Jaguar Facts

The jaguar (Panthera onca) is the largest and most powerful cat of the Western Hemisphere, averaging up to 1.8 metres in length, not including the tail, and ranging in weight from 36 - 158 kilograms. A mature jaguar is powerfully built, with a massive head and shoulders, and thick, fairly short legs.

Jaguars are rarely seen in the wild due to their shy nature and their well-camouflaged coats. Most jaguars are yellowish to tawny in colour, spotted with large black rosettes or rings. Black (melanistic) and nearly all white (albino) jaguars are occasionally born.

HISTORY

The jaguar – symbol of power, strength and beauty – was worshipped as a god by early indigenous cultures, including the Aztecs, the Olmecs and the Maya. The name "jaguar" comes from a native Indian word meaning "the killer that takes its prey in a single bound."

DIET

Jaguars are accomplished, versatile hunters. They will catch and eat almost anything, including monkeys, capybaras, deer, peccaries, birds, turtles, snakes and iguanas. Jaguars may also eat plants and fruit such as avocado.

BEHAVIOUR

Jaguars hunt mostly on the ground around dusk and dawn, but can climb well and sometimes will ambush prey by leaping from ledges or tree limbs.

Jaguars are excellent swimmers and have been seen swimming between islands, wading in shallow pools of water on hot days, and leaping into ponds and streams after fish and other aquatic life.

Jaguars are solitary except during mating, and have home ranges that can be as small as 10 or as large as 180 square kilometres.

HABITAT & DISTRIBUTION

Jaguars prefer to live in thick tropical forests, swamps, coastal mangroves and lowland river valleys – areas with good cover and access to fresh water – but they have been known to hunt in dry, open scrubland when necessary.

The range of the jaguar has shrunk greatly in the last 100 years from over-hunting and loss of their tropical forest habitat. Jaguars once ranged from southwestern and southeastern United States to southern South America. Today this magnificent animal is an endangered species, rare except in parts of southern Mexico, Central America and South America.

PRINCIPAL THREATS

As with many of the world's endangered animals, the jaguar is mainly threatened by human activities, such as habitat destruction and poaching for skins.

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