The jaguar animal, its habitat: types of jaguars and what the animal looks like, the running speed of the predator

This term has other meanings, see Jaguar (meanings).

Jaguar
At the Sao Paulo Zoo, Brazil.
Scientific classification
intermediate ranks Domain:		Eukaryotes

Kingdom:

Animals

Sub-kingdom:

Eumetazoans

Without rank:

Bilaterally symmetrical

Without rank:

Deuterostomes

Type:

Chordata

Subtype:

Vertebrates

Infratype:

Ghostostomes

Superclass:

Quadrupeds

Class:

Mammals

Subclass:

Animals

Infraclass:

Placental

Superorder:

Laurasiotherium

Squad:

Predatory

Suborder:

Felidae

Family:

Felines

Subfamily:

Big cats

Genus:

Panthers

View:

Jaguar

International scientific name Panthera onca

Linnaeus, 1758

Subspecies

• Panthera onca onca
• Panthera onca arizonensis
• Panthera onca centralis
• Panthera onca goldmani
• Panthera onca hernandesii
• Panthera onca palustris
• Panthera onca paraguensis
• Panthera onca peruvianus
• Panthera onca veracrucis

RangeConservation statusClose to vulnerable IUCN 3.1 Near Threatened
: 15953

NCBI	9690
EOL	328606
49735

Jaguar

[1] (
Panthera onca
) is a species of carnivorous mammal of the cat family, one of four members of the genus Panthera (
Panthera
), which belongs to the subfamily of big cats. The only representative of the genus in North and South America. The third largest in the world, and the largest representative of the cat family in the New World[2]. The species' range extends from Mexico south to Paraguay and northern Argentina.

Body length without tail is 112-185 cm, tail 45-75 cm,[3] weight 36-113 kg, mostly 60-90 kg, in some cases up to 120 kg. The record in nature is 158 kg.[3] The female is 20% smaller and lighter. A typical normal adult male of the large subspecies weighs about 90-120 kg (on average about 90-95 kg), and a female 60-80 kg. Height at withers is 63-76 cm.[4][5]

Externally, the jaguar is very similar to the leopard, but is significantly larger in size.

Name

In its habitats, the jaguar is called differently in Spanish: otorongo

,
jaguar
,
yaguareté
,
yaguar
,
onza
,
tigre
or
tigre americano
;
the Mexicans call it in Nahuatl ocelotl
, which is erroneously the same as the common name for ocelot, for this latter the Aztec name was
tlatlauhquiocélotl
.
In one of the Mayan languages ​​it is called balam
, in Mapuche -
nahuel
and in Quechua -
uturuncu
,
uturunku
or
unqa
.
In much of Latin America it is simply called " tigre
" (tiger), although its relationship to tigers is quite distant;
in Brazil it is called onça
[6].

Quite often the word " Yahuar"

"(Yavar / Yavar) or "
Yaguar
" (Jaguar) is found in the Quechua language (usually by the Spaniards the Quechuan sound "
hua
" - "
va / ua
", was written as "
gua
" - "
gua
", but in Quechua there was no consonant "
g
"), where it means "
blood
" and is somehow always associated with blood.
This word was part of the names of the Inca rulers: Jaguar Uquis
(mentioned by Fernando Montesinos)[7], Yawar Wakak (Crying Blood; mentioned by all Peruvian chroniclers starting from the 1540s)[8].
The word " yavar/jaguar
" was included in many Quechuan phrases: "
Allin yahuar
, or
yahuarniyoc
" - a noble person from a good family or good blood/caste, "
Yahuar yahuar
" - full of blood, bloody, "
yahuar macintin
" - a relative, and many other. Perhaps this word was also a definition for predatory animals (in Quechua, a brave person is compared precisely with a jaguar or a puma)[9], from which it became widespread, since a similar word in the Guarani language became known to Europeans much later, since the active colonization of Paraguay began in the 1600s, 70 years after the colonization of Peru (1532).

In Guarani yaguara

(jaguarete) meant "a beast that kills with one leap."
Some Indians of the Amazon, for example, Tupi, call the jaguar, it seems - iawa
,
iawaraté
.

