Amazon Jaguar
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| Panthera onca onca* |
The word jaguar as a name for the big cat comes from the Tupi language, an indigenous language of South America belonging to the Tupí-Guaraní languages. The old Indian term yaguar roughly means "the predator who kills his prey with a single jump". In the Guaraní it is called jaguareté (“real jaguar”), while the word jagua (rá), originally “carnivorous quadruped”, is now used specifically for the imported dog.
The jaguar has various Spanish and Portuguese names in its still native areas: Jaguar, Yaguar, Yaguarete, Otorongo, Jaguarete, Tiger (el tigre) or "American tiger". The Portuguese name of the jaguar is onça-pintada or onça-verdadeira. Black animals are known as kuchí kudáu, ming chá, or yagueretehú. The similar-sounding jaguarundi are small cats.
The main distribution of the jaguar today is in the tropical, Amazonian rainforest. It prefers dense vegetation and the proximity of rivers and lakes as a habitat. There are also jaguars all over South and Central America, from Mexico to Argentina. They were still widespread in historical times in the southwest of the USA, northwards the jaguar reached at least the Grand Canyon in historical times. With increasing human colonization, the jaguar was decimated more and more in the USA, in 1963 the last female specimen was shot on US soil, and two years later the last male animal. In 1969 the state of Arizona banned the hunting of jaguars. Specimens reappeared in Arizona in 1971 and 1986, but were killed by hunters or hunting dogs. Since the detection of a jaguar in the southwest of the USA in 1996 and further sightings in New Mexico and Arizona, one can speak of a jaguar population in the USA again, which certainly consists of very few specimens.
Since jaguars, like tigers, are very adaptable, they occur in a wide variety of habitats that offer sufficient cover, prey and water access. The habitats include tropical rainforests, dry forests, savannas, pampas areas, bushland, wetlands and even semi-deserts. However, jaguars prefer humid habitats near the banks and are often found on rivers. Not only do they find prey there, but they also spend their rest time on the banks of the river. However, there have been reports of sightings, according to which isolated jaguars have been found in higher mountains, for example on Costa Rica, at an altitude of up to 3800 m. In the Andes, however, jaguars no longer occur from an altitude of 2700 m. It is generally assumed that jaguars have a hard time adapting to colder climatic regions
The knowledge of the behavior and way of life of the jaguar is incomplete. They are primarily based on specimens with collarbones or direct observations. The overall difficulty is that jaguars are difficult to catch in order to put transmitter collars on them, and the big cat lives very secluded.
They are solitary animals who, depending on possible prey, claim fixed territories of at least 25 to 150 square kilometers. But there are also reports of areas from 15 to 800 square kilometers. The territories of the males overlap with those of the females. However, this can also be the case with male animals, but they usually avoid each other in good time before serious territorial disputes arise. As with other big cats, the territories are marked by urine or scratches on trees. Like all big cats (with the exception of the lion), solitary animals only come together to mate.
Despite their heavy build, they can climb very well. Young animals have been shown to climb more frequently than adults. Because of their range of prey, they are very good swimmers. The jaguar also swims through rivers over long distances, a characteristic that is otherwise only found in tigers. Investigations with the help of radiometry found that jaguars are also quite diurnal. You still spend 40 to 50 percent of the day resting.
The prey animals of the jaguar are very diverse. Up to 85 species of prey are assigned to it. The most important are larger mammals such as deer, peccaries (umbilical pigs), tapirs, capybaras, pakas, armadillos and agoutis. Tree animals such as monkeys or sloths and birds are less likely to fall victim to the cat. In the vicinity of the water jaguars prey on water birds, fish and smaller caimans. Preferred main prey animals, however, are the peccary and usually between 50 and 61 kilograms heavy capybara, the largest living rodent. Due to the decline and fragmentation of their natural habitat as a result of the spread of humans and their farms and livestock farming, jaguars also tear cattle like cattle or pigs more often. Ultimately, however, the jaguar is also very adaptable in its eating habits and eats almost anything it can overwhelm.
In contrast to a number of canids such as wolves or wild dogs, who hunt their prey by chasing, jaguars are typical hunters (hide hunters). They are also not fast sprinters like the cheetah, but like the rest of the big or small cats, they stalk silently and as close as possible to their prey or lie in wait for it. After a short spurt, the prey is torn to the ground and killed with a bite in the neck, throat or skull. The prey animal's skull is usually bitten near the ears. Often the remains of prey also contain dislocated or crushed cervical vertebrae. In addition, jaguars are able to open well-armored reptiles such as turtles due to their strong skull structure and strong jaw muscles. Numerous remains of turtle shells found suggest that the jaguar has a predilection for these reptiles. This is already known from fossil carapace finds from the range of the jaguar from the Pleistocene, which on the one hand have bite marks from big cats and which were found together with fossil jaguar bones. Its predilection for turtles, but also caimans, fish and capybaras is probably the reason why the jaguar prefers the proximity of water.
Within its habitat on the South American continent, the jaguar takes on the role of a top predator, i.e. a predator that is only at the top of the food pyramid in its ecosystem.
As is the case with all wild animal populations, those for the jaguar are only approximate, between 15,000 and 25,000 specimens, with the greatest population density being limited to the Amazon basin and, above all, to the Pantanal, south of it, which has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. With 230,000 km², the Pantanal is one of the largest inland wetlands and is mainly located in Brazil, with small parts in the neighboring countries Paraguay and Bolivia. The Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary in Belize was established in 1984 as the first jaguar sanctuary in Central America. An estimated 200 jaguars live in this 150 km² rainforest area.
Due to the increasing destruction of the rainforests and the associated expansion of humans, the jaguar is hunted as a cattle predator. Forestry, agriculture and mining have reduced its natural habitat by almost 50% over the past few decades. He has already completely disappeared from many areas. In the 1960s, the jaguar was particularly heavily hunted and there were estimates that up to 15,000 animals were killed in the Amazon region alone.
The big cat has been on the list of threatened species of the Washington Convention on Endangered Species (CITES - Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) since the 1970s. It is listed here in Appendix I, which lists the directly threatened species and prohibits trade in these and parts of the animals. In Europe, the Jaguar is placed under maximum protection by an EC regulation (1158/2012, Appendix A) from 1976 and has been specially protected under the Federal Nature Conservation Act (BNatSchG) since 1980. The trade in jaguar skins has been banned by CITES since 1973. Nevertheless, the big cats are still being poached because their pelts fetch very high prices on the black market. The jaguar is not yet threatened with extinction, but it is still exposed to an ever-increasing threat, so that a decline in the numbers can be observed.
Jaguars are kept in human hands in some zoos around the world. In 2020, 102 European zoos had jaguars (including Russia and French overseas territories) - including seven zoological gardens in Germany - as well as in the distribution area (e.g. Tarija and Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia). There is no information about private households. Targeted breeding under the European Endangered Species Program is coordinated by Chester Zoo in Great Britain.
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