CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - Akron Zoo officials announced that their female jaguar named Naom was recently diagnosed with cancer.
“Because we realized almost everyone’s lives have been impacted by cancer, we wanted to share her story and walk through this process together,” the Akron Zoo wrote on Facebook.
Zookeepers said that the jaguar was just diagnosed with a malignant tumor on her mammary gland. It appears as a mass on her abdomen.
The tumor was noticeably growing each day, zoo officials said. The malignant mammary tumor is spreading aggressively to other parts of her body.
The 18-year-old jaguar has multiple litters of cubs.
“Naom is very confident, sassy, very smart,” said Jenny the jaguar keeper. “She kind of rules the whole zoo here.”
The tumor is inoperable because of the growth of the mass and due to Naom’s age, The average life expectancy of a jaguar is 18 years old.
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