In the time of the Maya, jaguars were hailed as godly creatures and were respected with the utmost reverence. As time went by and the Mayan culture dissipated, the population of jaguars drastically and unfortunately decreased across Mundo Maya. With numbers dwindling down and being on the list of endangered species, jaguars across our jewel have been struggling to survive and most often, during the night, these creatures lurk in the dark in order to capture their prey which includes cattle, sheep and even dogs. So last night when we received a call that an Orange Walk Resident had captured a jaguar in his own back yard we knew it was a story worth following. Reporter Hipolito Novelo and Daniel Cawich traveled to an area known as Petville here in Orange Walk and captured the striking beauty of an animal that is as dangerous as it looks.

Hipolito Novelo-Reporting

Sixty six year old Fransico Magana and his family including his grandchildren, lives on this farm located approximately five miles out of Orange Walk Town. His humble home is surrounded by jungle and at night, since they have no electricity, the family’s only source of light is the moon.

According to Magana, over the past few years jaguars have devoured his livestock and approximately 10 of his dogs. Since the problem was getting out of control and for the safety of his family especially the young children, Magana decided to set a trap and capture at least one of the felines.

And indeed he did. Yesterday morning when Magana woke up this is what he found inside the trap, a female jaguar considered to be one of the most magnificent endangered creatures of Belize.

Fransisco Magana, Captured Jaguar

“Puse dos pollos y vino en jaguar y callo.”

Hipolito Novelo-Reporter

“Como a qué hora fue esto?”

Fransisco Magana, Captured Jaguar

“Como a las doce de la noche. Pues de día no, y en la noche uno esta acá y de día no sale ese animal. Es primera vez que viene a dar guerra acá pero de yo he visto otras clases de animales mucho tiempo”

Frustrated of being confined in the steel cage, the female jaguar displays its rage and strength with ferocious roars and threatening teeth.

If you have not noticed the animal’s canine tooth, which is crucial for this predator when hunting for her prey is missing. Her eagerness to get out of the cage and go back into the wild has also caused her to injure her nose and other parts of her face. But as we found out this female jaguar is going now where except straight to the Belize Zoon because when we left the area members of the Forestry Department were already on their way from Belmopan to pick her up.

The jaguar was confined in the cage for approximately 36 hours.

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And true to their word officials of the Forestry Department and the Belize Zoo came to pick the jaguar that would soon be a part of the Belize Zoo. Here is what happened when the group arrived at Magana’s residence.

Hilpolito Novelo-Reporting

At around 2:00 this afternoon officials arrived to transfer the jaguar to what would be her new home. And relocating the large cat proved to be no easy task. The animal had to be put to sleep, that of course was done with a tranquilizer. After the tranquilizer took its course, Shiela Schmeling, a veterinarian for over 30 years, took control.

Sheila Schmeling, Veterinarian

“We gave her enough drugs to put her to sleep so we can handle without danger to ourselves and without danger to her and it is much safer for her to put her to sleep right now because of this trip and then we gave her vaccination for rabies, a vaccination for various cat diseases and we gave her treatment for worms and we took blood from her to do a blood count to see how healthy she is, we weight her, we took her temperature, just the general physical exam to see how she was.  Mostly she is in good shape except she has some broken teeth and all of her claws are broken off real short because she was trying real hard to get out of the cage.”

With a weight of 85 pounds and a body temperature of 39 degrees Celsius the cat was undoubtedly in a healthy condition. Humbert Wohlers, who manages the Problem Jaguar Rehabilitation Program at the Belize Zoo, told us what the future of the jaguar is.

Humberto Wohlers, Belize Zoo

“Many people have not seen a Jaguar in their entire life and the only place they go and see Jaguars is at the zoo, so I think having a Jaguar educates, so that’s what we do we start up as an education and I would just like to thank the people who did what they had to do and it is apity that the Jaguar can’t go back into the wild.”

Humberto Wohlers, Belize Zoo

“The Jaguar that was trapped couple days ago is going back to the Belize Zoo rehabilitation Program specifically for Jaguars, where he’s going to undergo rehabilitation, this Jaguar no longer can’t be released and if you release it he’s going to come back and do the same problem again and so it is going to enter into the rehabilitation program and from there we will continue observing and working with the Jaguar, you know it cannot be a very tame Jaguar but at least we could work with her, we know it is a female.”

It’s is true that jaguars belong in the wild, but with acres of sugar cane encroaching on their habitat, the jaguars are force out.

It is also true that for the safety of these people, the jaguar was relocated to the zoo because as mentioned, if released back into the wild, it will go back to its bad habits.

The Belize Zoo recognizes that the Problem Jaguar Rehabilitation Program is not an answer to the problem, but it is much better than having one of Belize’s endangered species killed.

But what happened to the cage? The family was informed by Forestry Department Officials that the cage would be confiscated. But after the family insisted that it was for their protection the cage was left behind.

CTV3

Remember the female jaguar that was captured last week by a farmer living in the Petville area here in Orange Walk Town? Well, that feline crossed our minds today and we wanted to know how she was doing after being relocated to her new home at the Belize Zoo. In order to get that Information we contacted Humberto Wohlers, Animal Manager and Supervisor at the Belize Zoo who told us that apart from adapting to her new habitat, the jaguar also has a new name.

Humberto Wolhers - Animal Manager and Supervisor at Belize Zoo

“We name her Naranjas because it was originally from Orange Walk and the Jaguar is actually taking food from the keepers hand meaning that it is the first phase that we want to see the Jaguar, once it goes into the rehab center, that the Jaguar can actually approach the keeper and the keeper starts feeding through the mesh and there are some positive respond from the Jaguar meaning the she comes to the keeper and takes her food from his hand, that is one good step, the other one is that the Jaguar is not jumping around the cage, is not biting wires, none of that and that is another positive one and then the third one we want to say the Jaguar in a larger enclosure, we presently are working in an extension where the Jaguar can have a larger to run about and just go out and be a Jaguar.”

While trying to get out of the cage Naranja injured her nose, broke all her claws and lost two of her canine teeth. But not to worry says Wolhers because soon enough a specialist will take care of Naranaja’s teeth problems. In the meanwhile she is being treated with all the necessary care.

Humberto Wolhers - Animal Manager and Supervisor at Belize Zoo

“It takes the specialist to do this, if it could be a best dentist together with the doctor from Corozal and they both worked together and do the rest we can all do at the zoo. We don’t have a date yet, we just want to see the animal adjust to the zoo and start eating and there are no complications and then we could set time when we could do the root canal.”

Humberto Wolhers - Animal Manager and Supervisor at Belize Zoo

“We give them special care in the sense that when we feed, we crush the chicken, I know that there are some canines missing, one is an old broken canine and the other one is due to the trepid and so what we really do is to crush the chicken so that there is not a lot of problem in chewing a lot of bones and create an infection with that too.”

Naranja, who is the second female jaguar to form part of the Problem Jaguar Rehabilitation Program, is said to be 2 to 3 years of age. So far she is well behaved and is responding positively to the program. Viewers might recall that on Thursday January 5^th Naranja was captured by 66 year old Francisco Magana who told CTV3 News that over the past years jaguars that lurk around his farm have devoured a number of his livestock and approximately 10 dogs. Thinking of his grandchildren’s safety Magana decide to set a trap and that is how he was able to capture Naranja.

CTV3