There is a pumpkin centrally located in this photo, as the zoo was celebrating Halloween festivities during my visit. One interesting thing about this image is that the lush jungle for the jaguar appears to stretch on forever!
@Ituri: the jaguars can only be seen through glass, as there are massive panels that run across the cave area, the main jungle section of the exhibit, and the underwater viewing area. Everything is glass for visitors, and yet the exhibit does have a mesh roof that somehow rarely shows up in photos. I think that due to the extreme height of the mesh the cover is not apparent in many of my shots, although at times a large black pole can be viewed, as that is the support structure that holds up the mesh.
@Ituri: the jaguars can only be seen through glass, as there are massive panels that run across the cave area, the main jungle section of the exhibit, and the underwater viewing area. Everything is glass for visitors, and yet the exhibit does have a mesh roof that somehow rarely shows up in photos. I think that due to the extreme height of the mesh the cover is not apparent in many of my shots, although at times a large black pole can be viewed, as that is the support structure that holds up the mesh.
Hey - settle down there, you stiff upper lip Brits! Remember that I nominated this exhibit as the best landscaping design in the zoo world in a poll of mine!
@Cat-Man + Red Panda: hahaha...maybe you two really should start calling Jaguar Cove a hamster cage!
This exhibit opened in 2003, and I'm still waiting to see if a better jaguar exhibit presents itself to me via ZooChat photos. Chester Zoo seems to have a great one, as does the excellent Jacksonville Zoo down in Florida, but the attention to detail in Seattle is extraordinary. However, I've yet to see one of the cats actually go swimming in the 4-foot deep pool.
@Cat-Man + Red Panda: hahaha...maybe you two really should start calling Jaguar Cove a hamster cage!
This exhibit opened in 2003, and I'm still waiting to see if a better jaguar exhibit presents itself to me via ZooChat photos. Chester Zoo seems to have a great one, as does the excellent Jacksonville Zoo down in Florida, but the attention to detail in Seattle is extraordinary. However, I've yet to see one of the cats actually go swimming in the 4-foot deep pool.
While I have never seen either the male or female jaguar (they are rotated on exhibit) in the deep pool, I have viewed footage on the zoo's website that shows one of the cats swimming and exploring its surroundings. In the past the zoo has tied food to vines that hang down by the viewing windows, thus allowing the jaguars to swim to be fed!
