Jaguar escapes the zoo and passes from one enclosure to the other, killing trapped animals – The Mercury News

A jaguar from the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans escaped from his paddock and launched into an overnight territorial killings, attacking four alpacas, an emu and a fox trapped in their own habitat before the zoo's managers manage to calm him down. 19659002] The first cat was reported missing for the first time at 7:20 am, before the zoo opened, officials said in a press release. At 8:15, he was spotted, tranquilized and returned to his pen by veterinarians.

No animals were injured by the animal, although the circumstances of the escape caused a disturbing reflection on what could have been: The jaguar jungle. At a press conference Saturday, zoo officials insisted that the facility was safe for the general public even though they would not say how the predator managed to s & # 39; Escape and kill or hurt all others.

In addition to the animals killed, three other wounded animals were taken care of

The jaguar, a 3 year old Valerio, did not seem to eat the animals that he had hunted. but was rather engaged in a territorial show, said Kyle Burks, vice president and general manager of the zoo. The animals on which he threw himself were unable to escape their own pens.

The zoo was closed on Saturday as the authorities tried to find out how the feline had escaped. Bereavement counselors were also brought for the traumatized staff. The zoo planned to reopen Sunday at 10:00 am

But the incident was certain to raise questions about the dangers of caged predators that evolved to hunt and kill, and will quickly pounce on prey – or humans – if the guarantees fail.

In the spring of 2017, a British zoo keeper was injured after being trapped in the tiger enclosure of the Hamerton Park Zoo with at least one of the big cats.

Horrified witnesses said that they could see zookeepers running by the tiger's edge. In 1965, Stacey Konwiser, a 38-year-old zoo keeper, was killed by a tiger while he was preparing the "Night's House" at the Palm Beach Zoo. The house is where the animals are cleaned and fed, and then boarded during the night.

Also this year, in Beijing Safari World, a woman was injured and her mother was killed after the woman got out of her car. Tiger.

Such breakdowns, the experts told the Post, do not just happen in poor quality zoos with slapdash animal care practices.

"These accidents happen, you know, on a recurring basis around the world," said Doug Cress, general manager of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums. "And it's because you're dealing with animals that, at their genetic base, are built differently than what we'd like them to be.They are designed to be wild animals."

Joel Hamilton, Vice President and General Curator of the Audubon Zoo, echoed this sentiment when asked if there was anything particularly aggressive at Valerio. said, "He did what jaguars do. Certainly, his behavior was not unusual for this kind of animal. "

Jaguars are opportunistic hunters who attack more than 85 species, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature." Their habitat extends from the jungles of America Central and South America, where IUCN considers them "near threatened", south of Arizona and New Mexico, where they are listed as endangered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service: Lions and tigers are the only big cats that are bigger than jaguars, making them the largest cats in the Americas.