Zoo Acquires Jaguar from Belize

Filly the jaguar. Photos courtesy Milwaukee County Zoo.

The Milwaukee County Zoo has acquired a new jaguar from Belize.

Filly, a six-to-seven-year-old female jaguar, was brought to Milwaukee on Thursday, Jan. 23, the zoo said in a statement. She was captured in the wild by the Belize Forest Department in 2019 to save her from being killed for preying on a farmer’s livestock.

She came to the zoo by way of the The Belize Zoo which has a longstanding relationship with the Milwaukee County Zoo going back decades. In 2008, the zoo received a male jaguar, Pat, from the zoo. Pat went on to father Frankie, a male jaguar at the zoo. The two institutions have been working for the past four years to prepare for Filly’s transfer, according to the Milwaukee County Zoo.

“We are proud to support the conservation efforts of the Belize Zoo and their commitment to the Jaguar Species Survival Plan,” said Zoo Director Amos Morris. “By bringing Filly to Milwaukee, we are also focused on the welfare and well being of our male, Frankie.”

In the wild, older and weaker jaguars may be unable to compete for food with younger, stronger cats when preying on traditional sources like deer, wild pigs, tapirs, capybara and fish. Instead, they prey on livestock, which puts them in danger of being killed by humans. Habitat loss and greater hunting of prey species in Belize fuels competition among predators, fueling attacks on livestock.

Jaguars are considered “near threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The Panamanian government has listed the species as endangered there.

In Belize, the zoo there has worked with the national forest department since 2003 to trap jaguars believed to repeatedly prey on livestock through the Human Jaguar Conflict Program, according to the Belize Zoo. The program has saved more than two dozen jaguars from situations where they were likely to come into conflict with humans.

Filly is one of these cats. Now at the zoo in Milwaukee she is expected to help with the wellbeing of their other jaguar, Frankie, who will have another of his species to interact with. Pairing them together also creates the possibility to increase the genetic diversity of jaguars living in captivity in North America, according to the zoo.

For now, the zoo said, Filly is in quarantine until such time as she can be moved to the zoo’s Florence Mila Borchert Big Cat Country exhibit.