South American Jaguar Hunting

Jaguar

(Panthera onca)

Current SCI all time record: Score 20 12/16 - Paraguay, Chaco - 3/70

Description: This largest of Central American carnivores was once fairly common in coastal mangroves, lowlands savannas, wet and dry shrub-lands and forests up to about 1000 m elevation.

Their fur is yellowish brown dorsally, white ventrally, and the animals are black spotted all over, the spots on the side forming open "butterflies" some with contained dots. The tail is short, less than half the length of the head and body. The head and forefeet are massive and used for grasping prey.

Other Common Names:

Size: Adult males weigh 50-100 kg, females weigh about a third less.

Range: Throughout northern and central South America; currently protected despite large numbers.

Natural History: Jaguars are rarely seen in the daylight, but occasionally they will sun themselves on a cliff or log. They scratch tree trunks, but it is not sure that they urine mark objects or make territorial scratches on the ground. They are fairly aquatic and easily swim rivers, small lakes, and straits between mangrove islets. They favor damp sites such as streambeds in gallery forests, where footprints often reveal jaguars' presence, approximate size, and travels. During any season jaguars of either sex may roar at night.

Although jaguars seem to prefer peccaries as prey, they also hunt monkeys, agoutis, deer, birds, fish, lizards, turtles and other animals.

In forest reserves the average density of adult jaguars is roughly one per 100 km2 at any one time. Annual home ranges are probably several hundred km2 for males, less for females. The season of births probably varies regionally. Gestation is about 3 months, and the usual litter is two. Females reach sexual maturity at about 3 years of age and do not breed in successive years if their young survive.

The main threat to the remaining jaguars in Central America is the clearing of forest for crops and grazing. When roads penetrate a primitive zone, the jaguar and white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) are the first large mammals to disappear. The jaguars seem to be poor colonizers of cut-over lands or new areas regardless of the abundance of prey there.

Hunting Characteristics: