jaguar facts

27/10/2022

27/10/2022

jaguar, (Panthera onca), also called el tigre or tigre americano, largest New World member of the cat family (Felidae), found from northern Mexico southward to northern Argentina. Its preferred habitats are usually swamps and wooded regions, but jaguars also live in scrublands and deserts. The jaguar is virtually extinct in the northern part of its original range and survives in reduced numbers only in remote areas of Central and South America; the largest known population exists in the Amazon rainforest.

Typical coloration is orange to tan, with black spots arranged in rosettes with a black spot in the centre. The jaguar resembles the leopard of Africa and Asia, but the leopard lacks the black centre spot. Along the midline of the jaguar’s back is a row of long black spots that may merge into a stripe. The base colour of the jaguar varies greatly from white to black. Although brown and black jaguars appear to be solid-coloured, spots are always faintly visible.

Jaguars are also larger and more heavily built than leopards. The male jaguar, which is generally larger than the female, attains a length of 1.7–2.7 metres (5.6–9 feet), including the 0.6–0.9-metre (2–3-foot) tail, with a shoulder height of 0.7–0.8 metre (2.3–2.6 feet); it weighs from 100 to 160 kg (220 to 350 pounds). South American jaguars are larger than those of Central America. The jaguar is grouped along with lions and tigers with the big, or roaring, cats and is the only such cat in the Western Hemisphere. Its sound repertoire includes snarls, growls, and deep hoarse grunts.

A solitary predator, the jaguar is a stalk-and-ambush hunter; its name comes from yaguar, the Tupí-Guaraní word meaning “he who kills with one leap.” Jaguars are swift and agile and are very good climbers. They enter water freely and appear to enjoy bathing. Although active during the day, jaguars hunt mainly at night and on the ground. Capybara and peccary are their preferred prey, but they will also take deer, birds, crocodilians, and fish. Livestock are occasionally attacked in areas where ranches have replaced natural habitat. The cat is a savage fighter when cornered but does not normally attack humans.

Jaguars adhere to a land tenure system much like cougars and tigers. Females establish overlapping home ranges, and female offspring may inherit land from their mothers. Males establish territories twice as large as females and overlap the ranges of several females. Both sexes mark their ranges with urine. Northern populations mate toward the end of the year, but in the tropics mating activity seems not to be restricted to a particular breeding season. After a gestation period of about 100 days, the female bears one to four tiny spotted cubs weighing 100–900 grams (less than 2 pounds) that do not open their eyes for 13 days. The mother raises the young for approximately two years. Full size and sexual maturity are reached at three to four years.

The geographic range of the jaguar once extended from the U.S.-Mexico border as far north as the Grand Canyon southward to Patagonia, Argentina. Habitat loss and fragmentation, trophy hunting, the illegal trade in body parts, and retaliatory killings stemming from the loss of livestock have reduced the jaguar’s geographic range and its population. Wildlife officials estimate that 64,000 jaguars remain, with some 89 percent of the global population living in the Amazon River basin. The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources has classified the jaguar as a near threatened species since 2002.

27/10/2022

The leopard varies greatly in size and markings. The average size is 50 to 90 kg (110 to 200 pounds) in weight, 210 cm (84 inches), excluding the 90-cm tail, in length, and 60 to 70 cm in shoulder height. The leopard can, however, grow much larger. The ground colour is typically yellowish above and white below. Dark spots are generally arranged in rosettes over much of the body and are without the central spot characteristic of the coat of the jaguar; the ground colour within the rosettes is sometimes a darker yellow, and the size and spacing of the spots vary greatly. As a result of these differences in pattern, several races of leopard have been named.

The leopard is a solitary animal of the bush and forest and is mainly nocturnal in habit, although it sometimes basks in the sun. It is an agile climber and frequently stores the remains of its kills in the branches of a tree. It feeds upon any animals it can overpower, from small rodents to waterbuck, but generally preys on the smaller and medium-sized antelopes and deer; it appears to have a special liking for dogs as food and, in Africa, for baboons. It sometimes takes livestock and may attack human beings.

There is no definite breeding season; the female produces two to four, usually three, cubs after a gestation period of about three months. The calls of the leopard vary and include a series of harsh coughs, throaty growls, and deep purring sounds. The animal takes to water readily and is a good swimmer.

25/10/2022

Lions, tigers, and jaguars have an elastic ligament called an epihyoideum behind their nose and mouth instead of a bony element like a domestic cat, giving them the ability to roar but not purr. A male jaguar roar is louder than a female's — as females have softer vocalizations unless they are in heat — but the two call and respond to each other using a specific series of calls during mating season. Sadly, this is often taken advantage of by poachers, who have developed methods to mimic the unique call.

11/10/2022

Uninformed people often confuse jaguars with leopards. They are really very similar in appearance, but the leopard is much smaller.

03/10/2022

It is an interesting fact that the jaguar, like a tiger, can swim quite well.
Despite their considerable size, jaguars are excellent at climbing trees.

19/09/2022

The largest jaguar weighed 158 kg, while it was not fat. But in general, the weight of these animals usually does not exceed 90-110 kg.