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Metrozoo's Jaguars Moving To The "Amazon"

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Nov 5, 2008 1:35 pm US/Eastern

Metrozoo's Jaguars Moving To The "Amazon"

Click Here To Visit Miami Metrozoo "Amazon And Beyond

MIAMI (CBS4) ― It's moving day for some of Miami Metrozoo's big cats.

A pair of jaguars were transferred to the zoo's newest exhibit Amazon and Beyond, the largest and most expensive project in Metrozoo's 28 year history, opening December 8th.

During the transfer, the pair was immobilized at Metrozoo's Quarantine facility where they had been since their arrival to Miami late last year.

They will then be taken to the zoo's veterinary hospital where they will get a thorough checkup including blood work, X-Rays, and a dental exam.

Once the exams are completed the animals will be transferred to Amazon and Beyond and placed in the jaguar holding facility where they will be allowed to recover from the anesthesia and wake up in their new home.

Scheduled for its Grand Opening on December 6th, 2008, Amazon and Beyond will feature more than 600 animals including giant river otters, harpy eagles whose claws are the size of grizzly bear claws and anacondas. The 27 acre exhibit is divided into three areas that surround the center Fiesta Plaza, the Cloud Forest, Amazon Forest and Atlantic Forest.

The Fiesta Plaza will be the center of it all and the point of entry. Artifacts like dugout canoes and musical instruments from Central and South America will transport visitors to the wild tropics.

In the Cloud Forest area visitors will see prowling, slithering and flying creatures found nowhere else in the world including brilliantly hued hummingbirds, exotic butterflies, howler monkeys and squirrel monkeys that will swiftly travel through the canopy of the tropical forest.

Visitors can become acquainted with Quetzacoatl, the Feathered-Serpent deity of ancient Central America and one of the main gods of many Mexican and northern Central American civilizations for close to 2,000 years. The area will also feature deadly snakes and insects with hundreds of legs including venomous eyelash vipers, the fer-de-lance (one of the deadliest snakes in Tropical America), giant millipedes and Mexican red-legged tarantulas along with colorful poison dart frogs and red-eyed tree frogs.

In the Amazon Forest visitors will experience both the dry and wet season on each side of the exhibit. Rivers and streams overflow their banks, flooding the region's forests and creating a new habitat where fish like the giant pacu munch on tree fruits and birds dive to escape danger. The exhibit will also feature Freshwater Stingray Encounter, where guests can feed hungry stingrays, large anacondas and Orinoco crocodiles which are considered the largest predators in South America growing to lengths of 16 feet and weighing almost 1,000 pounds.

In the Atlantic Forest region, visitors will wander through more than 10,000 plant species, half of which are unique to this area. The region will feature more than 50 mammals, 90 amphibians, 188 birds and 10,000 trees unique to the area.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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