Jaguar

The **Jaguar** (Panthera onca) is the largest cat of the Americas and a formidable predator. It is also the national animal of Brazil and the national mammal of Mexico. Its common name comes from the native Indian name ‘yaguara’, meaning ‘a beast that kills its prey with one bound’, and its power is clearly displayed by its muscular build, deep chest, large head, broad muzzle, and strong jaws. This remarkable cat possesses a visually striking coat of large black rosettes, mostly enclosing dark spots, set against golden brown to yellow fur, which pales to white on the cheeks, throat and underside. Melanistic forms are also relatively common, often called ‘black panthers’ in the Americas. Jaguars vary considerably in size in different regions, but genetic studies indicate that there are no subspecies. Jaguars found in the dense forested areas of the Amazon Basin are generally smaller and darker in color than those found in more open terrain. The jaguar is crepuscular, which means it is active at dawn and dusk.

## Size and Characteristics

Adult males can reach an overall length of more than 7 feet, and can weigh anywhere from 150 to 200 pounds. As mentioned above, its coat color and markings are very similar to the leopard, with a rich tawny or yellow background with large black rosettes and spots.

## Habitat

The cat will range across tropical, subtropical, and dry deciduous forests (including, historically, oak forests in the United States). The jaguar prefers to live by rivers, swamps, and in dense rainforest with thick cover for stalking prey.

## Diet

Jaguars are known to eat deer, peccary, crocodiles, snakes, monkeys, deer, sloths, tapirs, turtles, eggs, frogs, fish and anything else they can catch. The jaguar is the third-largest living feline species, after the tiger and lion.

## Offspring

After mating, the female will carry her young for around 100 days and will give birth to one to four young. Baby jaguars are called cubs. They are bornwith their eyelids sealed shut.

## Black Jaguars

In jaguars, the melanism allele is dominant. Consequently, black jaguars may produce either black or spotted cubs, but a pair of spotted jaguars can only produce spotted cubs. Individuals with two copies of the allele are darker (the black background colour is more dense) than ones with just one copy, whose background colour may appear to be dark charcoal rather than black.

The black jaguar was considered a separate species by indigenous peoples. English naturalist W. H. Hudson wrote: The jaguar is a beautiful creature, the ground-colour of the fur a rich golden-red tan, abundantly marked with black rings, enclosing one or two small spots within. This is the typical colouring and it varies little in the temperate regions; in the hot region the Indians recognise three strongly marked varieties, which they regard as distinct species – the one described; the smaller jaguar, less aquatic in his habits and marked with spots, not rings; and, thirdly, the black variety. They scout the notion that their terrible "black tiger" is a mere melanic variation, like the black leopard of the Old World and the wild black rabbit. They regard it as wholly distinct, and affirm that it is larger and much more dangerous than the spotted jaguar; that they recognise it by its cry; that it belongs to the terra firma rather than to the water-side; finally, that black pairs with black, and that the cubs are invariably black. Nevertheless, naturalists have been obliged to make it specifically one with *Felis onca* [*Panthera onca*], the familiar spotted jaguar, since, when stripped of its hide, it is found to be anatomically as much like that beast as the black is like the spotted leopard.