Terra Natura Benidorm is the only zoological Park in Spain that hosts a complete family of jaguars. Panthera Onca. The in depth handling has become quite a milestone in that it is extremely difficult to achieve an entire family, parents and cubs, to live side by side within the same installation owing to the highly defensive territoriality of this specie.
The family is made up of four members; the father, named SOCORRO who is 5 years old, has a spotted fur and arrived from Krefeld (Alemania) in 2014. The mother, named GRECIA, also 5 years old has black fur and arrived from Athens in 2014. The two cubs, PEPA and LOLA both have spotted fur and are 10 months old. These two Jaguar cubs were born within our installation last summer, but it is only now that we have been able to materialize the union of this family of Jaguars.
Since their birth, Pepa and Lola have been at the side of their mother without the presence of their father. This being for security reasons toward the cubs as within the majority of cases the father tends to reject their young thus making the union an impossible task. Once the cubs had acquired sufficient size in order to unite them and seeing that father did not present signs of rejection toward the cubs, the process of placing them together could now be carried out.
However, before the commencement of this process, diverse consultations were made with other European experts with the aim of applying a guaranteed success. Socorro has shown, since his arrival at the Park, a calm and tranquil nature which provided the deciding factor to unite this family placing them in the same enclosure without any risk for any of the members.
The operation started 3 months ago, at first, ensuring that the cubs and father only had visual contact during 50 days. At the passing of this first phase of approach, it was decided that the actual step for the physical union could now take place seeing that the father had not displayed and signs of aggression. With great curiosity, our team of keepers watched the reaction of the cubs and how they pounced on their father trying to knock him down on their first encounter!
These physical unions were repeated for 40 days, the first being only for 5 minutes and later reaching 2 hours a day at the final of the adaptation period but always under the close supervision of our group of keepers. After verifying that the four members were perfectly integrated, the process of a final union was carried out.
Our team of Vets wish to underline the difficulty at the time of reproduction in captivity for the Jaguars. Visitors can observe the family and see for themselves the activity of these cubs who do not allow their parents any rest and how they enjoy the pool of their enclosure.
The Jaguars are some of the largest predators in the world and their survival is threatened by the hand of man. The trade of their fur has caused this species to be on the verge of extinction. The other threat to their conservation is the lack of habitat and, therefore, of prey from which they can feed, this fact leads them to enter inhabited areas or livestock where they are hunted with traps or poisoned.