How to hunt and what to eat

A cat's diet is varied. In nature, about 90 species of various living creatures become their prey. The weight of an animal killed by a jaguar can reach up to 300 kg. Their favorite food is meat and offal of ungulates, including domesticated livestock. But they also hunt:

• foxes,
• monkeys
• porcupines,
• birds,
• rodents,
• reptiles.

Occasionally they eat fish, catching it themselves. A delicacy for a predator is turtles; it bites through strong shells very easily, and also eats turtle eggs, finding them in the sand. Sometimes the food becomes caimans - small crocodiles 1.5-2.0 meters long.

The jaguar animal begins to eat its prey from the head, leaving the back part for last. If the prey is very large, after eating, the predatory cat leaves the carcass and does not always return to finish eating. These animals do not feed on carrion, so within a day the predator will be looking for a new victim.

Phylogeny

Basic data regarding the evolution of the species were obtained through paleontological and molecular phylogenetic studies. Jaguar is the only representative of the genus Panthera

in the New World.
Both molecular and paleontological data confirm the close relationship of the jaguar with other members of the genus. The last common ancestor of this genus and its closest relative, the clouded leopard, lived between 6 and 10 million years ago[10]. The species itself arose, according to paleontological data, approximately 3.8 million years ago[10][11]. The main morphological characteristics indicate that the closest relative of the jaguar is the leopard[12]. However, DNA research has not been completely completed, and opinions about the jaguar's family relationships vary among different researchers[10][12][13][14]. Fossil remains of extinct species of the genus, such as the European jaguar ( Panthera gombaszoegensis
) and the American lion (
Panthera leo atrox
), combine the characteristic features of both the lion and the jaguar.[12]
Analysis of jaguar mitochondrial DNA showed that the species arose between 510,000 and 280,000 years ago, later than fossil evidence suggests.[15]

Black Jaguar: photo and description of the animal

Melanistic individuals of Panthera onca are often called black panthers, but, like all forms of polymorphism known to science, they do not form a separate species.

Black isomorphs are rarer than common spotted ones and scientists estimate that approximately 6% of them are found in South American Jaguars.

In the Mexican subspecies, the first melanistic individuals were discovered only at the beginning of this century.

Some evidence suggests that the melanistic allele is dominant and is maintained by natural selection. The black form may be an example of heterozygous advantage. Breeding them in captivity is not yet the final solution on this issue.

Melanism in the jaguar is caused by a dominant allele, while in the leopard (Panthera pardus) it is caused by a recessive allele. A close examination of the coloration of these black cats reveals that the typical markings are still present, but are hidden due to the excess of the black pigment melanin, giving an effect similar to the image of printed silk. This color is called the “ghost stripe.”

Melanistic and non-melanistic animals can be littermates. It is thought that melanism may confer a selective advantage under certain conditions, as it is more common in densely forested areas where light levels are lower. Recently, preliminary studies have also suggested that melanism may be associated with beneficial mutations in the immune system. Since the melanism allele is dominant in Jaguars, black individuals can produce charcoal or spotted cubs, but a pair of spotted predators can only reproduce kittens of their own kind.

Individuals with two copies of the allele are darker (the black background color is denser) than individuals with one copy, whose background color may be steel rather than black.

The black jaguar has long been considered a separate species by the indigenous inhabitants of the Old and New Worlds.

Thus, the English naturalist Hudson wrote: “The jaguar is a beautiful creature, the main color of the fur is a rich golden-red tan, abundantly marked with black rings, containing one or two small spots. This is a typical coloration, and varies little in the temperate regions; in the hot region the Indians recognize three distinct varieties, which they regard as distinct species—the described, smaller jaguar, less aquatic in its habits, and marked with spots rather than rings; and thirdly, the black variety. They reason that their terrible "black tiger" is simply melancholic, like the black leopard of the Old World and the wild black rabbit. They consider him quite different and claim that he is larger and much more dangerous than the spotted jaguar, which they know by his call; that it belongs to the Terra Firma and not to the water side; finally, that black couples always live with similar ones, and that their young are always black.”

