12 ferocious facts on the jaguars

The jaguars, known for their distinctive yellow-orange fur and their unique spots, are in small pockets of wooded habitats in the south, north and central America. Designated as “almost threatened” by the IUCN red list of endangered speciesThese are the greatest cats of the Americas and also the only living representative of the genus Panthera.

It was much easier to find these great cats a century ago when their territory extended as far north as new-mexic and Arizona in the United States and south of Argentina.

Due to threats such as deforestation and habitat degradation, however, they lost 46% of their historic range. Today, the majority of Jaguar populations are condensed in the Amazon basin and continue to decrease.

Here are some facts that you may not know about the elusive Jaguar.

1. Jaguars have the strongest bite in the kingdom of cats (compared to size)

These majestic cats have a stocky and heavy construction with robust canines and a massive head, which allows them a more powerful bite than any other large cat compared to its size. Studies comparing the bite forces of nine species of different cats have revealed that, while the bite force of a Jaguar is only three -quarters as strong as the bite force of a tiger, the jaguars have the stronger bites because they are considerably smaller (up to 170 cm long, not to include their tail, which can reach 80 cm).The jaw of a jaguar can bite directly into the skull of its prey and can even pierce the thick skin of a caiman with ease.

2. They love water

Unlike most cats, jaguars do not care to get wet. They are very strong swimmers and their habitat is generally characterized by the presence of bodies of water. Jaguars also need a dense forest cover and sufficient prey base to survive, but are also occasionally found in marsh areas, meadows and even dry brush forests. Of all the species of large cats, the jaguars are most often associated with water.

3. The male territories have twice as much size of the female territories

In Mexico, male jaguars maintain an annual vital domain of approximately 100 square kilometers, while women occupy approximately 46 square kilometers.The males also cover more land within 24 hours, or about 2,600 meters at 2,000 meters from the female during the dry season. The males devote more time to the marking of the territory and to the defense of their domestic chains against other men, using methods such as vocalization, scratching of trees and marking of perfume.

4. The jaguars are lonely

Jaguars tend to browse their land by themselves, marking their territory to let other Jaguars know what belongs to them. Women's jaguars are raising cubs themselves and young jaguars are starting to hunt by themselves at around two years.

5. They are often confused with leopards

Jaguars and leopards are often wrong because they are both big cats of fawn color. The most obvious difference between the two is in places or rosettes. If you look carefully, Jaguar spots are actually more fragmented and surround smaller spots. Scientists believe that these spots help break their contours in the forest or dense grass, giving them more opportunities to hide from their prey.The jaguars also have a more borderly construction with shorter legs, a large head, and you are from the Americas, while the leopards are in Africa and Asia.

6. The jaguars hunt the day and the night

Jaguars tend to be lonely creatures, living an elusive lifestyle that is both daytime and nocturnal. Thanks to their night vision, the jaguars are able to sneak on their nightly prey of incredibly strong jaws and integrated camouflage spots. A 2010 study revealed that in Belize, 70% of Jaguar's activity occurred at night, while in Venezuela, it was 40% to 60%.

7. They inspired myths and legends

To spend their lives tracking down the forests of the Americas with their elegant and mysterious framework, it is not surprising that the Jaguar has won a prominent place in mythology and legend. In the tupi-guarani languages ​​of South America, Jaguar comes from the word “yaguara”, which results in “a wild beast which overcomes its prey in a limit”.While references to jaguars through the history of South America have been well documented, cats also have a less known place in prehistoric Amerindian cultures such as the Pueblo tribes, the south of Athabaskan and the northern Southwest American Pima.

8. They roar

Lions, tigers and jaguars have an elastic ligament called GRIPHOODEUM behind their nose and mouth instead of a bone element like a domestic cat, giving them the ability to roar but not to purr.

A roar of male Jaguar is stronger than that of a woman – as women have softer vocalizations unless they are in heat, but the two call and respond by using a specific series of calls during the Mates season. Unfortunately, this is often taken advantage of the poachers, who have developed methods to imitate the single call.

9. These are opportunistic hunters

The jaguars will eat almost everything. They have a wide variety of prey species, including mammals, reptiles and birds (both wild and cattle). On most hunts on the ground, they are also known to climb trees and jump on their prey from above. It is estimated that 50% of their eliminations are larger prey, consumed over four days, which they do to preserve energy.

10. The languages ​​of the jaguars help them eat

Aside from their incredibly strong bite, the jaguars have rough languages ​​with thorny taste buds that help them consume meat and lick the bones of their prey. The taste buds also allow them to clean themselves properly.

11. Black jaguars are common

The result of a single dominant allele, around 10% of jaguars have evolved to have black (or melanist) coats, although scientists are not completely sure why. A study in 2020 revealed that 25% of the jaguars lived in dense forests in Costa Rica were melanist, much more than the world average, which suggests that the mutation occurs due to the advantages of camouflage.

The study also revealed that black jaguars were more active during the full moon. While at a distance, it may seem that these jaguars are completely black, they actually have a base layer of black fur with dark black spots which are more visible from certain angles.

Funny fact: In large cats, the black panther is not a distinct species but rather a general name used to designate any black member of the name of the animal group Panthera, generally leopards, jaguars and mountain lions.

12. They have already lost half of their historic range

Historically, the Jaguar varied from the southwest of the United States and the Mexican border through the Amazonian basin and in the Rio Negro of Argentina. Today, the jaguars have been practically eliminated from most northern regions such as Arizona and New Mexico, as well as the state of Sonora in Mexico, in northern Brazil, Uruguay and the meadows of Argentina.

IUCN noted that the Jaguars only occupied 46% of their historic distribution area in 2002, and in 2008, this number would have reached 51%. The tropical forest of the Amazon basin currently has 57% of the world's population in Jaguar. Remote cameras of wildlife in Arizona have documented several jaguars from 2011 to 2017, including three men named “Macho B”, “El Jefe” and “Sombra”.