Melanistic Jaguar

This Jaguar exhibit was open-topped until 2014, when a child fell into the enclosure and was attacked.

The exhibit when I visited the zoo in 2012:

@snowleopard It still is open topped, just with mesh fencing all around. (If I may offer a piece of personal philosophy, colloquially and somewhat jokingly I would call this "idiot-proofing". I understand wanting to give your child a better view (not referring to that specific parent but rather parents in general), but JAGUARS ARE STILL JAGUARS.)

A good design (if one were to do an open-topped jaguar exhibit) would include a planter in between the fence and the moat, with plants indicative of the animal's native region in said planters. Maybe something akin to North Carolina's lion viewing area, where there's a standoff barrier, a glass fence (for easier sight) and then the drop. I'd say this option would work if you were to display jaguars in a more mountainous/desert-like context, in terms of the Andes or the Sonora Desert. In terms of something like the Pantanal or the Amazon, glass and netting is typically the way to go for a more intimate, hummocky, swampy experience. (Jaguar Cove displays this brilliantly)