Extremely rare albinos, sometimes called white panthers, are also found among Jaguars, as well as other big cats. As usual in wild albinos, selection maintains the frequency close to the mutation rate.

Spreading

The jaguar's range extends from Central America to the swamps and jungles of Mato Grosso, as well as northern Argentina. The largest jaguars live in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. Jaguars have been completely exterminated in El Salvador and Uruguay.

The main habitats of the jaguar are tropical rainforests and grasslands, but the animal is also found in semiarid areas overgrown with xerophytic shrubs. It was found in mountain forests, at an altitude of up to 2000 m, and on the ocean coast, where the predator searches for and digs up turtle eggs.

The oldest remains of a jaguar date back to the late Pliocene (approximately 2 million years). At that time, the jaguar inhabited the entire south of what is now the United States (the last jaguars were killed here around 1900). Now the jaguar's range has shrunk to a third of its original size.

Appearance of a jaguar

Its dimensions range from 150 to 180 centimeters in length, and its weight can reach 136 kilograms. It has a powerful jaw apparatus, hidden by large cheeks. The body itself is skinny, but the limbs are very strong. Capable of developing fast speed to instantly pounce on the victim. The coat is predominantly yellowish-brown in color, with small black spots on it. On the belly the color is usually grayish-white. The jaguar's limbs are quite short, but this does not affect their dexterity in any way. In some jaguars, there is a manifestation of excess melanism, due to which the black jaguar appeared. Due to its completely black coat color, many people confuse it with a black panther.

Subspecies

According to various sources, there are from 3 to 9 subspecies of jaguar, of which at least one (Texan) has been exterminated:

• Panthera onca onca
  (Amazonian jaguar) lives in the Amazon rain forest, the nominate subspecies;
• Panthera onca peruvianus
  (Peruvian jaguar) - in Peru and Ecuador, often included in the Amazon subspecies;
• Panthera onca hernandesii
  (Mexican jaguar) - in Mexico;

It often includes the following 4 subspecies:

• Panthera onca arizonensis
  (Arizona jaguar) - from southern Arizona to Sonora in Mexico;
• Panthera onca centralis
  (Central American jaguar) - in Central America;
• Panthera onca goldmani
  (Goldman's jaguar) - in Mexico, Belize and Guatemala;
• Panthera onca veracrucis
  (Texas jaguar) - in central Texas (extirpated);
• Panthera onca palustris
  (Brazilian jaguar) - in Southern Brazil;
• Panthera onca paraguensis
  (Paraguayan jaguar) - in Paraguay, often included in the Brazilian subspecies;

Lifestyle and habitat

The guanaco lives in the foothills and higher regions of the Andes, as well as nearby forested areas and semi-deserts. Their habitat ranges from Tierra del Fuego in the south of the mainland to the north of Peru, through Chile and Argentina. A small community settled in the south of Paraguay. Their habitat should be fairly open and visible, because the guanaco animal is very shy.

The social unit is a harem. The leader is an adult male, he stands at the head of a herd of several females and young individuals, about 20 animals in total. When young males reach 6-12 months of age, the leader kicks them out of the herd. He can also do the same with a female, apparently if he is tired of her. Adult males live in separate groups or alone.

Animals that are aging or have lost their females also try to stay apart. The territory occupied by a family herd depends on the region of residence. The male makes sure that no one encroaches on their space. Only in unfavorable climate years do family and same-sex herds gather into a total mass of up to 500 animals and search for food together.

When the herd is grazing, the male constantly looks around. In case of danger, he gives a sharp signal with a whistle, and the entire herd starts galloping at a speed of up to 55-60 km/h. The leader himself covers the herd from behind.

When defending themselves from enemies, they bite and kick, but more often they flee, sometimes through the water, since guanacos are good swimmers. They also spit well with a mixture of nasal mucus and saliva. Such “bad manners” apparently prompted the ancient Indians to call them “wanaku”. In captivity they are very quiet and pleasant animals, especially young ones. Old individuals show their contempt for humans in every possible way.

