Species Hang in the Balance

BINOMIAL NAME:

Panthera Onca

ANATOMICAL PROPORTIONS:

7-8.5 ft. long (tip-to-tail)/ 2-2.5 ft. tall/ 115-250 lbs. (rare outliers have reached up to 350 lbs.)

POPULATION (APPROXIMATE):

4,000 < ? (Insufficient Data)

CONSERVATION STATUS:

NEAR THREATENED

DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT:

Preferably dense, lowland rainforests (and very rarely swamps, deserts and dry grasslands) of southern Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Panama, El Salvador, Ecuador, Uruguay, Guatemala, Peru, Columbia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Surinam, Guyana, and French Guiana (predominantly South America)

DIET:

Up to 87 prey species, including (but not limited to) large mammals (e.g. capybaras, peccaries, tapirs, deer, sloths), small mammals (e.g. monkeys, rodents, armadillos, pacas, and foxes), reptiles (e.g. caimans, anacondas, turtles, and frogs), birds, and fish

SPECIES THREATS:

Deforestation and human encroachment are the most significant threats facing the jaguar.

Because of the increased presence of farmland and livestock, jaguars will opportunistically prey on domestic cattle, and are often shot on sight by farmers.

Once openly hunted for its spotted coat, now jaguar poaching and trophy hunting is illegal in almost every country where it exists, with the exception of Bolivia, Ecuador, and Guyana.

UNIQUE FACTS:

Because of the rainforest's relative inaccessibility, scientists have limited research and data on wild jaguar populations. The big cat is also reclusive, elusive, and shy, which complicates the task of surveying them in their natural habitat.

One of the jaguar's well-known features is its style of predation---it prefers to administer "kill bites" to the back of the skull, rather than to the jugular (though it does use this technique), which is unusual, among big cats.

The jaguar is not only the third largest cat in the world, it is the largest feline in North America.

There are only a few, melanistic cat species in the wild, and the jaguar is perhaps the largest and most pervasive of them all (occurring in approximately 6% of the population, and possibly due to its dark, and densely vegetated rainforest habitat). Black jaguars (the term "black panther" is a misnomer) retains its spots---its coat only appears entirely black, when viewed from a distance.

Jaguars were (and still are) an extremely important spiritual figure, for many Central and South American indigenous cultures. The cat's power and strength was highly revered, and oft deified by indigenous people. The ancient Mayan god of the underworld was a jaguar,and was supposedly responsible for each setting sun, as well as communing with the dead. In Aztec mythology, the jaguar was a powerful animal totem, emblematic and symbolic of their greatest warrior rulers.

DEVOTED ORGANIZATION:

Northern Jaguar Project

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