With their iconic spots and unmatched hunting abilities, jaguars command attention wherever they roam. Dotted across Latin America’s tropical rainforests, savannahs and grasslands, these ferocious felines are apex predators with distinct traits and behaviours. Read on to discover our top ten jaguar facts, from their super senses to the ongoing efforts to ensure their survival amid human challenges…
- ‘He who kills with one leap’
- Spots within spots
- Water lovers
- Diverse diet
- Breeding habits
- Super-sized
- Communication skills
- Heightened senses
- Human threats
- Conservation efforts
'He who kills with one leap’
When it comes to their name, jaguars have big boots to fill. Deriving from the Native American word yaguar, which means ‘he who kills with one leap’, this furry feline’s reputation precedes them – and they certainly live up to it. Jaguars are built with a spring in their step… literally – they have the ability to leap around 20ft horizontally and ten feet vertically. Paired with teeth that can tear turtle shells and crunch crocodile hides, these cats have more than earned the meaning behind their name.
Spots within spots
With their black and orange spotted coats, jaguars and leopards are nature's speckled sisters. But if you’re eager to tell one from the other, forget playing guessing games – their unique identities are in the very spots that make them similar. Jaguar’s spots (known as rosettes) have spots within spots (how many times can we say spots?), while leopard’s rosettes are solid. Markings aside, if you spot (sorry) one in the wild, simply check what continent you’re in – jaguars call the Americas home, while leopards roam Africa and Asia.
Water lovers
Forget what you know about domestic cats and water, because jaguars aren’t like your familiar feline friends. Not only are they confident swimmers, known to cross large rivers and play around in lakes, but they also take advantage of the prey that water provides. Fish, turtles and caimans (small alligator-like creatures) don’t stand a chance against these serious swimmers and regularly fall victim to their jaws, a surprising jaguar fact that sets them apart from other big cats.
Diverse diet
It’s not just aquatic animals that jaguars feast on. They’re known to consume a whopping 85 species, including creatures like deer, armadillos, monkeys, birds and even South America’s largest animal, the tapir. In short, they’ll eat almost anything – aside from humans. Jaguars don’t see us as food, and while lions, tigers and leopards have hunted people, jaguars have never been documented systematically pursuing us.
Breeding habits
Forget Cupid, it’s jaguars that know a thing or two about love. When breeding, a pair of jaguars can mate up to 100 times daily in pursuit of cub creation. If successful, their pregnancy lasts around 14 weeks and typically results in the birth of two cubs. These little ones weigh about the same as a loaf of bread when they first enter the world and stick by their mother’s side for up to two years.
Super-sized
Jaguar facts come in all shapes and sizes, just like the cats themselves. Despite being the third-largest big cat in the world, the largest big cat in the Americas and a whopping five to eight feet long from nose to tail, their size can vary between regions – jaguars in Central America can be roughly half the size of jaguars in South America’s Pantanal. Gender also plays a role in how far they tip the scales, with males weighing in at up to 19 stone while females come in at around 15 stone.
Communication skills
While a jaguar’s jaw is mostly used for tearing apart prey, it also produces a range of sounds to aid communication. Roars, grunts, meows and nasally snorts are used for greetings, attracting males, establishing territory and communicating with cubs. Along with vocalisations, jaguars also communicate through tactile means, like scraping the ground, clawing trees and marking territory with urine, which helps them lay claim over their domain.
Heightened senses
Although the following jaguar fact isn’t unique to the species, it’s no less impressive. Like other big cats, a jaguar’s eyesight is leaps and bounds ahead of a human’s – they can see six times better than us in the dark (we have torches for a reason). Their sense of smell is also superior, with between 45 and 80 million olfactory receptors (we have between five and six million) helping them locate prey and potential threats.
Human threats
Jaguars have established themselves as impressive apex predators, but there are certain threats – namely human threats – that they can’t conquer. High levels of deforestation cause a loss in jaguar habitat, isolating their populations and making breeding harder. It also decreases the number of potential prey, leading them to hunt livestock and ultimately be killed by people. Despite being illegal, poaching also causes a decrease in jaguar numbers, as their paws and teeth are highly sought after for medicinal and aesthetic purposes.
Conservation efforts
Our final fact about jaguars ends on a positive note. Despite threats faced by these beautiful beasts, efforts are underway to ensure their continued existence in the wild, such as habitat conservation, including establishing protected areas; stricter penalties for poachers; creating predator-proof livestock enclosures; and teaching communities the importance of jaguar conservation.
Written by Evie Buller | Header Image by Roxanne Lebrun.