Jacksonville Zoo reassessing jaguar enclosure after incident at Audubon Zoo

The former curator for the Audubon Zoo is speaking out about the jaguar that escaped, killing nine animals.

Dan Maloney said, “I’ve never heard and we’ve never seen a situation like what happened in New Orleans.”

Maloney currently works as the deputy director of Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens.

He says the incident made zoos everywhere take a second look at their enclosures to prevent such an incident from happening again.

He said, “Certainly after this happened, we went through and looked at our attachment points to make sure we don’t see any weak areas.”

Zookeepers at the Jacksonville zoo inspect exhibits every day before the animals are let out.

They also say different steel meshes in enclosures can have different strengths.

Maloney also wonders if the alpaca’s proximity to the feline may have contributed to its motivation to escape.

The public relations spokeswoman for the Jacksonville Zoo, JJ Vitale, says all jaguars have different temperaments, and zoo workers have not seen their jaguars chew mesh or try to escape.

Cox Media Group