page_title: Jaguar
section_title: Distribution and habitat
hierarchical_section_title: Jaguar / Distribution and habitat
caption_attribution_description: Rio São Lourenço, Porto Jofre, Pantanal, Poconé, Mato Grosso, BRAZIL
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: At present, the jaguar's range extends from Mexico through Central America to South America, including much of Amazonian Brazil. The countries included in this range are Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica (particularly on the Osa Peninsula), Ecuador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, the United States and Venezuela. It is now locally extinct in El Salvador and Uruguay.
  The jaguar prefers dense forest and typically inhabits dry deciduous forests, tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, rainforests and cloud forests in Central and South America; open, seasonally flooded wetlands, dry grassland and historically also oak forests in the United States. It has been recorded at elevations up to 3,800 m (12,500 ft), but avoids montane forests. It favours riverine habitat and swamps with dense vegetation cover. It has lost habitat most rapidly in drier regions such as the Argentine pampas, the arid grasslands of Mexico and the southwestern United States.
  In 1919, the jaguar was said to have occurred in the Monterey, California region.
  In 1999, its historic range at the turn of the 20th century was estimated at 19,000,000 km² (7,300,000 sq mi) stretching from the southern United States through Central America to southern Argentina. By the turn of the 21st century, its global range had decreased to about 8,750,000 km² (3,380,000 sq mi), most of it in the southern United States, northern Mexico, northern Brazil, and southern Argentina.
  Occasional sightings were reported in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
caption: A jaguar in São Lourenço River (Mato Grosso)
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