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NaturePunk — The Intensity of Jaguar Eyes
Published: 2011-08-19 07:30:32 +0000 UTC; Views: 13918; Favourites: 325; Downloads: 0
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Description
Nayla, a female jaguar at the Woodland Park Zoo, poses on her log for Victoria, David, and I as we all shoot frantically with our cameras. She looked up just in time, and I was so amazed by her lovely eyes that I almost forgot to hold down the shutter!Nayla is the only jaguar I have seen in captivity thus far, but I am wildly impressed by her looks (and exceptional skills at posing!). The natural foliage incorporated into her enclosure helps, too, since it reduces the chaces of getting that obnoxious chain-link or plexiglass shine in the frame. She really looks like she's in the wild!
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Comments: 60
Hello,
I was wondering if you would mind it if i would make a vector out of your beautiful photograph.
Thank you for reading, have a nice day
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do you happen to know or remember what species of jaguar she is?
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She is of a subspecies that originates from Brazil.
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Hi, I was wondering if I can use this breathtaking photo for a project in Art class. It's for the Houston Livestock Rodeo and I can't think of a better picture to draw than this jaguar. Please let me know as soon as possible if you're okay with me using your work. Thank you.
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I'd like to use this as a reference for a watercolor paiting.
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I don't normally allow use of my wildlife photography to be used for reference if the painting is intended for sale. Please let me know what you wish to do with the finished product before you proceed.
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am i allowed to use this as a reference painting as well? i wont do anything commercially with it, no da prints or anything, i'll just upload it onto da and recieve feedback. is that okay? c: i'll credit you always ^^
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That would be acceptable. And thank you for asking.
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alright, thank you and no problem ^^
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I probably won't sell it if I do make a painting of it. I have never sold any of my paintings and if I did I would just sell prints. I never plan to sell the originals. I have no idea how to make or sell prints, so if I do make a watercolor paiting from this, I'll probably keep it for myself. I might scan it and upload it to Deviant Art, and would give you credit of course.
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That's fine. Thanks for letting me know. Be sure to remember to credit me.
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Absolutely beautiful shot! The colours are amazing, and her eyes - WOW.
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AH-MA-ZING!!!
Magnificent shot of this marvelous creature!
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Gorgeous shot! I love the sharpness 
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Thank you! And I agree about the angle of her face. The keepers spray perfume on the log she's sitting on and she rubs her cheeks against it like a lady in a powder room! This was the moment that she looked up when a kid tapped on the glass across from me.
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They spray perfume? Why? Nice timing
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It's for enrichment purposes. She seems to love it, so they put it in different parts of her enclosure so she can enjoy running around looking for it and then rubbing herself in it - just keeps her brain occupied like a puzzle would for a bored child in a daycare. It's a common issue in zoos that must often be dealt with creatively, and this is what seems to work best for Nayla. It's very cute to watch, too!
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Oh right! That's great
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I'm not a big fan of seeing animals in Zoos especially Jaguars, they should be out in the wild and left in their habitat. But, she definitely is beautiful. You took a great photo. Hopefully one day things will change for the better for our fellow earthly brothers and sisters.
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I only support AZA-accredited zoos because I don't believe that animals should be kept in captivity UNLESS they can contribute to conservation. It's a common misconception that zoos take animals out of the wild; The jaguar in the photo (and all other animals in AZA-accredited zoos) are actually descended from breeding stock captured over a hundred years ago or more in order to increase genetic diversity of captive wildlife (in other words, they could not survive in the wild to begin with because they lack the skills and understanding to do so). Likewise, they often live much longer, healthier lives than wild individuals because they're so well cared-for in captivity.
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I can understand n maybe agree with everything you said until you said "They often live much longer, healthier lives than wild individuals because they're so well cared-for in captivity." Theres no ways you can tell me a Jaguar or any "wild" animals life is better in a zoo or captivity of any kind than their natural habitat. Thats their home, where they were born to be, meant to be, unbounded and free. And freedom comes with risks/danger no two ways about it..
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Actually, I can tell you that a zoo animal's life is better in captivity than in the wild. Depending on the species, they've been known to live three times as long in zoos than they do in the wild on account of the better care, lack of competition with other animals, and medical assistance when it's needed.
