Published October 25, 2022 | Animal Knowledge, Animals, Conservation, Endangered, Wildlife

The Jaguars, known as the big cat – are third-largest cat after tiger and lions. Being an opportunistic hunters, they’re not picky and will prey on 87 different animal species!

But sadly, now this big cat have “Near Threatened” status according to IUCN Red List. The main reason of their threats are habitat loss, poaching, and conflict situation with human. So, let’s learn more about them to help protect Jaguar in the wild!

Jaguar Characteristics

the-jaguar

The Jaguar (Panthera onca) is the only living member of the genus Panthera native to the Americas. It spread through New Mexico and southern Arizona south toward northeastern Brazil and northern Argentina. This cat usually live in tropical lowland forests with plenty of cover, reed thickets, scrubland, coastal forests, thickets and swamps.

With body length up to 185cm and weight up to 56-96kg, make them being the largest cat species in Americas. Jaguar have distinctively marked coat, features pale yellow to tan colored fur. On top of it there are spots covering their coat with a transition to rosettes on the sides.

Not only that, these cats also have powerful bite! It allows it to pierce the carapaces of turtles and tortoises, and to employ an unusual killing method. It bites directly through the skull of mammalian prey between the ears to deliver a fatal blow to the brain.

Behaviour

the-jaguar

Jaguars and all cats are obligate carnivores, because they can only be healthy on an all-meat diet. Some of those prey species include deer, small caimans, tapirs, dogs, capybaras, peccaries, armadillos, birds, frogs, fish, monkeys, and turtles.

The average adult Jaguar can consume up to 50 pounds of meat after periods of time when they haven’t had enough. They typically will consume less pounds a day if they are able to consistently find food. They sometimes climb trees to prepare an ambush and killing their prey with one powerful bite.

The Black Cat

the-black-jaguar

Melanism in the jaguar is conferred by a dominant allele, and in the leopard by a recessive allele. Melanistic and non-melanistic animals can be littermates. It is thought that melanism confers a selective advantage under certain conditions. That is more common in regions of dense forest, where light levels are lower. Preliminary studies also suggest that melanism might be linking to beneficial mutations in the immune system. Due to the excess black pigments, the typical spotted markings are present, but hidden, which is called “ghost rosettes”.

That’s all about jaguar characteristics. We should protect Jaguar and all wildlife so they don’t go extinct in the wild. So, it is time to learn about animals and get involved in animal welfare with Taman Safari Bali!