TAXONOMY & NOMENCLATURE
(Barry 1987) (Eizirik et al. 2001) (Hemmer et al 2001)(Johnson et al. 1997) (Johnson & O'Brien. 2006) (Larson 1997) (Oesch 1969)(Pocock 1939) (Seymour 1989)
(Turner 1997) (Wozencraft 2005)
Describer (Date): Linnaeus, 1758. Systema Naturae Per Regna Tria Naturae Secundum Classes, Ordines, Genera, Species, cum Characteribus, Differentiis Synonymis, Locis, 10th ed. Uppsala, L. Salvii, 1758.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Subfamily: Machairodontinae (extinct saber-toothed cats)
Subfamily: Felinae (cheetah, lynx, bobcat, caracal, puma, fishing cat, ocelot, margay, jaguarundi, serval, domestic cat)
Subfamily: Pantherinae (leopard, lion, tiger, jaguar, snow leopard, clouded leopard)
Genus: Panthera
Species: Panthera onca - jaguar
Species: Panthera leo - lion
Species: Panthera pardus - leopard
Species: Panthera tigris - tiger
Species: Panthera unica - snow leopard
Genus: Neofelis neofelis - clouded leopard
Taxonomic History and Nomenclature
- Subspecies:
- Modern genetic studies suggest no justification for defining subspecies
- Eight traditional subspecies based on skull characters
- P. onca arizonensis ( Arizona jaguar/Arizona, New Mexico)
- P. o. centralis ( Central American jaguar/ El Salvador south to Columbia)
- P. o. goldmani (Goldman's jaguar/ Yucantan Peninsula south to Belize)
- P. o. paraguensis (Paraguay jaguar/ Matto Grosso in Brazil to northern Argentina and Paraguay)
- P. o. peruviana (Peruvian jaguar/coastal Peru)
- P. o. veraecrucis (Vera Cruz jaguar/eastern and southeastern Mexico to Texas)
- Common name:
- May be derived from yaguara ("any larger beast of prey") of Amazon natives
- In Spanish, el tigre, otorongo, tigre americano, tigre real, yaguar, yaguarete
- Scientific name:
- "Panthera" may be traced to Sanskrit for tiger, or "pundarikam"
which was then altered to a Greek-sounding word
- "onca" may be derived from Greek for "lynx"
Phylogeny
- Modern felids arose in Asia around 10 million years ago.
- Genetic studies split all living cats into eight clusters of species with jaguars grouped with other Panthera. (Johnson et al 2005)
- Panthera genus
- Ocelot lineage
- Domestic cat lineage
- Puma group
- Lynx genus
- Leopard Cat group
- Caracal group
- Bay Cat group
- The clouded leopards (Neofelis neofelis) were first of the pantherine lineage to diverge.
- Earliest fossils of the Panthera genus dated at 3-4 million years ago from Tanzania (Barry 1987) (Turner 1997)
- Jaguars spread to North America from Asia via Beringia and are recorded in 850,000 to 1.5 million year-old sediments
- Panthera onca agusta is considered the immediate ancestor of modern jaguars
- Fossil sites in Tennessee, Texas, Missouri, and La Brea asphalt deposits, California
- Pleistocene jaguars were longer legged and larger than modern jaguars.
- Mitochondrial DNA study suggests a date only 280,000-510,000 years ago for the origins of modern jaguar (Panthera onca) lineages, mostly from northern South America founders.
- Mexico (and the southwestern U.S.) and Central America populations were presumed colonized from South America.
- A Pleistocene jaguar (P. gombaszoegensis) also found in England, Germany, Spain, France, the Netherlands, and England.
- Modern jaguars comprise four main groups based on genetics and geography; these groups are only partially isolated
DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT
(Channell et al. 2000) (Crawshaw et al 1991) (Nowell et al. 1996)
(IUCN 2000, 2006) (McCain et al., 2008) (Sanderson et al., 2002)
Distribution
- Many uncertainties due to solitary habits, preferences for dense cover & wet habitats
- Historic range between latitudes 35 degrees north and south
- Has lost 37 % of historic range which was once 19.1 million sq. km. (7.3 million sq. miles) or twice the area of United States, including Alaska
- In 12% of jaguars' historic range, current status and distribution is unknown (especially in Mexico, Columbia, and Brazil)
- In general: southwestern U.S., Mexico, through Central America, into northern South America
- Countries: Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, United States and Venezuela.
