Sylvia the Jaguar Dies from Renal Failure

Over the weekend, the Belize Zoo issued a statement on its social media pages on the passing of Sylvia the Jaguar. Sylvia was an ambassador wild cat that has been a part of the Belize Zoo family for six years and easily became one of the animals with whom visitors developed a bond with. Unfortunately, last week her health deteriorated and to end her suffering, Sylvia was euthanized. News Five’s Duane Moody visited with the zoo today where we spoke with lead zookeeper Roxana Lemus.  

Duane Moody, Reporting

It is a sad time right now for the Belize Zoo having lost one of its jaguar ambassadors, Sylvia. Sylvia became part of the zoo family back in 2017. She was already an adult wild cat and was named after the village of Sylvester in the north.

Roxana Lemus, Lead Zookeeper, The Belize Zoo

Roxana Lemus

“We got Sylvia in May of 2017. She’s a rescue jaguar. When she came she was already an adult. She was rescued from Sylvester Village up north and so to honor the community that saved her, we named her Sylvia. The people in the community there didn’t want her to be lethally killed because she was hunting their dogs. So they called the zoo and we went and assisted with rescuing her and she lived her last years here happily.”

Lead zookeeper Roxana Lemus says that Sylvia captured the hearts of many visitors – Belizeans and tourists alike – with her playful personality.

Roxana Lemus

“She touched the heart of many people and also her keepers, especially us that worked closely with her. We had a very good relationship with her. We did so many enrichments with her.  And doing the enrichments with her didn’t only enrich her, but also enriched us because we get to enjoy seeing her being playful and in that very calm and playful mood. But also the guests that came around. She impacted a lot of guests and students, especially Belizean kids that came on school trips. She was always so charismatic and very friendly – not in a tame way, but she was very people friendly that she would come up when you call her and she interacted nicely with people. We even had the meet and greet a jaguar and we used her and she would come to the fence and put her palm up and guests would get to see closely how their paws are, you get to see their claws and all of that impacted people because it teaches them about these majestic creatures.”

Last week, the management at the zoo made the difficult decision to euthanize Sylvia after her health had deteriorated. Lemus says that she was diagnosed with renal failure.

Roxana Lemus

“Just like our regular house cats, when they get older, they suffer a lot of renal failure so that was her problem, she had renal failure. Their wellbeing is very important to us so making those hard decisions of humanely euthanizing one of your animals is tough, but we know it is for their better cause you don’t want to see them suffering. We knew she was having renal difficulties because we check our cats or all our animals get veterinary checkups regularly, at least once a year. So through ultrasounds, through x-rays, we monitor all our animals so we knew that Sylvia had kidney problems, but it wasn’t that bad. But after, just like us humans, it develops over time as we age. So her being critically ill was just like a matter of three days to four days and we had to make that decision.”

Sylvia’s memory lives on in those with whom she interacted. And Lemus says that they want to remember the fun times with her.

Roxana Lemus

“I’ve been with her since 2017 since she got here until her last days. And it is hard because we build really close relationships with them. And so it is like losing one of your friends or families because you get really attached to them. We keep her memory alive here at the zoo by just talking about Sylvia. We have so many pictures, videos of her. Like when we made the post of Sylvia, we had so many guests share their experiences with her so I am pretty sure that she is going to live in the memories of all the persons that met her and that she impacted their lives.”

Duane Moody for News Five.