page_title: Jaguar
section_title: Hunting and diet
hierarchical_section_title: Jaguar / Ecology and behavior / Hunting and diet
caption_attribution_description: Another shot of the Jaguar found at the Toronto Zoo. Again, this photo has been slightly altered to show greater contrast.
context_page_description: The jaguar is a large felid species and the only extant member of the genus Panthera native to the Americas. The jaguar's present range extends from the southwestern United States and Mexico in North America, across much of Central America, and south to Paraguay and northern Argentina in South America. Though there are single cats now living within Arizona, the species has largely been extirpated from the United States since the early 20th century. It is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List; and its numbers are declining. Threats include loss and fragmentation of habitat.
  Overall, the jaguar is the largest native cat species of the New World and the third largest in the world. This spotted cat closely resembles the leopard, but is usually larger and sturdier. It ranges across a variety of forested and open terrains, but its preferred habitat is tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest, swamps and wooded regions. The jaguar enjoys swimming and is largely a solitary, opportunistic, stalk-and-ambush predator at the top of the food chain. As a keystone species it plays an important role in stabilizing ecosystems and regulating prey populations.
context_section_description: Like all cats, the jaguar is an obligate carnivore, feeding only on meat. It is an opportunistic hunter, and its diet encompasses at least 87 species. It prefers prey weighing 45–85 kg (99–187 lb), with capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) and giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) being the most preferred species. Other commonly taken prey include wild boar (Sus scrofa), Odocoileus deer, collared peccary (Pecari tajacu), spectacled caiman (Caiman crocodilus) in the northern parts of its range, nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus), white-nosed coati (Nasua narica), frogs, and fish. Jaguars are unusual among large felids in that they do not have a special preference for even-toed ungulates. Some jaguars also prey on livestock such as horses, cattle, and llamas. In the Arizona mountains, a jaguar killed and fed on an American black bear (Ursus americanus).
  Its bite force allows it to pierce the shells of armored reptiles and turtles. It bites into the throat of South American tapir (Tapirus terrestris) and other large prey until the victim suffocates. It kills capybara by piercing its canine teeth through the temporal bones of the capybara's skull, breaking its zygomatic arch and mandible and penetrating its brain, often through the ears. This may be an adaptation to "cracking open" turtle shells; armored reptiles may have formed an abundant prey base for the jaguar following the late Pleistocene extinctions.
  It has been reported that an individual jaguar can drag an 360 kg (800 lb) bull 8 m (25 ft) in its jaws and pulverize the heaviest bones.
  The activity patterns of the jaguar have been found to coincide with the activity of their main prey species in their biomes. Camera trap studies have shown that jaguars primarily have a crepuscular–nocturnal activity pattern in all the biomes that they are found in; however jaguars have  been recorded to have considerable diurnal activity in thickly forested regions of the Amazon Rainforest and the Pantanal, as well as purely nocturnal activity in other regions such as the Atlantic forest.
  The jaguar is a stalk-and-ambush rather than a chase predator. The cat will walk slowly down forest paths, listening for and stalking prey before rushing or ambushing. The jaguar attacks from cover and usually from a target's blind spot with a quick pounce; the species' ambushing abilities are considered nearly peerless in the animal kingdom by both indigenous people and field researchers, and are probably a product of its role as an apex predator in several different environments. The ambush may include leaping into water after prey, as a jaguar is quite capable of carrying a large kill while swimming; its strength is such that carcasses as large as a heifer can be hauled up a tree to avoid flood levels. After killing prey, the jaguar will drag the carcass to a thicket or other secluded spot. It begins eating at the neck and chest, rather than the midsection. The heart and lungs are consumed, followed by the shoulders. 
  The daily food requirement of a 34 kg (75 lb) animal, at the extreme low end of the species' weight range, has been estimated at 1.4 kg (3 lb). For captive animals in the 50–60 kg (110–130 lb) range, more than 2 kg (4 lb) of meat daily are recommended. In the wild, consumption is naturally more erratic; wild cats expend considerable energy in the capture and kill of prey, and they may consume up to 25 kg (55 lb) of meat at one feeding, followed by periods of famine. Though carnivorous, there is evidence that wild jaguars consume the roots of Banisteriopsis caapi.
caption: The jaguar has an exceptionally powerful bite that allows it to pierce the shells of armored prey
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