About Us

Jungle Encounters is privately owned and operated by the Willoughby family. The day-to-day operations are run by Debi Willoughby. Debi has a lifetime of experience working with animals. She has been lecturing with and training exotics since 1996. Jungle Encounters is a USDA and State licensed facility and is fully insured. We are a private facility located in Uxbridge, MA.

Debi worked at zoos for 7 years and gained the valuable experience she needed to start Jungle Encounters and care properly for her own exotic animals. She has taken care of all types of animals from mice to tigers and everything in between. During her years at the zoos she worked hands on training some amazing animals. Her most rewarding work at the zoo was training a White Tiger, African Leopard and a pair of African Servals. In April 2001 the Willoughby's formed Jungle Encounters to teach people about wildlife and conservation using a variety of small exotic animals. For 11 years Debi traveled performing thousands of shows at schools, libraries, birthday parties, camps, nursing homes and many more locations giving an educational and entertaining show with her animals. In May 2007 Jungle Encounters started offering a small wild cat show to raise awareness about small cats and to raise money to help them in the wild. This was an extremely popular show and very rewarding for Debi to do. In July 2011 Jungle Encounters decided to change the main focus of the business from general wild animal education to small wild cat conservation. Jungle Encounters is the only company in the New England area to offer a small wild cat show. The public loves to see wild cats and has made this show unbelievably popular! We are very proud to be able to offer this show to the public and strive to continue to expand on it and reach as many people as we can. The more people who know about small wild cat existence, the more donations we can raise to help them in the wild. You can learn more about this show on Our Show page.

Over the years we have met and worked with famous animal professionals and we have also met many amazing animals! Here are some pictures of some of the animals and people we have had the pleasure to meet and talk with:

Image Gallery

Siberian Tigers Debi giving two full grown siberian tigers, Tica & Thunder, a bottle for a treat.	Cheetah Debi visited leading cheetah conservationist Kathy Hilker's home and met her cheetah ambassadors.	Baby white tiger Debi holding a 1-day old bengal white tiger cub Zabu, which she later spent a lot of time training.
Dr. Jim Sanderson Debi and Jim Sanderson, leading small wild cat expert, showing off his prestigious Lotty Award.	Jane Goodall Debi met world reknown chimpanzee conservationist Jane Goodall, at an expo in NYC.	African Leopard Debi taking a break from training an African Leopard, Nitro.
Golden Tabby Tiger Debi bottle feeding a 3 year old Golden Tabby Tiger, Zephon.	Debi & Nigel Marvin Debi and Nigel Marvin, a Naturalist and Animal Planet TV host, picture taken at an FCF convention.	Liger Debi posing with the largest cat in the world, the liger, owned by T.I.G.E.R.S.