Tesoro the Jaguar (c.2015-2025)
Obituary
Tesoro, an eleven-year-old jaguar, died at the Houston Zoo following a fractured elbow and other health problems.
Tesoro, an eleven-year-old jaguar, died at the Houston Zoo following a fractured elbow and other health problems. Tesoro received surgery for the elbow but died six weeks later. His seven-month-old cub, Rojo, remains at the zoo. Tesoro was sent to the zoo as a cub in 2015.
Jaguars are the third-largest “big cat” (after tigers and lions) and the only big cat in the Americas. They live in the Amazon Basin and Central America, though they used to live in parts of the US. Jaguars have lost half their habitat since 1880. They’re talented swimmers and hunters and live alone. Young jaguars stay with their mothers for at least two years.
Jaguars can reach up to 50 mph, scale trees, and swim in rivers and lakes. In zoos, jaguars are relegated to small enclosures, a fraction of the diverse habitat they’d enjoy in the wild. This often results in boredom, stress, and psychological distress.
Jaguars are classified as threatened on the IUCN Red List, and their population is decreasing. Zoos argue that keeping jaguars in captivity boosts conservation, but exhibiting jaguars only boosts ticket sales. Major threats to jaguars include habitat fragmentation for agriculture and retaliatory killings by ranchers. Some jaguars are also killed for their body parts, such as their pelts and bones. True conservation involves protecting jaguars’ shrinking habitats and reducing human-jaguar conflicts, not selling tickets to look at a jaguar thousands of miles from their home.
World Animal Protection urges everyone who loves jaguars to avoid zoos and enjoy them at accredited sanctuaries or in the wild.