Lifestyle

Jaguar
The lifestyle of jaguars is solitary. Like all cats of prey, jaguars are territorial animals; The area of ​​one jaguar's territory ranges from 25 (for females) to 50 and even more (for males) square kilometers[16], depending on the landscape and the amount of game. As a rule, the male's hunting area is shaped like a triangle. On his territory, the male hunts for 3-4 days in a certain area, and then moves to another area. In addition, the beast visits certain “border points” every five or fifteen days. For this reason, the jaguar is a real vagabond, constantly “staggering” through the jungle. The jaguar is extremely intolerant of other cats (in particular, pumas) in its territory, but is quite peaceful towards its relatives, and the hunting territories of jaguars often overlap.

The jaguar is a crepuscular predator. Its most active hunting hours are after sunset (from about 18:30 to 21:30) and before dawn (from 03:00 to 06:00). In captivity, a jaguar lives up to 22-25 years.

Nutrition

The jaguar is an apex predator, but unlike the lion or tiger, it encounters only a small variety of ungulates in its habitat. For this reason, jaguars often look for alternative food sources, hunting near water for relatively smaller, but well-protected animals[17]. At least 87 species have been reported in the diet of jaguars[18]. The jaguar's preferred prey throughout most of its range are capybaras, caimans, and peccaries. Whenever possible, they hunt deer, anteaters, mazamas and tapirs, and catch snakes (including anacondas), waterfowl and fish.[19][17] The diet of jaguars also includes monkeys, foxes, iguanas, possums, otters, rodents, noses and other small animals[17][20]. The jaguar also hunts freshwater turtles and armadillos - its powerful jaws are able to overcome their defenses[20][17]. On the coasts, the eggs of sea turtles (mainly green sea turtles and loggerheads[21]), and sometimes the females that come out to lay them, are subject to predation by jaguars. Sometimes there were even recorded cases of jaguars killing adult female leatherback turtles[22]. Unlike the puma, the jaguar willingly and often attacks domestic animals, especially cattle. However, Asian buffalos, offered to South American farmers as a profitable alternative to cows, turn out to be unattainable prey for jaguars[23].

The jaguar's main method of hunting is ambush in tall grass or in a tree. Usually he sets up such an ambush on the bank of a pond in the grass or on the paths leading to a watering hole. When attacking a victim, a jaguar, as a rule, jumps on it from the back or side, grabbing it by the neck. It has been established that when attacking cattle, the jaguar most often seeks to throw its victim to the ground, which is severely, and sometimes fatally, injured at the moment of the fall. Most of the cows that died after the jaguar attack had their neck vertebrae broken as a result of hitting the ground, with their heads almost thrown back. Unlike other large cats, the jaguar often bites through the skull or cervical vertebrae of its victim, and not only strangles it by grabbing it by the throat. This killing method is particularly effective against large reptiles, including the Yacara caimans, which form the mainstay of the diet of jaguars in the Pantanal. If the prey discovers a predator and flees, the jaguar almost never pursues it.

Melanistic jaguar or black panther

Having killed the prey, the jaguar begins to eat it from the head, gradually moving towards the back. If the prey is large, the predator remains with it, satisfying its hunger in two doses, with an interval of 10-12 hours. It is characteristic that the jaguar almost does not feed on carrion, so it very rarely returns to the remains of its prey.

When hunting, the animal emits a low, abrupt, guttural grunt, and at night and during the mating season it roars deafeningly. According to Indian beliefs, the jaguar is able to imitate the cry of any bird or animal in order to lure them. Hunters in Brazil attribute the jaguar's ability to hypnotize its prey.

