Zoo jaguar celebrates 25th Birthday                                           
December 07, 2005

º “Sheba” was donated to the Zoo by the Downtown Lions Club in May of 1990

“Sheba,” an endangered jaguar is the oldest "big" cat at the El Paso Zoo. On Thursday, December 8 she turns 25 years old, a "ripe old age" for a jaguar in captivity. Jaguars seldom live longer than 20 years. At 4pm Zoo keepers will give Sheba a special “meat cake” to celebrate her birthday. The public is invited to come and watch her eat her birthday dinner minus any candles.

Wild animals tend to live longer in captivity than they do in the wild due to special care, regular medical checkups and lack of encounters with the adverse forces of nature. In the wild, predators like the jaguar, have to deal with the increased problems in hunting for food as they get older and injuries caused by fights with other animals.

Jaguars are threatened by hunting and habitat destruction. In recent years jaguars moving north from Mexico have been spotted in New Mexico and Arizona. Conservationists hope that they will be successful in re-inhabiting former parts of their range in the Southwest.

For more information about the Zoo’s animals visit the “2004 Best of the Border” website at www.elpasozoo.org.