It's a give and take. Woodland park looks more natural, however, Jacksonville's main Jaguar exhibit seems much larger than any of the photos I've seen of Woodland park. Both are excellent though. I'll take my camera next time I go as they recently did some planting in the Jaguar exhibit and Rivers Edge.
The Jacksonville exhibit is 4200 square feet, while the Seattle exhibit is around 4000 square feet so they are very similar in size. Not to mention Jacksonville has eight jaguars, while Seattle has two. The exhibit in Seattle provides more space per Jaguar, a solitary species. I think the space per animal argument is valid in solitary animals like large cats because they are very territorial.
It's a give and take. Woodland park looks more natural, however, Jacksonville's main Jaguar exhibit seems much larger than any of the photos I've seen of Woodland park. Both are excellent though. I'll take my camera next time I go as they recently did some planting in the Jaguar exhibit and Rivers Edge.
Sorry I forgot to add, you say of any photos of Seattle's it looks smaller, however in nearly all photos of it the exhibit you can't really see any barriers other than the faint mesh roof, hardly visible in most photos. This makes it hard to really tell how big the exhibit is. In the Jcksonville photos all the temple barriers are clearly defined.
As far as space per animal, they two exhibits in Jacksonville provide more than enough room for two animals to have their own "Space" and even then, the zoo only puts animals together if they get along or for breeding purposes. You have your opinion and I have mine. As I said, both are by far the best exhibits for Jaguars in the US.
@FSBlue & BlackRhino: you guys are debating between the two best jaguar exhibits in North America, and there really is not much between Woodland Park and Jacksonville. I visited Jacksonville in December and thought that the larger enclosure was hugely impressive while the smaller one was slightly above average. Jax has 8 jags and spacious off exhibit enclosures, and so the entire area is superior in terms of quantity of cats and size. However, Woodland Park has an incredibly naturalistic habitat that does not have to resort to the southern U.S. tradition of a Mayan temple. I used to think that Jax was #1 but I'm quite familiar with the enclosure at WPZ and think that it might just edge out Jax. It is a tough call, and I simply wish that more zoos would create such wonderful exhibits for South America's largest carnivore.
