News and Stories

Join us in celebrating International Jaguar Day! Jaguars are the largest wild cat native to the Americas, living throughout Central and South America. Adept climbers and swimmers, they can be found in forests, savannas, and wetlands hunting for deer and tapir. Due to deforestation, however, jaguars are faced with the fragmentation and loss of their habitat, and as their populations continue to decline the IUCN has identified them as a Near Threatened species.

For decades the Zoo’s Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife (CREW) has striven to increase the understanding of reproduction in cat species, and jaguars are one of the many focal species for the Imperiled Cat Signature Project. CREW has pioneered assisted reproductive technologies, including artificial insemination (AI) and cryopreservation techniques, that help secure species’ futures by combatting population decline.

In fact, in 2019 CREW made history after the world’s first jaguar cub from AI was born!  The birth is a result of an AI procedure performed by scientists from CREW and represents a major scientific advancement for the conservation of this species.

Photos by John Towey – Palm Beach Zoo & Conservation Society