WATCH: Technicians Train Jaguars At Norristown Zoo

Prowling up and down the length of her exhibit, Inka the jaguar eyes her incoming visitors.

Her sinewy frame is full muscles that seem coiled like springs, hinting at the power lurking beneath her spotted coat.

The chain-link fence seems a formality as she rears up against it, standing on her hind legs and flexing her claws through the holes.

But as the visitors approach Inka her demeanor is playful. One technician slips a treat through the bars and sticks her with an injection needle at the same time.

Inka takes the treat and the needle and continues trotting back and forth, unperturbed.

It’s called injection training, and it’s part of a daily routine between Inka and her keepers.

“When you take a pet to go to the vet, it doesn’t like to get shots,” one technician said. “This way, it happens every day, it’s not a bad thing, it’s not scary, it’s actually a positive thing.”

Veterinarians also teach Inka to follow hand signals.

“This can be used later on if we ever need to do things like ultrasounding, check her body, check her paws.”

Eventually, technicians say, Inka even leans into the needle, showing that she is accepting the activity of receiving a needle and a treat at once.

Due to overhunting, jaguars have become extremely rare, and are only found in spare pockets of habitat in South and Central America.

Inka and her fellow jaguar Zean are located across from the Duck Pond in the center of the zoo.

Photo courtesy of the Elmwood Park Zoo