Jaguar

Quick Take

• The jaguar's name translates to something far more lethal than you'd expect, which perfectly captures how this cat hunts. See how jaguars hunt →
• Unlike every other big cat, jaguars didn't originate where you'd expect. Their true ancestral home is thousands of miles away. Trace the jaguar's origins →
• The jaguar outlived sabercats and American lions during the Ice Age, but the real reason why has nothing to do with size or strength. Explore Ice Age survival →
• Hollywood once engineered a jaguar hybrid, and the story behind why it exists is stranger than fiction. Discover the Lepjag hybrid →

The Jaguar is the largest feline on the American continent, and is the only one of the world’s ‘big’ cats found in the New World. Jaguars are close relatives of leopards and have several similar characteristics, including the distinctive spotted pattern on their fur. The Jaguar is the third largest cat in the world, surpassed only by the tiger and the lion. This beautiful cat possesses great power and agility. In fact, the name Jaguar is derived from the Native American word yaguar, defined as “he who kills with one leap”. Despite their incredible power, however, Jaguars have been hunted through the ages, mainly for their gorgeous fur. Although hunting for Jaguar fur is now prohibited, population numbers have declined throughout much of their natural range, with Jaguars having completely disappeared from a number of areas.

Types Of Jaguars

While the official taxonomic species of the Jaguar is Panthera onca, there are many different types of jaguars, from the Arizona Jaguar to the Northeastern Jaguar. A complete list of different jaguar types is found below:

• Panthera onca arizonensis (Arizona jaguar)
• Panthera onca centralis (Central American jaguar)
• Panthera onca onca (East Brazilian jaguar)
• Panthera onca palustris (South American Jaguar)
• Panthera onca veraecrucis (Northeastern jaguar)
• Panthera onca paraguensis (Paraguay jaguar)
• Panthera onca peruviana (Peruvian jaguar)
• Panthera onca goldmani (Yucatan Peninsula jaguar)
• Panthera onca hernandesii (West Mexican jaguar)

Evolution and History

Jaguars originated in Eurasia around 2 million years ago and slowly spread eastward and westward during the Ice Age, eventually covering areas from southern England to Nebraska to South America. Compared to their predecessors, modern jaguars are 15 to 20% smaller in size.

Both jaguars and lions share DNA from the genus Panthera, which dates back further, to approximately 6 to 11 million years ago. Ancestors like the European jaguar suggest it’s most closely related to the leopard.

While equally old cats like sabercats and American lions became extinct, it’s thought that jaguars survived because of their diet. 16 to 21% of their diet consisted of capybara, caimans, collared peccaries, wild pigs, and nine-banded armadillos. As they migrated, they came to Central America, where food was abundant. These ancient, larger jaguars ate the animals mentioned above, as well as many other prey items like birds, and somehow survived the Ice Age.

Anatomy and Appearance

The jaguar is a large and muscular animal, and while very similar to the leopard in appearance, its body is heavier and more robust. The jaguar has a large, broad head, and its strong jaws have earned it the title of ‘strongest bite relative to body size’ among all large cats in the world. Jaguars tend to have either tan or dark yellow fur, dotted with darker rosette-like patterns with dark spots in the center — similar to those of a leopard. Known as rosetting, the pattern on the jaguar’s fur is unique to each animal. Despite its beauty, the pattern camouflages this animal in the surrounding jungle. This camouflage is vital to its survival, and jaguars found in the rainforest are often darker in color and smaller than those found in more open areas.

Distribution and Habitat

The jaguar is indigenous to the Western Hemisphere, where it primarily inhabits the tropical rainforests of Central and South America. Historically, jaguars could be found on the entire continent, as well as some of the southern states in North America. Today, they stick to remote pockets of rainforest, especially in the Amazon Basin. Jaguars prefer a moist, dense jungle habitat with plenty of cover to successfully hunt and ambush prey. They are nearly always found close to water and prefer either permanent swampland or seasonally flooded forests. The jaguar has been severely affected by habitat loss throughout much of its natural range, along with poachers who shoot them when they get too close to the growing cattle ranches.