Interaction with other predators

In Central America and tropical South America, the jaguar's range overlaps with that of the puma. Some authors claim the dominance of jaguars over pumas[24][25]. There have been several documented cases of jaguars interacting with pumas, including pumas being killed by jaguars. Thus, B. Miller reports: “It is quite expected that the jaguar, as a stronger cat, will dominate the more slender and flexible puma, this assumption is supported by evidence that jaguars killed and ate pumas”[25]. In such cases, jaguars are much larger than pumas, although the sizes of female jaguars and pumas of both sexes may coincide[24]. But there is another point of view. La Plate naturalist William H. Hudson (1929, 35) is often cited by cougar supremacists. Hudson says he has often heard of pumas in Argentina and Paraguay being the aggressors in such situations and that they usually defeat jaguars in head-to-head fights. Hunters found remarkable scars on the backs of the jaguars they killed, presumably these scars could be the result of fights with pumas[26]. Where the jaguar's range reaches its boundaries, pumas can be larger than jaguars.[24]

In 2021, the partially eaten carcass of a young, mature female black bear was discovered, with distinctive teeth punctures in the skull left by jaguars. As determined by fur found in its feces, it was likely taken by El Jefe, the only wild jaguar currently found in the United States. There is an assumption that spectacled bears avoid the habitat of jaguars, which may be due to predation by the latter[27], but this has not been confirmed by facts of interaction between the two predators. Probably, young individuals are exposed to danger from jaguars (as well as pumas and larger spectacled bears), while the adult spectacled bear has no natural enemies [28]. Several interactions between jaguars and giant otters have also been recorded, including jaguar hunting solitary otters, solitary otters leaving jaguars, and jaguars being displaced by groups of otters.[29][30]

Although jaguars easily cope with large yacar caimans over 2.5 meters in length[31], often even pulling them straight out of the water[32][33], even small black caimans are subject to significantly less predatory pressure[20], and large individuals sometimes and themselves can be dangerous for jaguars[34][35]. In Belize, a case of interspecific kleptoparasitism of a Central American crocodile in relation to a jaguar was recorded, as a result of which a 3-meter crocodile took the Central American tapir it had killed from the jaguar[36]. In Central America and remote parts of South America, jaguars may associate with sharp-snouted crocodiles. However, no interactions between them have currently been observed, with the exception of a single event of jaguar predation on a 2.5 meter juvenile razorback crocodile[37]. Although jaguars even prey on very large common boa constrictors and green anacondas,[21] in one case a dead jaguar was found near Pastus Bons, Maranhão, most likely killed by an anaconda that was unable to swallow it due to its large size. size of prey[38]. In another case, a sub-adult jaguar was found in the stomach of a killed anaconda (which had reportedly swallowed an animal so large that it was practically unable to move), causing only minor damage to the snake.[39] In these examples, the jaguars were most likely attacked by giant snakes in the water and became disoriented as a result.[39]

Danger to humans

There are very few known cases of jaguar attacks on people, and even fewer unprovoked ones. Cannibalism among these predators is an exceptional phenomenon, which sharply distinguishes them from the panthers of the Old World. Most often, a jaguar attacks when defending itself. If not provoked, the jaguar is usually not aggressive, but rather curious and often chases a person through the forest without showing hostile intentions, but occasionally attacks people.

People who unexpectedly met a jaguar in a thicket experienced a strange feeling of respect and a certain surprise. This is how the English traveler and zoologist Ivan Sanderson wrote about his meeting with a jaguar in the 30s of the 20th century:

I shuddered greatly in surprise when the growth suddenly changed its shape and began to slowly climb up the trunk. I must call your attention to an inexplicable and very interesting fact: although the animal, which I unmistakably recognized by its silhouette, was a predator, I did not feel anything like that extraordinary sensation of unaccountable horror that occurs when the sight of a leopard in West Africa pierces you from the head to Friday In front of me on a tree some twelve feet [approx. 4 meters] a jaguar fell to the trunk: in the moonlight the beast seemed huge, like a real moon-bleached dinosaur, but it did not evoke that stupefying, sickening horror in me.

Features of the "black panthers"

• The jaguar has the strongest and most powerful jaws among all felines;
• they live alone most of the year, like tigers;
• during the mating season, which lasts from August to September, males organize competitions in an effort to get a female;
• newborn kittens weigh approximately 0.8 kg;
• the second name for the jaguar is “black panther”;
• jaguars are almost impossible to train;
• in a zoo, these animals live two to three times longer than in the wild;
• have offspring once every two years.

