Jaguars Do Not Make Good Pets

Don't even think about keeping a jaguar as a pet. It's a bad idea for everyone involved. In this story, someone bought a jaguar cub to keep as a pet. But then Khali grew, and the owner couldn't handle her anymore. A female jaguar can grow to six feet long and more than 200 pounds. She was then kept in a warehouse, where she was confused and terrified. That's when ONCA, a wildlife rehabilitation and advocacy organization, was called in. They took Khali to their facilities in the Bolivian Amazon.

The problem Khali presented was that she was no longer young enough to be adopted by a foster jaguar mother, but she wasn't at all familiar with the rain forest, so she couldn't be released -yet. ONCA volunteers took care of her in stages, from helping her to calm down to giving her gentle jungle experiences to taking her out in the forest to live in her own enclosure. That enclosure was enlarged to get her used to her new habitat. We hope that she'll eventually be able to strike out on her own in the rain forest where she belongs.