Simply put, an animals' instinct is based upon their ability to live a long life, NOT on their understanding of freedom. We anthropomorphise zoo animals and think they must long to be free because we are used to being free ourselves. We see them lounging on logs, sleeping most of the day, and think they must be bored. But if a jaguar in the wild had nothing to worry about just the same as a jaguar in captivity, guess what? He'd be doing the exact same thing.
The reality of the matter is that jaguars in the wild don't seek out the largest territories they can find - they seek out the BEST ones. If everything they need is located within a small radius, they will not leave that area unless they are forced out by competition, or looking for a mate - and Nayla has no competition and shares her enclosure with her mate in captivity already.
Simply put, an animal in a zoo is like a jaguar in the wild that has the best territory - everything it needs in located within a small turf, and there are no challengers there to fight off. Plus, they have food catered to them, and are provided medical care when it's needed. Thus, their life expectancy is vastly larger than it is for animals in the wild.
Besides, a jaguar born in captivity has no knowledge of life outside its enclosure. Setting it free would be more cruel than keeping it there - nothing short of a death sentence.
In addition, there is the blatant fact that captive breeding programs may be the only way to save the species some day. Having a healthy genepool is paramount to their survival, and captive breeding programs like the SSP have already proven to be highly effective in the case of such rare animals as California condors and black-footed ferrets. Overseas, the same is true of giant pandas and Bengal tigers.
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No,
There's no anthropomorphizing at all. It's about respecting them to be who they are, period. If that means they live life as a Jaguar, and that life entails all the benefits and obstacles and dangers equalling a shorter life then so be it. So, you'd take them out of their natural habitat and say their life is better cause they would live so much longer? That's not how I feel at all.
It's not about them understanding freedom, we understand- or should understand freedom enough. It's their life, this is the utter arrogance some people have that they think they can snatch up a creature from their world and say what we offer is better than what nature can. I'm a firm believer that mother nature knows well enough the balance of things, and mankind thinks they can do better, for themselves and other living creatures out there. The results have turned out fabulous haven't they? Maybe we are not talking about the same thing, but that's what I'm talking about. Respect. Period. Leave em be. Their lives are better in a zoo- they live longer- etc. That's nonsense. We're assuming that we "know" the ins and outs of that delicate balance of species and co-dependency that we have.
You don't know what you are talking about when your talking about what a Jaguars life is or isn't in the wild as compared to what they are like in a Zoo, have you ever been a Jaguar? No.. Maybe in a past life who knows- but your logic is based on much assumptions. One thing is fact, wild animals tend to be much sharper and more intelligent than animals that are born and held in captivity cause they have all kinds of stimulation and educations from nature and the wild that are rotated around survival. It's like someone that boxes in a gym all the time can never compare to a boxer who is sharpened by having real fights. There's a different level there. It's pompous to assume what is what and never experience. Respect what you dont know is that I'm saying. Science, Medicine is just barely scratching the surface about understanding the nature of this planet or just us as human beings.
Lemme ask you something... So, since it lacks the understanding of the concept of "freedom" does it loose its right to have it?
I agree with you about the part where an animal being born in captivity shouldn't just be dumped out into the wild.. Yet there you are using the logic that we must respect and protect it. So you understand then there is a respect and a right your affording it. Not being cruel is treating it "lovingly". Affording it the right to live "peacefully". But it doesnt understand the concept of "peace" or "love", so that contradicts your last point about understanding freedom. If your last point stands then since they dont understand those concepts then they deserve neither.
Yet I think they do.. They cannot articulate it but they EXPERIENCE it.
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No one is taking any wild animal out of the wild, hun. Chill out. And if a jaguar born in captivity doesn't have the skill to survive in the wild, why worry about it? By this logic, it SHOULD live in captivity, or it will simply die.
Any jaguar born at a zoo will be unfit to survive in the wild, we've already confirmed this. Yet do you suggest we stop breeding them in zoos altogether? We can still use their semen to impregnate wild females and increase the genetic diversity of the species in the wild, and that, to me, is worth more than anything else.
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