In most of their habitat, these animals have been almost completely exterminated. This is all due to poaching, the shooting of animals by herders and the transfer of these big cats from their natural habitats to other regions.

The jaguar is protected in most countries and is listed in the international Red Book . However, jaguar hunting is allowed in limited quantities in Mexico, Brazil and some other countries.

And in Bolivia they are even shot for trophies. All this is sad, because this beautiful predatory cat is one of the most beautiful animals inhabiting our planet, and humans are obliged to preserve its population in the wild.

Reproduction

A female jaguar with a cub.
The jaguar does not have a specific breeding season. The female is ready to mate in her third year of life. Although the jaguar is a solitary animal, during weddings they can gather in small groups. It is characteristic that there are almost no fights between males, and the choice of a partner depends entirely on the female. After such a choice, the bride moves into the territory of the chosen one. The male remains with the female only during the mating period.

About 100 days after conception, in a den among stones, in a dense bush or hollow, the female gives birth to two to four cubs. Their pattern contains more black than that of their parents, and it does not consist of rosettes, but of solid spots. Young jaguars spend six weeks in the den, and they hunt with their mother until they find a suitable territory for hunting.

Natural enemies

The most important and dangerous enemy for a jaguar is a person who hunts it for its beautiful fur. In nature, this king of the jungle has virtually no competitors or threats: in its habitat it is the highest in the food chain.

During the hunt, jaguars sometimes encounter serious and dangerous opponents - caimans, although they pull even 2-meter monsters out of their native element. When hunting large reptiles, they can occasionally become a victim of an anaconda or a boa constrictor.

The most dangerous thing for jaguars is people who hunt them for their beautiful skins. And among the representatives of the fauna, practically no one threatens them, since in its habitat the jaguar is the highest link in the food chain.

Sometimes, while defending its territory, a predator can receive quite serious injuries from a large puma. When harvesting caimans from reservoirs, they may also suffer from alligator teeth. Sometimes jaguars become victims of water boas - anacondas.

READ Animal Facts Beavers and Their Life Span

The image of the jaguar in culture

In Indian mythology

In the cultures of pre-Columbian America, the jaguar, one of the most powerful predators in South America, received special attention and honor. The Olmecs identified themselves with the jaguar; he was the main hero of the Olmec cult and occupied a central place in the pantheon of gods. The image of a jaguar could be found on stone sculptures and altars of this people. The Maya, who lived in Central America, revered the jaguar (balam) as the first ancestor - three of the four first people were named B'alam K'itze (Cedar Jaguar), B'alam Aq'ab (Night Jaguar) and Ik'ib' alam (Dark Jaguar). As a symbol of power, leaders wore jaguar skins and helmets in the shape of their heads. In Aztec culture, the god Tezcatlipoca often took the form of a jaguar, whose spotted skin represented the pattern of the starry sky.

In literature

Borges tells the story of the Aztec magician Tsinacan, who reads the incorruptible writings left by God on the skin of a jaguar. According to the author, the skin represents the most reliable information carrier at God’s disposal.

The story "The Brazilian Cat" by Arthur Conan Doyle describes a melanistic jaguar.

In sports

• Jaguar is an automobile company best known for producing high-end sports cars; In Formula 1, there was a team representing this company for several years.
• The Mexican Top Division football club is called Jaguares Chiapas.
• The American football club in the United States is called the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Is the jaguar dangerous for humans?

Jaguar
The Jaguar lives and hunts secretly; he is a real hermit and rarely attacks humans. Even the most common behavior of these cats is hidden from us. They try in every possible way to avoid meeting a person. Jaguars are at the top of the food chain and hunt alone. Unlike the vast majority of felines, jaguars love water and are excellent swimmers and fishers.

