Jaguar, Panthera onca

Jaguar, Panthera onca. Photographed within the confines of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson, Arizona, February, 2022.

Photograph taken in the mountains of Costa Rica, April 2022.  Photograph courtesy of Thomas Enderlin, flyfishingcostarica.com.

The Jaguar, Panthera onca, is a member of the Felidae family of Cats. In Mayan and Mexican culture, they symbolize strength, ferocity, and courage and are referred to as Bahlam or B’alam. The Felidae family consists two subfamilies with forty members placed in fourteen genera. There are five species in the Panthera genus. Jaguars are the only species in the Panthera genus that are found in North, Central and South America and they are the third biggest cat in the world, after tigers and lions. They are sometimes referred to as Black Panthers. “Panther” is a general term that originates from the Panthera genus and is used to describe leopards, jaguars, and mountain lions. The Jaguar is known in Mexico as El Jaguar and Onca.

Jaguars are large and muscular, standing 68 cm (2 feet 3 inches) to 75 cm (2 feet 6 inches) tall at the shoulder and reaching 1.5 m (5 feet 0 inches) to 1.8 m (6 feet 0 inches) in snout-to-vent length with a 70 cm (2 feet 3 inch) to 91 cm (3 feet 0 inch) tail. They weigh between 31 kg (70 lbs) and 121 kg (249 lbs). They  are slightly sexual dimorphic with the males being 10-20% larger than the females. Their heads are large and broad with the strongest jaw muscles of all the big cats. Their bite force is 680 kg (1,500 lbs) per square inch, which is double that of a Tiger. This bite strength is primarily due to the arrangement of their jaw muscles and their slightly smaller jaw, which increases the leverage for biting. They have tan or dark yellow fur dorsally and a white underbelly. Their body is dotted with dark spots, called rosettes, that have an irregular border and a spot in the center. The pattern, or rosetting, on the Jaguars fur is unique to each animal and helps to camouflage them into their surrounding environment. Some Jaguars have black-on-black, or melanistic, coloring. These individuals are typically found in darker rainforests. 

Jaguars are solitary and interact with one another primarily for mating. They do not have a defined breeding season, rather, they can mate anytime during the year as long as conditions are adequate. When conditions are good, females can enter a cycle of estrus that lasts approximately 37 days total. During this time, they will be in estrus for 6 to 17 days. Females release strong odors in their urine and produce a variety of vocalizations that help the males to locate them. Occasionally, males will fight one another for the right to mate with a female. The stronger and more powerful male typically wins and is the one that gets to mate. A male and female will form a temporary association, or breeding pair, when they are ready to mate. Breeding pairs travel and feed together until they have completed several rounds of copulation. During mating, the female shows herself as proceptive with tail movements and presentation to the male. The male then mounts the female while biting and licking her neck. Following copulation, the female typically lies on the ground and rolls or rocks. A breeding pair can mate up to 100 times a day. After mating, the pair separates and the female does not tolerate the presence of males. Gestation lasts for 3.0 to 3.5 months (100 days) and females make their dens in caves, canyons, and even the ruins of old buildings. A litter typically consists of 1 to 4 cubs that are precocial, being born blind and helpless. At birth, cubs have coarse, wooly fur and weigh 700 (1 lbs 8 oz) to 900 grams (2 lbs 0 oz). Their eyes do not open until they are 3 to 13 days old and their teeth appear at one month of age. Cubs drink milk for 3 months before their mother brings them meat in the den. The female may leave her young for long periods of time while she hunts. She also will fight with males who come around her den. Males often want to kill a female’s cubs in an effort to get her to mate again soon. After 6 months, cubs begin to venture outside of their den and help their mother to find food. They begin to hunt on their own when they are 15 to 18 months old, and they remain with their mother until they are about 2 years of age, when they are ready to claim their own territory. Male cubs grow more quickly than their female siblings, and by the time they leave their mother they are about 50% heavier. Jaguars reach sexual maturity at two to four years of age. They have lifespans in the wild twelve to sixteen years.

Jaguars are elusive, spending the majority of their time nesting in the safety of trees or hunting in dense overgrowth. Males are particularly territorial and although their home range overlaps with those of many females, they defend their territory fiercely from other males. Territories are marked with urine, feces, claw marks on the ground or vegetation, and growling vocal calls. Jaguars prefer to be near water, particularly floodplains or slow-moving rivers. They are strong swimmers and can swim at speeds of up to 8 kilometers per hour (5 miles per hour). In the water, they hunt fish, turtles, and even caimans, using their powerful jaws to pierce the skulls of their prey. They are excellent climbers and can run at speeds of up to 80 km per hour (50 mph). Additionally, they can jump up to 6 m (20 feet) high. On land, they hunt deer, peccaries, capybaras, tapirs, opossum, rabbits, armadillos, livestock, and other medium sized mammals. Instead of chasing their prey like other large cats, they prefer to stalk and ambush their ground-dwelling prey at night. Over eighty-five prey species have been recorded in their diet across their geographic range. Jaguars are among the top predators of their habitat and no other wild animals are known to consider them prey. 

Jaguar are found from sea level to  elevations of 3,000 meters (9,850 feet). Their habitat is typically characterized by dense forest cover (mainly primary and secondary forest), the presence of water bodies, and a sufficient prey base. Although, they are found throughout a range of habitats including rainforest, seasonally flooded swamp areas, pampas grassland, thorn scrub woodland, and dry deciduous forest.

Jaguars may be confused with Leopards, Panthera pardus, because they are very similar in appearance. These species can be differentiated visually and by geographic range. Leopards are smaller and have a slender body with no inner rosette spots. Unlike the Jaguar, they are not aquatically inclined and are found in Africa and parts of Asia. 

From a conservation perspective, the Jaguar is considered to be Near Threatened due to a suspected 20 to 25% decline in populations over the past 3 generations (twenty-one years) in their area of occupancy, extent of occurrence, and habitat quality. Jaguar populations are currently threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, killing for trophies and illegal trade of body parts, pro-active or retaliatory killings associated with livestock depredation, and competition for wild meat with human hunters. These processes are taking place on a continental scale and there are now few areas within the Jaguar’s range that are considered safe. The commercial hunting and trapping of Jaguars for their pelts has declined drastically since the mid-1970’s, when anti-fur campaigns and CITIES controls progressively shut down international markets. However, there is still demand for Jaguar paws, teeth, and other products, especially in local markets where canines are still considered interesting jewelry. Additionally, Jaguars are starting to be considered a replacement for tiger bones in traditional medical practices by the increasing Asian community in Latin America. There is currently a growing, illegal, international trade in Jaguar teeth and bone products in China. Jaguars have national protections in almost every country that it is found, and trade of their parts is banned by CITIES. There are major efforts to support and develop Jaguar corridors to connect isolated populations as well as working with ranchers to reduce human-jaguar conflicts. Workshops help ranchers learn better husbandry practices, and a growing number of programs compensate ranchers when they lose cattle to Jaguars, which makes them less motivated to kill the Jaguar in retaliation.