The Jagur is the biggest cat in the western hemisphere, and the third largest in the world, behind the
lion and the tiger. It is also one of the four roaring cats, but different from the roar of the lion, this animal sounds
more like coughing. It is easy to mix the jaguar with the leopard, but the jaguar has dark rings on its body,
and inside those rings are often dark spots - see picture above to the left.

The jaguaren might be 180 cm long, and with the length of the tail, another 70-90cm. Their weight
can go up to 180 kilos, but usually somewhere between 70 and 135 kilos.

They eat mammals, birds, reptiles and fish. Amongst this food is i.e.capybar, tapir, deer, paka, snakes, caimans
and apes, and once in a while also fruit.


Jaguar, Panthera onca - Overview
Granada Wild, London
http://www.arkive.org

When a jaguar is going fishing, it doesn't work too hard. It stands very quiet in shallow water, waiting patiently
for dinner coming along. Then it hits it hard with his foot, and then having a nice meal on shore.

It happens that the jaguar doesn't have food available - owing to destruction of its habitat - or when humans
have been moving in. Then it comes to know domestic animals, and becomes a threat to them.

Jaguaren is an excellent climber - and in addition also an eminent swimmer, and therefore the Amazon wetland gives it a place where it can move around without difficulties.

There also excist black jaguars, and they are often found in dense forests and are called black panthers.

Ung han- jaguar krysser en elv, angriper en caiman i vannet og spiser den.
Granada Wild, London
http://www.arkive.org

photo by P. Chevalier ©

Usually a Jaguar is yellow with black spots. (see picture above), but sometiomes it happens to be completely black. Then it is almost like the panther. Do you know the difference between a jaguar and a panther? The jaguaren livs in America, The panther - or leopard as it is also called, in Africa and Asia. The jaguaren is the heaviest with its 150 kilos against 90kilos. A black panther is a large black cat. Black panthers are melanistic colour variants of several species of larger cat. Wild black panthers in Latin America are black jaguars (Panthera onca), in Asia and Africa black leopards (Panthera pardus).

Melanistic jaguar, Panthera onca, also known as a black panther
BBC Natural History Unit
http://www.arkive.org

Jaguaren was once the Mayas and Atzekes most holy animal. Long time ago it was common from Mexico in north to Argentina in the south. To day it is almost extinct owing to souvenir-hunting, and also because it has learned to live on pigs and calfs from agricultual establishments. Usually the jaguar doesn't attack humans, but if you ever see one, don't get too close.... The jaguar is both climbing and swimming well, and often take living animals both in rivers and lakes.