Notes

1. Sokolov V. E.
   Five-language dictionary of animal names. Mammals. Latin, Russian, English, German, French. / under the general editorship of academician. V. E. Sokolova. - M.: Rus. lang., 1984. - P. 108. - 10,000 copies.
2. Stephen Wroe, Colin McHenry, and Jeffrey Thomason (2006). “Bite club: comparative bite force in large biting mammals and the prediction of predatory behavior in fossil taxa” (PDF). Proceedings of the Royal Society B
   (Royal Society)
   272
   (1563): 619–625. DOI:10.1098/rspb.2004.2986. Retrieved June 7, 2006.
3. ↑ 1 2 Nowak, Ronald M.
   Walker's Mammals of the World. - JHU Press, 1999. - Vol. 2. - P. 831. - ISBN 0-8018-5789-9.
4. Jaguar Fact Sheet. Jaguar Species Survival Plan. American Zoo and Aquarium Association. Retrieved August 14, 2006.
5. All about Jaguars: ECOLOGY. Wildlife Conservation Society. Retrieved August 11, 2006. Archived May 29, 2009.
6. "ounce" 2, Oxford English Dictionary
   , 2nd edition
7. Fernando de Montesinos.
   Ancient historical and political information about Piru. Book two. www.kuprienko.info (A. Skromnitsky) (July 24, 2008). - translation by V. Talakh, Kyiv, 2006. Retrieved October 8, 2009. Archived August 21, 2011.
8. Pedro Cieza de Leon.
   Chronicle of Peru. Part One.. www.kuprienko.info (A. Skromnitsky) (April 28, 2009). Retrieved October 8, 2009. Archived August 21, 2011.
9. Diego Gonzalez Holguin.
   Dictionary of the Quechua language (1608).. www.kuprienko.info (A. Skromnitsky). Retrieved October 8, 2009. Archived August 21, 2011.
10. ↑ 1 2 3
    Johnson, W. E., Eizirik, E., Pecon-Slattery, J., Murphy, W. J., Antunes, A., Teeling, E. & O'Brien, S. J. (2006).
    “The Late Miocene radiation of modern Felidae: A genetic assessment.” Science 311
    (5757): 73–77. DOI:10.1126/science.1122277. PMID 16400146.
11. Turner A. (1987). "New fossil carnivore remains from the Sterkfontein hominid site (Mammalia: Carnivora)". Annals of the Transvaal Museum 34
    : 319–347. ISSN 0041-1752.
12. ↑ 1 2 3
    Dianne N. Janczewski, William S. Modi, J. Claiborne Stephens, and Stephen J. O'Brien (1996-07-01).
    "Molecular Evolution of Mitochondrial 12S RNA and Cytochrome b Sequences in the Pantherine Lineage of Felidae". Molecular Biology and Evolution 12
    (4). PMID 7544865. Retrieved 2006-06-07.
13. Yu L. & Zhang Y. P. (2005). "Phylogenetic studies of pantherine cats (Felidae) based on multiple genes, with novel application of nuclear beta-fibrinogen intron 7 to carnivores." Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 35
    (2): 483–495. DOI:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.01.017. PMID 15804417.
14. Johnson W. E. & Obrien S. J. (1997). "Phylogenetic reconstruction of the Felidae using 16S rRNA and NADH-5 mitochondrial genes". Journal of Molecular Evolution 44
    . DOI:10.1007/PL00000060.
15. Eizirik E., Kim JH, Menotti-Raymond M., Crawshaw PG Jr, O'Brien SJ, Johnson WE (2001). “Phylogeography, population history and conservation genetics of jaguars ( Panthera onca
    , Mammalia, Felidae).”
    Molecular Ecology 10
    (1). DOI:10.1046/j.1365-294X.2001.01144.x. PMID 11251788. Retrieved 2006-06-07.
16. Panthera onca (jaguar). Animal Diversity Web. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
17. ↑ 1 2 3 4
    Seymour, K. L. (1989).
    "Panthera onca" (PDF). Mammalian Species 340
    (340):1–9. DOI:10.2307/3504096. Retrieved 2009-12-27.
18. Nowell, K.; Jackson, P., eds. (1996). " Panthera Onca
    ".
    Wild Cats.
    Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan (PDF). Gland, Switzerland: IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group. IUCN. pp. 118–122. Retrieved 2011-11-11.
19. Otfinoski, Steven.
    Jaguars. - Marshall Cavendish, 2010. - P. 18. - ISBN 978-0-7614-4839-6.
20. ↑ 1 2 3
    Da Silveira, Ronis;
    Ramalho, Emiliano E.; Thorbjarnarson, John B.; Magnusson, William E. (2010). "Depredation by Jaguars on Caimans and Importance of Reptiles in the Diet of Jaguars." Journal of Herpetology.
21. ↑ 1 2 Luke Hunter.
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22. Travelers' Wildlife Guide to Costa Rica
    by Les Beletsky. Interlink Publishing Group (2004)
23. Hoogesteijn, R., and A. Hoogesteijn. 2008. Cattle and water buffalo jaguar-related mortality—could water buffalo facilitate jaguar conservation and cost-effective ranching in the neotropics? Oryx 42:132–138
24. ↑ 123
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25. ↑ 1 2 David Macdonald, Andrew Loveridge.
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26. Harold P. Danz.
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27. Grant, Bill Hatcher, Richard
    .
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    . Retrieved October 13, 2021.
28. Spectacled Bear - Threats.
29. Caroline Leuchtenberger, Samara Bezerra Almeida, Artur Andriolo, Peter G. Crawshaw Jr. Jaguar mobbing by giant otter groups. acta ethologica June 2021, Volume 19, Issue 2, pp 143–146
30. Ramalheira CS, Bozzetti BF, Cruz AD, Palmeirim AF, Cabral MMM, Rosas FCW (2015) First record of jaguar predation on giant otter (Pteronura brasiliensis). Animal Biology 65(1):81-86 March 2015
31. Pictures: Jaguar Kills Caiman in “Spectacular” Attack (September 8, 2013). Retrieved October 13, 2021.
32. Review 'Brazil, but not just Jaguars! ': Not just jaguars! (English). www.silvertraveladvisor.com. Retrieved October 13, 2017.
33. Astonishing photos capture battle between a jaguar caiman, Mail Online
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37. Crocodiles: Their Ecology, Management, and Conservation. - IUCN, 1989. - 316 p. — ISBN 9782880329877.
38. John C. Murphy, Robert W. Henderson.
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39. ↑ 1 2 Erwin A. Bauer.
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Where does the jaguar live?

