Here is a photo of the den-like area, where I've often seen the cat sleeping away the day. It really is the best opportunity to see the jaguar, as the enclosure is so lushly planted that the cat can hide rather easily. Woodland Park isn't a zoo that really seems to care whether or not the public gets to see the animals, as many of the exhibits are spacious, naturalistic and packed with all kinds of greenery.
I'm sure the staff at the zoo would disagree with the statement that they "don't care whether or not the public gets to see the animals." There was a very significant effort there a few years ago to measure and improve animal visibility, as it was one of the biggest complaints of visitors. Enrichment, vegetation trimming, new viewing areas, and other exhibit modifications including--Horrors!!!--hotwires, were all employed to increase the likelihood of seeing animals. We zoo nerds may appreciate animal enclosures even if animals are not easily viewed in them, but the vast majority of those whose visits pay the bills will not be satisfied with a lush jungle with no animals.
The comment in relation to the appearance of animals was more tongue in cheek than anything else, and I know that Woodland Park has been criticized many times in the past for the lack of visibility of some of the species. I go every few months and hardly ever see the sun bears, red ruffed lemurs, and a few other well-concealed specimens. I know that in the past couple of years there has been a number of new animals (zebra, gazelle, ostrich) added to the African Savanna, more colobus monkeys added to their exhibit (a group of 5 came over from DAK) and several improvements to the overgrown vegetation in some enclosures. Typical zoo fans simply have to be patient at this establishment.
It is one of my favorite zoos, but I think when it was being re-conceived in the 70s the planners and zoo staff who made it happen were hoping to "retrain" zoogoers to patiently search for animals "like in the wild": doesn't work for the stroller crowd that makes up the majority of zoo visitors, sadly.
At least they have real animals, even if hiding much of the time. They'd probably have robots now if David Hancocks had stayed on. Does anyone else remember his absurd idea for the ASDM Jaguar exhibit in 'A Different Nature'? Instead of keeping an alive Jaguar, the sounds of one would be played in the exhibit. I.e. the visitors would be looking into an empty exhibit, only the sounds would be heard as played from a tape or CD. That's about as exciting as putting your paints on in the morning and sure would have kept the visitors coming in.
