Spotted Jaguar
The largest cat in the Americas and the third largest in the world, ranking behind the tiger and African lion., the Jaguar gets its name from an Indian word meaning 'he who kills with one leap'. It is also the only one of the big cats which cannot roar.
Their head/body length is 1.5 to 1.8m and their weight ranges from 60 to 136kg. These cats are distributed from the extreme southwestern parts of the United States southward to the Rio Negro River in central Argentina, in thickly wooded country and arid, shrubby areas.
General characteristic
The species is one of the biggest existing carnivores. The Spotted Jaguar usually makes home in tropical forests, savannas and on the edges of rivers and lakes.
The Spotted Jaguar is an agile animal which has an enormous ability to swim and climb trees. Powerful and with sharp vision, the Spotted Jaguar is a dangerous predator to any other animal that invades its territory.
The jaguar, often incorrectly called a panther, is another of the beautifully spotted cats. It is a massive and powerfully built cat, with a deep-chested body and a large head.
The jaguar is one of the four roaring cats. Though the Jaguar is commonly confused with the leopard too, the jaguar can be distingushed by having larger rosette markings and a larger, more powerful looking body; the jaguar also has a shorter tail. The strength of the jaguar is amazing with its jaws so strong that it often kills its prey by piercing the skull in one, fatal bite.
The color of the jaguar is a tawny-yellow with spots on the head, neck and legs and rosettes on other parts of its body. The rosettes will have one to four dark spots inside. If you look closely at the coat of a jaguar, markings can seem like a paw print.
A male Jaguar can grow nearly 2 metres long and can weigh up to 160 kilograms. Still it has two natural enemies. One is the giant Anaconda snake, which is capable of suffocating an adult Jaguar. The other enemy is man; in the 1960's and 70's, around 18,000 Jaguars were killed in South America for their skins. Today, of course, Jaguar-hunting is outlawed - but illegal hunting still goes on - and there are now thought to be only 3500 of these beautiful animals left in the Pantanal.
Form: robust; tail relatively short and tapering; ears small, short, and rounded, without tufts; pelage short and rather bristly; upperparts spotted at all ages; ground color buffy to tan, spots blackish, often with light-colored centers; underparts and inner surfaces of legs white, heavily spotted with black; tail with irregular black markings. External measurements of an adult male: total length, 1,933 mm; tail, 533 mm; female, 1,574-432 mm; height at shoulder of a large male, 712 mm. Weight, up to 90 kg; one male from Texas weighed 63.6 kg; another, 42 kg.
Food
The species normally hunts at sunset or dawn to take advantage of its exceptional vision and markings scattered over its body that serve as camouflage.
The jaguar lives mostly on smaller prey, but will prey on what ever is available such as livestock, deer, smaller prey such as fish, rodents, and also reptiles and monkeys, lizards and mammals as large as Cabybaras and peccaries (wild pigs), caiman, sloths or any other animals that seems fitting to the jaguar; the jaguar stalks its prey.
Jaguars are reputed to be so destructive of cattle and horses that the larger Mexican ranches retain a "tiger hunter" to kill them or at least to drive them away. Jaguars are also fond of sea turtle eggs and they roam the beaches on spring nights to dig up and eat the eggs that are buried in the sand.
It silently approaches its prey, remaining undetected until it attacks, generally killing by fracturing its victim’s neck. Afterwards, it drags the prey into thick vegetation, keeping some of it for future meals.
HUMANS AND JAGUARS
The jaguar is a common symbol of strength and power in central and South America. Like the lion in Europe and Africa, jaguars were associated with royalty and strength and bravery in warfare. In Maya civilization, the jaguar served to communicate between the living and the dead as well as protect the royal household. The Maya, known for their aggressiveness and brutal treatment of captives, saw these powerful cats as their companions in the spiritual world. Many rulers even had jaguars attributed to their names, such as 'Shield Jaguar', 'Jaguar Paw', 'Bird Jaguar', 'Smoke Jaguar', and 'Snake Jaguar'. The glyphs for these names would each have a jaguar depicted in them.
Aztec civilization also had the same image of the jaguar as representative of the ruler and as a warrior. This is best seen in the elite military order of the Jaguar Knights. This order could be joined by anyone, noble or commoner. Admission was obtained through the number of captives taken for sacrifice. Each captive taken advanced a warrior along different orders, and the forth allowed admission to the elite Jaguar Knights, and all the privileges the title entailed. Among these were exemption from taxation and tribute, taking part in war councils, invitations to dine in the royal palace, and the more gruesome: participation in cannibalistic feasts.
HUNT TO NEAR EXTINCTION
The jaguar, unfortunately is due to human intervention. One cause is the destruction of the jaguars environment from deforestation for mining and timber. Some have also been hunted to protect livestock. A greater cause, however, is the fact that this beautiful cat has been an unfortunate victim of the fur trade. Beginning in the early 1900's, large scale hunting and export of jaguar pelts has greatly reduced the population. Although there was a decline in the 60's, the number of pelts exported was still high ( as many as 13, 516 in 1968 for example). Although the jaguar was put on the endangered species list in the 1970's, illegal trade and poaching still reduces numbers. Although there are conservation efforts, illegal activity continues to make the future of the jaguar uncertain.
Farmers are also predators of the Spotted Jaguar. They kill it to protect their cattle.
However, the main threat to the animal's existence is its illegal hunting due to the high value placed on its skin in the foreign market. Although it is extinct in North America and in several countries in Latin America, the Spotted Jaguar is still being hunted in Argentina, Costa Rica, and Panama.
During the sixties and seventies around 18,000 jaguars were killed every year for their beautiful coat. Today there is still poaching, but not nearly as bad as before. The destruction of the jaguar's habitat from logging and cattle ranching as well has having to compete with humans for food has brought a large decrease to their population. More trees are cut every day, and more jaguars are killed as the demand for their skin increases.
By Julian and J. Ignacio