Photo: Jaguar Panther

The jaguar is a resident of Central and South America. In the north, the border of its habitat extends across the steppes of Mexico and some states of the United States; the animals are distributed to the north of Paraguay and Argentina, and are found on the coast of Venezuela. The largest specimens were seen in Brazil, and the most numerous populations live in the Amazon River Valley. The habitat of this mustachioed predator has decreased significantly; in some countries (Uruguay, El Salvador) it has completely disappeared. The area currently covered by the animals' habitat is approximately nine million square kilometers, which is almost half the size of their historical range.

Jaguars prefer bushy, dense, impassable places near swamps and other bodies of water; they adore tropical forests, where the climate is quite humid and there is a place to hide. They settle near the water, because... They are reputed to be excellent swimmers, and prefer wooded areas because... They also climb trees very well and love solitude. The jaguar avoids very dry areas; you can hardly find it very high in the mountains either. Once a jaguar was spotted at an altitude of almost 4 km in Costa Rica, but this case is an exception to the rule; predators do not risk climbing above two and a half kilometers.

For a happy, carefree and dignified life, a jaguar must fulfill three important conditions of existence:

• the water element in the place of his permanent residence;
• dense forest for perfect camouflage;
• vast reserves of prey (ungulates).

All these three factors together are the most favorable for the successful life and activity of these large and powerful cats.

Hunting

Jaguar on the hunt
Jaguar is a crepuscular predator. Actively hunts after sunset and before dawn. Its main method of hunting is ambush in trees or among tall grass. Usually the animal arranges it on the banks of a reservoir. When attacking a prey, a jaguar jumps on it from the back or side, grabs it by the neck, trying to throw it to the ground, which usually leads to instant death. If the prey detects a predator and runs away, jaguars usually do not pursue it. The jaguar can divide the hunted large animal into two meals, but no more; it does not feed on carrion.

Jaguar hunting

When hunting, jaguars make low, abrupt, guttural sounds, and at night and during the mating season they roar deafeningly.