These large cats are often confused with the leopard Panthera pardus in zoos but would not be in the wild, due to the fact that the leopard is found in Africa and Asia, while the jaguar calls Central and South America home. Formerly found in the extreme southern USA, jaguar are thought to be extirpated from there. Two sightings in New Mexico in 1997 were thought to be wandering cats from the Mexican population.

Jaguars are relatively larger and heavier set than the leopard, with a broader head and shorter, thicker legs and tail than the African cat. The short, stiff coat varies from pale gold through yellowish brown to a rusty red ground colour. The coat is marked with black spots on the head, neck, limbs, and dark blotches on the white to light buff underparts. The shoulders, back and flanks have spots, forming broken-edged rosettes that enclose one or more dots in a field darker than the ground colour. Melanism is common and albinistic individuals are occasionally reported. Forest jaguars are not only more frequently darker, but are also considerably smaller than animals living in open areas.

The head is heavy set, with a broad muzzle, and irises of golden yellow to light greenish yellow. Their ears are relatively small, short and rounded, with black back sides and white central spots. The short, stocky legs have broad footpads, and the tail is relatively short and thick, entirely spotted, and black tipped.

Jaguars are strongly associated with water, and thrive in riverine forest habitat, alongside rivers, lakes and streams. They are also found in seasonally flooded lowland rainforest, drier scrub forests and grasslands such as the Brazilian Pantanal and the Venezuelan Llanos. While jaguars have been reported from elevations as high as 3,800 metres in Costa Rica, they have not been found above 2,700 metres in the Andes.

Although they are very good swimmers and climbers, most of their hunting is done on the ground. More than 85 species have been recorded in their diet. Prey is usually stalked or ambushed, and carcasses may be dragged some distance to cover. While large prey such as tapirs, peccaries, and deer are preferred, the jaguar will eat almost anything they can catch, such as agoutis, capybara, sloths, monkeys, skunks, porcupines, coatis, otters, armadillos, birds, caimans, iguanas, snakes, turtles and fish. In many areas, cattle are ranched on prime jaguar habitat, and have been the most frequent prey species taken in Brazil and Venezuela.

Primarily nocturnal, radio telemetry studies have shown they are often active during the day, with activity peaks at dusk and dawn. They are basically solitary and territorial, marking mostly with urine. Home range sizes vary from 33 square km (males) and 10 square km (females) in the Yucatan Peninsula, to 142 square km for both sexes in Brazil.

The female is polyestrous year round, with no specific breeding season over most of their range. In the northern part of their range, breeding appears to take place in December and January, with cubs being born in April and May. At birth, cubs are furred with a long, woolly, pale buff pelage, heavily marked with round black spots and narrow black facial stripes. A female’s receptive period lasts about 13 days. One to four cubs are born after a gestation period of 90 - 105 days. They weigh 700 - 900 grams at birth, open their eyes after 11 - 13 days, start walking around 18 days, eat solid food at around 70 days, and are weaned at four to five months of age. The young stay with the female for up to two years, and attain full size and sexual maturity at two to three years for females, and three to four years for males. Captive animals have lived up to 22 years.

Jaguars are thought to have originally evolved from a leopard-like ancestor in Eurasia, and to have immigrated to North America via the Bering land bridge. Initially larger than they are now, a decrease in size and a shortening of the limbs is thought to have happened during the Pleistocene. This shortening of the legs may be an adaptation to being active in a three dimensional world of climbing, running and swimming.

These are the largest cats in the western hemisphere. Their name comes from ‘yaguara’, a native Indian term which, loosely translated, means ‘a beast that kills its prey with one bound’. Many Central and South American native tribes have had jaguar images as a dominant feature of their cultures. Throughout Mayan history, the jaguar symbolized the night sun of the underworld, which personified fear, night terrors and death. The Amazonian Tucano Indians believed that the sun created the jaguar as his representative on earth. The Olmecs of Mexico, as well as many other peoples, deified these cats and built massive monuments devoted to their worship.

The Amazon rainforest is the key stronghold of these cats, and densities may be as high as one resident per 15 square km. This refuge is of sufficient size to conserve the species in large numbers for the foreseeable future. However, populations have declined in most other areas and have been eliminated from much of the northern parts of their range, as well as the scrub grassland in the south.

While commercial exploitation for their skin is no longer a factor, jaguars still face local extirpation at the hands of cattle ranchers. Deforestation rates are highest in Central America, and fragmentation of forest habitat isolates jaguar populations so that they are more vulnerable to the predations of man. Jaguars are frequently shot on sight, despite protective legislation. A conservation plan has been developed in Brazil, and the government is planning to establish a National Centre for Research, Management and Conservation of Predators to address livestock-predator problems.

While jaguars are fully protected (on paper) over much of their range, Ecuador and Guyana offer no legal protection. Hunting of ‘problem animals’ is allowed in Brazil, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru. CITES has placed these cats on Appendix I.

 
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