The Jaguar
Panthera onca Linnaeus

The Jaguar is pale gold, rusty red, paling to white/light buff on cheeks, throat and underpart with black spots on the head, neck, and limbs. Melanistic forms are relatively common. Jaguars have shorter legs and tail than leopards. They have a white central ear spot. Characteristic rosettes have smaller spots inside, unlike the leopard. They are very stocky, have a deep chest and large head. The brain case is comparatively broader than the tiger. The facial part is shorter than the lion.
Savannah dwellers are lighter coloured than those inhabiting forest. Melanic forms are more frequent in forests. The smallest Jaguars are found in Central America and the largest in Mato Grosso and Argentine Chaco.
The physical appearance of the jaguar varies substantially, eight subspecies are described although as many as 16 were proposed by early naturalists:

Subspecies definitions are often the subject of considerable systematic controversy, and classifications are sometimes very speculative.

Southwest USA to north Argentina. Jaguars are now extinct in the far north of the USA. South and central Mexico have small populations. Jaguars are found approximately between latitude 35 degree north and south.
Forest, Savanna, scrub, desert, but near water. Lowlands generally below 1,000 metres but sightings have been recorded above 2,000 metres. There is a strong association with waterside habitats; jaguars rarely venture more than 0.5 km from water.
The map shows the area where Jaguars are found in grey.
The map is based on information in the Wild Cats Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan published by the IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group in 1996. See our Books page for more details.

Jaguars are opportunists, taking prey in the same proportion as it is found in their habitat. Very diverse remains are found in their scats. They display preferences for collared peccaries and eat lots of Costa Rican sloths, nine banded Armadillo in Belize as well as paca, tamandua and brocket deer. In Brazil: cattle, dogs, capybara (most important), tapir, marsh deer, peccaries and tortoise. However, in Peru 85% of their prey is greater than 1 kg: turtles, tortoises and caiman. They open carapaces with their teeth. Fossil chelonians have been found deposited with jaguar bones and cat-like toothmarks.
Jaguars suffer from parasites, hookworms often being found in their faeces. They eat pigs, usually leaving the viscera and also kill anaconda. Prey are killed with powerful bite to head, neck or throat. They are the only big cats to regularly kill by piercing the skull. They drag carcass to shelter to feed. Relative to their size, they have the most powerful big cat bite.

Males overlap ranges, females more so. They are active any time of the day although activity is flexible, based on the local prey habits. Primarily nocturnal as seen in Belize, although in the Pantanal, they are diurnal, following their liking for capybara. In Belize males are active 60% of the time, which is unusual for a cat. In such geographical areas, prey is harder to catch and cats are usually smaller.
Males travel further and have shifting territories. Basically, males exclude/avoid one another. Jaguars are more active in the dry season. In the Pantanal they do not mark territories, which tend to be extensive whereas in other areas, territories are dependant on prey densities. Where territory marking occurs, sprays, faeces, tree and ground scrapes are utilised.There is no evidence of systematic predation on humans, however there are numerous authentic records of attacks on humans when the cat has been threatened, wounded, is old or has broken teeth. Male home ranges vary from country to country: e.g. Brazil 50-76 km², Belize 28-40 km². Those of females are about half these sizes: e.g. Brazil 25-38 km²; Belize 10-11 km². The average range in the Pantanal is 142 km².
Where jaguars are found in abundance, one finds relatively few pumas. They are not social and only come together for breeding. They never hunt together, but they may be seen together during the mating season.
Jaguars rest on ground in Belize, often in trees elsewhere.

Although oestrus is 6-17 days, mating may occur over a four week period. The copulation frequency is as much as 100 times a day. It is likely that reproduction continues throughout the year, but some workers report that births are timed to occur during the rainy season, when prey is most abundant.
In Paraguay births occur between November and December. In Belize, 85% of births are between May and January. Gestation averages 100 days and usually, 1-4 cubs are born in each litter. They are fully adult at three years. Most young stay with the mother for up to two years.
Jaguars have lived up to 23 years in captivity.

The current status of Jaguar is grim. Even in ‘controlled reserves’, radio-collared cats are killed by poachers and there are no prosecutions. Rabinowitz, set up the first protected area especially for jaguars, but poaching has reduced the value of this protection. Conflict with cattle ranching is not a major problem and predation on domestic animals is always overstated. One major problem with Jaguar is their lack of fear of man. Not as shy and secretive as pumas they will expose themselves to poachers.
There are estimates of only 2,150 in regional populations, 350 of those in Mexico, 600 in Belize and adjoining countries, 1000 in the Pantanal region of Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, 200 in other parts of Paraguay and Argentina.
Sightings of Jaguar north and east of Mexico have dried up. An odd male may still roam on the border between Mexico and Arizona and Mexico and Texas.
Two captive Jaguars in zoos in Argentina are blind and like many of the cats still left in the wild, are increasingly being exposed to agrochemicals, which may also affect the fertility of the remaining wild populations. As for the main population in the Amazon basin rain forest, it is estimated that there may be between 15-20,000 left with varying densities up to one per 15 km² in undeveloped remote areas.
The IUCN Red List has the jaguar as Near Threatened, (Cat News 23, 1995, p.21) without differentiating between the various subspecies. If this cat were treated as thoroughly as, say, the tiger it is likely that several subspecies would achieve a higher rating.