Behavior and Lifestyle

The jaguar is an elusive creature, spending the majority of its time either resting in the safety of trees or hunting in dense undergrowth. It loves to be near water, like floodplains or slow-moving rivers — a behavior that is rare for most members of the cat family. It’s also rare to find a jaguar in dry, desert-like places. This cat is an excellent swimmer and can reach high speeds when maneuvering through the water in pursuit of prey. The jaguar, like many other cat species, is a solitary animal, save for the first couple of years that it spends with its mother. Males are particularly territorial, and although their home range will overlap those of a number of females, they will defend their patch fiercely from other males. Jaguars mark their territories with urine, scratch marks onto trees, and assert themselves with growling vocalizations.

Reproduction and Life Cycles

Jaguar cubs are usually born between the months of December and March, but it’s not unusual for some litters to be born at other times of the year. When mating season occurs, the female jaguar will make loud vocalized cries to attract a male into her territory. Female jaguars typically give birth to one or two cubs, though litters of up to four are possible. Once the cubs are born, the female jaguar becomes highly protective of her young and expels the male jaguar from her territory. Jaguar cubs are born blind and gain their sight after about two weeks. They are weaned by their mother at around 3 months old and will remain in the birth den until about 6 months old, when they begin accompanying their mother on hunting trips, continuing to rely on her until around 2 years old. At that point, the jaguar cubs will eventually hunt alone and establish their own territories at 1 to 2 years of age.

Diet and Prey

The majority of a Jaguar’s hunting is done down on the ground, but they are also known to hunt for prey both in the water and from the trees, from which the jaguar can easily ambush its prey, often killing it with one powerful bite. Medium-sized mammals make up the majority of the jaguar’s diet, including deer, capybara, peccaries, and tapirs, which they stalk in silence through the dense jungle. When in the water, jaguars hunt turtles, fish, and even small caiman when the opportunity presents itself. The jaguar is known to be a formidable and aggressive hunter and is thought to eat more than 80 different animal species to supplement its diet. With growing human settlements, the jaguar has also been blamed by ranch owners for preying on their livestock, particularly in areas that encroach on the jaguar’s territory.

Predators and Threats

Due to the large size and dominant nature of the jaguar, no other wild animals are known to consider it prey. once found throughout the South American continent, jaguars have been hunted by humans mainly for their fur, which has led to drastic declines in jaguar population numbers everywhere. Despite now having legal protection and a reduction in hunting them for their fur, the jaguar is at increasing risk from loss of habitat, mainly in the form of deforestation to make way for agriculture or growing human settlements, which means these large and majestic animals are being pushed into more remote regions of their native range.

Interesting Facts and Features

Jaguars have the strongest bite force of all cats and, like other ‘big’ cats, they can roar. The jaguar is undoubtedly a strikingly beautiful animal and has naturally caught the attention of both scientists and hunters alike, with many individuals sadly having been poached for their distinctively patterned fur. Although jaguars usually have yellowish-colored fur, other colors are also known, including black and white. As with black leopards, they are not completely black, as you can still see the spotting (although faint) in strong sunlight. Jaguars are said to be able to cross-breed with both leopards and lions. A Lepjag was created by the film industry — a cat with the appearance of a jaguar but the temperament of a leopard, making it easier to handle. He now lives in retirement at a big cat sanctuary, and like other ‘big’ cat hybrids, he is sterile.

Relationship with Humans

Historically, jaguars have featured prominently in Native American culture; these peoples were well aware of the power of this dominant predator, with some believing the jaguar was the lord of the underworld. They are feared by humans who inhabit areas close to the jungle and are also often blamed by ranch owners for their missing livestock. Although jaguars hold the reputation for being very aggressive, unprovoked attacks on humans are rare. Jaguars have been severely affected by deforestation throughout much of Central and South America, primarily for agriculture, with the highest numbers now found in the Amazon Basin.

Conservation Status and Life Today

The jaguar was once found from the tip of South America right up to and beyond the Mexico-USA border, but hunting for their fur and habitat loss have led to drastic declines in population numbers. They are today extremely rarely seen in the USA and are considered endangered throughout much of their natural range, although the jaguar is listed by the IUCN Red List as an animal that is Near Threatened in its surrounding environment. Although the exact population number is unknown, there are an estimated 130,000 to 208,000 jaguars left roaming the wild today.