COMMON NAME: Jaguar
KINGDOM: Animalia
CLASS: Mammalia
FAMILY: Felidae
GENUS: Panthera
SPECIES: Onca
 DESCRIPTION
AND BEHAVIOR:
Jags are the largest felines in
the Americas and the only
living representative of the genus Panthera found in the New World. Forest jaguars
are not only more frequently darker, but are also considerably smaller in size than
animals which inhabit more open areas. In Central American rainforest, males
averaged 57 kg and females 42 kg, while in the Brazilian Pantanal males averaged
100 kg and females 76 kg. The size difference may be due to the greater abundance
of large prey species in more open environments.
More than 85 species have
been recorded in the
jaguar’s diet. Large prey,
such as peccaries, tapirs and
deer, may be preferred, but
a jaguar will eat almost
anything it can catch, and
in the rainforest will take
mammal prey species in
proportion
to
their
occurrence.
Large herbivores are more
thinly
distributed
in
rainforest than in more
-1-
grassy, open habitats, where they are more likely to form groups and cluster near
water, and jaguar diet in the rainforest and in savanna woodlands reflects this
difference in prey availability and vulnerability.
Although the jaguar has been characterized as primarily nocturnal, they are often
active during the daytime, with activity peaks around dawn and dusk. Mean daily
travel distance was significantly larger for a male than for females. Both sexes tended
to travel further each day during the dry season. Radio-collared male jaguars tended
to remain within small areas for a week at a time before shifting in a single night to
other parts of their range.
 HABITAT AND DISTRIBUTION :
The jaguar, which swims well, is strongly associated
with the presence of water. Habitats meeting this
requirement range from rainforest to seasonally
flooded swamp areas, pampas grassland, thorn scrub
woodland (Chaco), and dry deciduous forest.
Although jaguars have been reported from elevations
as high as 3,800 m, jaguars typically avoid montane
forest, and have not been found in the high plateau
of central Mexico or above 2,700 m in the Andes.
The historical range of the jaguar extended from
Arizona, New Mexico and Texas in the United States
south to either the Río Negro or Río Santa Cruz in
Argentina. Formerly occupied habitat in the north of
its range included oak woodland, mesquite thickets
In captivity, jags lived over 20 years, as compared to
11 - 12 in the wild.
 PRINCIPAL THREATS:
Deforestation rates are highest in Latin America, and fragmentation of forest habitat
isolates jaguar populations so that they are more vulnerable to the predations of
man. People compete with jaguars for prey, and jaguars are frequently shot on sight,
despite protective legislation. The most urgent conservation issue is the current
intolerance of ranchers for jaguars. In many cattle-ranching operations in the region,
livestock roam widely and become essentially feral. The vulnerability of the jaguar to
persecution is demonstrated by its disappearance by the mid-1900s from the southwestern US and northern Mexico, areas which are today home to important puma
populations. A conservation plan has been developed for jaguars in the Brazilian
Pantanal, and the Brazilian government is planning to establish a National Center
-2-
for Research, Management and Conservation of Predators in Brazil to address
livestock-predator problems. Swank and Teer (1988) emphasize the potential
benefits of controlled sport hunting as an element of national jaguar conservation
strategies, arguing that trophy fees would be an incentive for some ranchers to
maintain jaguars on their land. Translocation of problem jaguars has also been
recommended. Commercial hunting and trapping of jaguars for their pelts has
declined drastically since the mid-1970s, when anti-fur campaigns gathered steam
and CITES controls progressively shut down international markets. Organized
poaching rings, in which fur buyers travelled through the country supplying traps
and buying pelts from local people, are a thing of the past.
 PROJECT: PUMA IN PATAGONIA
 Objectives
To continue the long-term study of the ecology of the puma in Chilean Patagonia.
 Description
In cooperation with the Chilean Corporación Nacional Forestal (CONAF), Proyecto
Puma has been running in Chile's Torres del Paine National Park for nearly a
decade, and has gathered important data on the behavior and ecology of pumas in
the southernmost part of their range. The pumas are well-habituated to humans,
and park authorities are increasingly worried about potential harm to tourists. This
will be one aspect of the future activities of the project. The other will be to quantify
the impact of puma predation on guanacos, the major ungulate prey species of puma
in the southern Andes.
 Time Frame: three to five years
BY: ANABELLA AND JESICA
-3-