UPDATE: July 14, 3:40 p.m.

Our animals are our family. We are devastated by this loss. We are mourning the loss of six animals that did not survive and three animals injured (one alpaca named Daisy and two foxes called Copper and Rusty) that are under professional animal care.

The names of the alpaca that did not survive were Noel, Micia, Alexandria, and Lil Melody. The fox was named Maggie Mae and the emu was called Elmo.

The team responded immediately to the incident. Veterinarians had to prepare tranquilizers and position themselves to get a good line of sight. Once darted, the jaguar was sedated within minutes.

We are still investigating how this happened. From our initial inspection, it appears the roof of the habitat was compromised. We are still investigating, and no animals will be housed in this enclosure until the investigation and repairs are completed.

The safety of our guests, staff, volunteers, and animals is our #1 priority. We are taking this incident very seriously and working to investigate what happened to prevent a similar occurrence in the future.

We perform drills annually and have protocols for this exact situation to ensure that emergencies of this kind are resolved as safely and quickly as possible.

Audubon Zoo is home to two jaguars. The female, Ix Chel was safe in a separate indoor habitat during the incident.

Valerio was born March 2015 at San Diego Zoo and moved to Audubon Zoo in October 2017.

Both animals are receiving exceptional care behind the scenes while we investigate and make improvements. The jaguar habitat will be closed tomorrow, July 15, but the rest of the Zoo will reopen.

This is a sad day for the Audubon family including our staff, volunteers, supporters, and our community. We are offering grief counseling to our staff to ensure they are supported during this time. We appreciate the overwhelming support and the many condolences from the community on social media.