The coat of rather bristly fur ranges from yellow to tawny with whitish underparts. It is spotted in dark brown or black on the head and neck, blotched on the limbs and patterned elsewhere with rosettes with further spots within them, sometimes merging to form a solid line along the spine and making rings on the tail. The jaguar is usually a solitary hunter, although small prides have been reported in remote areas. It appears to be gregarious only at breeding times, when groups of eight or more have been seen. In areas where it has been hunted by man it is almost exclusively nocturnal, lying up by day, sometimes making its den in the ruins of the ancient civilizations of Central and South America.
Prey varies according to terrain.
It includes deer, tapirs and pig-like peccaries. Jaguar are good swimmers and find an easy prey in capybara, which live on river banks, and they also fish. They climb well and take monkeys and other tree-living animals, though their weight prevents their climbing to higher branches where monkeys and sloths flee to keep out of reach. Cubs with a long woolly coat are born, after a gestation of 100 days, in litters of one to four and stay with their mother for about two years, reaching maturity at three to four years old. As recently as the beginning of this century Jaguars ranged from southern California and Arizona as far south as the Rio Negro in Argentina.