One of the territory's most pampered fat cats has been judged to be in less than perfect condition and has been put on a diet to trim her down.
Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens manager Horace Wat Chi-chuen protested yesterday that Spottie the jaguar was not excessively over weight but he agreed she was 'a bit fat'.
Her food was weighed every day. 'We have cut her food down from six pounds of meat a day to four pounds, over the last two months, and one day a week we fast her,' he said.
Nine-year-old Spottie was born in Berlin Zoo and imported to the botanical gardens in 1990 to mate with Blackie who was born in the territory.
She was unlikely to be pregnant, as some observers had speculated, because she and the male jaguar had fought since the birth of their cubs in 1992 and were rarely put together.
'They are using the cage alternately. They can see each other in the night cage where they are separated by wire mesh.
'We try to put them together but we watch them very carefully and sometimes they get rough, maybe the male tries to mate and she tries to get away and we have to separate them,' Mr Wat said.