by Zac Clemens

Hey eco-tourists seeking Nicaragua’s native flora and fauna, there’s a way to hedge your bet and be sure to see the country’s rarer wildlife: go to the National Zoo. The nature minded, and anyone looking for a way to spend a pleasant afternoon, can see not only a variety of indigenous wildlife, but plant life as well.

Six species of big cats can be found in the zoo’s collection, four of which —the margay, ocelot, puma and jaguar— are indigenous to Nicaragua’s northern rainforests.

The orange and black spotted jaguar is the king predator of Central America, inhabiting terrain from rainforest treetops to grassland savannas and preying on everything from cattle and horses to deer and caiman. Their taste for livestock —and the trafficking of their hides— has made them hunted to near extinction.