Chester Zoo Jaguars @ Chester

[bongorob]

Chester Zoo has a joint project in conjunction with the Wildlife Conservation Society to study and preserve Jaguars in the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Reserve in Belize. These are the Panthera onca centralis subspecies.

recent Chester Jaguars
Carlos born 1980 Rome, arrived from Rome Zoo 12 April 2001
Ebony born 14 April 1984 Rome, arrived from Rome Zoo 12 April 2001 (black form)
Salvador born 6 May 1991 Poznan, arrived from Poznan Zoo 22 June 2001
Sofia born 22 May 2001 Rostock, arrived from Rostock Zoo 22 September 2002

Sofia arrived as a mate for Salvador.

The Marwell jaguars arrived at Chester towards the end of 2004, by which time Carlos and Ebony had died. I have no information on the Marwell specimens.

 

[gentle lemur]

I find it hard to explain exactly why I find 'Spirit of the Jaguar' so disappointing. Partly it's because it flies in the face of Chester' tradition of functional buildings: its form does not follow its function - the facade is overblown and the conical roof is an irrelevant waste of space (it reminds me of the Casson building at Regent's Park which we moan about so much).
I agree with Pertinax about the outdoor enclosures: the left hand 'pampas' type enclosure is very bare and hardly used by the cats, as far as I can tell. The indoor enclosure is a good size, but equally ugly - the 'waterhole in the desert' landscaping is pretty drab and my eye is always distracted by the bare breeze blocks of the wall behind it.
The 'jungle' enclosure is more attractive but the path beside it is narrow and congested because the pool and the ants use up so much of the limited space on the right hand side of the building - so you can't just stand and look for the jaguar: it's quite a contrast to the empty pedestrian areas in the lobby and left hand side of the building.
In my opinion the only successful exhibit for public viewing is the outdoor 'waterfall' enclosure which I like a lot. It really displays the jaguars well and I think the cats look more 'at home' there - perhaps it's just the compatibility of the mother/son pair.

Alan

 

[Pertinax]

the facade is overblown and the conical roof is an irrelevant waste of space.

Alan

Am I right in assuming its the only major building at Chester to have been largely funded by Industry? It seems they created the 'overblown' facade to make it elaborate enough to merit Jaguar's financial input perhaps, and as a result it is very different from Chester's usual functional buildings. I don't know anywhere else where Jaguars live in such an enormous(palatial?) building though I can understand why at Chester.. Its just odd how the four main parts of the actual exhibit(the Jaguar enclosures) vary so much in their effectiveness.

 

[zoogiraffe]

Am I right in assuming its the only major building at Chester to have been largely funded by Industry? It seems they created the 'overblown' facade to make it elaborate enough to merit Jaguar's financial input perhaps, and as a result it is very different from Chester's usual functional buildings. I don't know anywhere else where Jaguars live in such an enormous(palatial?) building though I can understand why at Chester.. Its just odd how the four main parts of the actual exhibit(the Jaguar enclosures) vary so much in their effectiveness.

It was also designed to house major corporate events in it but as far as i know none have ever been held in it,so its been a great sucess with that idea.

 

[Pertinax]

It was also designed to house major corporate events in it but as far as i know none have ever been held in it,so its been a great sucess with that idea.

Oh, that would explain the unusual design with the large empty areas between the two indoor exhibits, and I can now see how the exhibits would form a sort of panorama backdrop to an event. Interesting it has failed to be used for this though. Another zoo 'white elephant' then?

 

[Bele]

I would like to see some other South American species exhibited , as in R.O.R.A. , perhaps some decent sized aviaries if they could be fitted in . There is a lot of unused space . I cannot think what could be put there , but would like to see the left-hand Pampas enclosures housing species other than jaguars ( probably not possible because of the sponsorship ) .

 

[Woodbine]

Apparently the female in the waterfall section is called Benita