Lack of Jaguarundi & Margay program in the US?

J

JustEnjoyLook

Member
This thing has always rolled into my mind into wonder why this never happened. They used to be in the part of the USA much like the famous ocelot. Why hasn't there been any facility start project about these cats yet? Not “sustainable” I assume?
 
Unlike Ocelots or Jaguars, Margays and Jaguarundis are not confirmed to ever have had populations in the US, it was probably just wandering individuals from Mexico. Although Jaguarundis may have an introduced population in Florida.
 
Aardwolf said:
There was considerable discussion about starting a jaguarundi program as recently as the early 2000s, with a few facilities expressing interest (Salisbury and Elmwood among them), but the planned import fell througb
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Do you know what may have caused for plans to fall through? Like perhaps CITES restrictions or not enough facilities interested in starting a founding population?
 
I saw both jaguarundi and margay at the Belize Zoo, and while they are neat species to see and have excellent exhibits there, both were resting towards the backs of their exhibits, and didn't strike me as particularly engaging exhibit animals. In US zoos, ocelots are similarly a species that more often than not makes for a poor exhibit animal- I'm at Buffalo Zoo frequently and have only seen their ocelot a handful of times. As such, it isn't particularly surprising to me that these other neotropical small cats aren't ones there would be a lot of excitement around having in zoos.

For a really great small cat exhibit, here is a picture I took of the margay exhibit at the Belize Zoo:
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Neil is correct, Belize has excellent exhibits for those species, though I suspect I was luckier on the day of my visit than he was, since both species were very active and engaging.

As to what fell through? A combination of things, I believe. Difficulty with sourcing animals and getting permits, combined with a general lack of enough committed space to make it sustainable. There was the sense that small cat populations were already struggling, and adding jaguarundi would just compete with the other cats for scarce small cat spaces.

For what it’s worth, I think most of the interest in jaguarundi was in its taxonomic and aesthetic uniqueness compared to other small cats - I don’t think there’s really a demand for margay in most zoos - it would just take up ocelot space without offering much in return
 
Brookfield Zoo still had margay in the 1980s in the 'Predator Ecology' exhibit off Lion House, alongside sand cat, fishing cat, pallas' cat, and lynx. Three individuals from Brazil were reported in 1987 and by that time some successful breeding had occured. I believe the margay exhibit would be where the clouded leopard or binturong are today. By the time of the renovation of these exhibits into the Fragile Kingdom four years later, they were no longer present.

I do think it's a shame about jaguarundi. There were still whispers about them for quite some time, probably lingering after the initial program had ended.
 
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