and jaws.

Adopt Chiquita...

Tequila

chiquitaThere are definitely two sides to Tequila. On the one hand she is a gorgeous, affectionate and playful cat, but on the other she retains a real wild streak which manifests itself in all her behaviour. Her affectionate moments are frequently tempered by an innate natural desire to inflict a classic Jaguar death-bite through the back of your head. Biting generally is something of an issue for Tequila, and she has been provided with old tyres for biting down on to save her teeth when excitement prior to feeding-time gets out of hand!

Tequila came to the zoo in 1999 via an animal entertainment troupe, and she brought some behavioural problems with her from this less-than-happy home, but in her time in a caring environment has come on (literally) in leaps & bounds, so that she now trusts her keepers and displays a wealth of natural, healthy behaviour.

Adopt Tequila...