A cherished black jaguar at a big cat sanctuary near Fresno has died after a rattlesnake bite, officials said.
Project Survival Cat Haven in Dunlap said Samba, a 14- or 15-year-old jaguar, was taken urgently to an emergency veterinary clinic after caretakers discovered puncture wounds on her foot, along with significant swelling in her left paw and leg.
“She was bit by a rattlesnake and we gave her two vials of antivenom,” Dale Anderson, the sanctuary’s executive director, told the California Post.
The antivenom appeared to make a difference at first, but Samba’s condition later worsened, and she did not survive.
“Why didn’t she recover? We don’t know,” Anderson said.
Anderson remembered Samba, who was born at Project Survival Cat Haven, as “such a great cat.”
“We hand raised her. She was one of the sweetest jaguar cubs we had,” he said.
The sanctuary later shared emotional photos of Samba from the emergency room, showing her before and after her death.
RELATED: How Many Americans Use Marijuana Now? New Data May Surprise
Anderson said whenever one of the sanctuary’s cats dies, a necropsy is performed to determine what caused the animal’s death. They are currently awaiting the results.
Samba is the second cat this year to be bitten by a snake at the sanctuary, after only one bite per year over the past half-decade, according to Anderson.
He added that when snakes are caught, they are relocated on sanctuary grounds.
“We’re a conservation facility. I don’t want to just kill snakes because they live there,” Anderson told KMPH.
“We just need to move them to someplace else on the property away from the cats.”
Samba becomes the latest rattlesnake victim in California, following an uptick in snakebites this year.
The latest involved a Los Angeles County woman who was hospitalized after an aggressive rattlesnake bit her and returned to strike her pet cat.
In July, a Santa Clarita Valley resident was bitten on the foot while tending to her rose bushes.
In May, a victim in Oroville required a hospital’s entire supply of anti-venom after being bitten twice by a rattlesnake.
Officials say California is on pace for roughly 20% more rattlesnake bites this year after an unusually warm spring brought the serpents out of hibernation earlier than normal.