- Now extinct in Chile, El Salvador and Uruguay
- Extirpated from most of Argentina, Costa Rica, and Panama
- Much smaller wet season home range in Brazil (20-30% of dry season territory above water)
- In Arizona (since 1996): photographs and tracks of four adult males and possible a fifth unidentified individual; scent marking behavior indicated residency
- A key question for assessment of jaguar current distribution: do they still occupy edges of historic ranges?
- Camera trapping: great potential for adding much new, more accurate data
Habitat
- Along rivers, around swamps and lagoons, in seasonally flooded wetlands; strong ties to water
- Dense lowland and montane tropical rain forests of South and Central America (good cover for stalking prey)
- Also adapts to:
- Succulent and thorn scrub, temperate broadleaf forests, tropical monsoon and dry forests, tropical savannah woodlands.
- Dry grassland terrains of Argentina's pampas, Mexico, arid southwestern United States
- Madrean evergreen woodland and semi desert scrub grasslands along U. S.- Mexico borderlands
- Altitudes up to 2,000 meters (6,500 ft.), although rarely at highest elevations
- One 13 year-old male: ranged from Sonorant lowland desert at 877 m (2877 ft.) elevation to pine-oak woodlands at 1,577 m (5174 ft.)
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
(Childs, 1998) (Hoogesteijn, et al. 1993; 1996) (Murie 1975) (Seymour 1989) (Turner 1997) (Wroe et al., 2004)
Body Weight: 57-113 kg (126-249 lb)
Body Length: 112-185 cm (44-73 in)
Tail Length: 45-75cm (18-30 in)
General
- Largest cat of Americas; resembles leopard but more robust body, deep chest, broader head, larger paws, shorter tail.
- Except for extinct sabertooth cat Smilodon and extinct Megantereon, jaguars perhaps most robust of all cats.
- For its body size, shortest forelimbs and hind limbs of all pantherine cats (similar to Smilodon)
- Heaviest cat that climbs well
- Surprisingly, circumference of massive head usually greater than height at shoulder
- Size variations over geographic range: smaller in equatorial regions and in dense forests, larger north and south
of equator
- Size also varies with size of typical prey
Pelage
- Coloration and pattern of jaguar coat highly variable: pale yellow to tan to reddish yellow
- Whitish on the throat, belly, insides of limbs
- All ages spotted; young have the adult pattern by 7 months.
- "Butterfly" patterned animals: circular black markings in rosettes enclosing one or more small spots; other individuals: smaller rosettes with or without spots
- Tail white underneath; two or three black rings, ending in black tip
- Melanistic individuals: spots barely visible against dark fur; melanism allele is dominant.
- Melanism more common than in other large cats, except for leopards; term "black panther" applies to melanistic jaguars but also black leopards and pumas
- Distinguished from smaller leopard of Africa and Asia (Panthera pardus) which has only spots, no rosettes
- Distinguished from larger Asiatic tiger (Panthera tigris) which has stripes.
Sexual Dimorphism
- Females usually 10 to 20% smaller than males.
- Males and older individuals: midline ridge of thickened bone on skull (sagittal crest)
Other Physical Characteristics
- Round pupil, iris color of golden to reddish yellow
- Relatively larger lower canines than other pantherines
- More powerful bite than that of other big cats
- Retractile claw on each digit
- Tracks distinguished from puma (which are found within jaguar territories):
- heel pad larger, wider, more rounded w/o pronounced lobes at base
- heel pad extends forward to base of toes (compact, "filled in" appearance)
- toes proportionally larger, more rounded
- front limbs: broad straddle, hind limbs: narrower straddle, fall inside front feet on overstep
 |
 |
| jaguar : 4 3/4 in. wide |
puma : 3 1/2 in. wide |
BEHAVIOR & ECOLOGY
(Azevedo & Murray 2007) (Emmons 1991) (Farrell & Sunquist 2000) (Maffei et al. 2004) (Mondolfi & Hoogesteijn 1986)
(Rabinowitz & Nottingham 1986) (Scognamillo et al. 2003) (Seymour 1989) (Soares et al. 2006) (Sunquist & Sunquist 2002)
General
- Many unknowns for researchers regarding behavior in the wild
- Information gathered by indirect means from collared cats, scats, tracks, observation of kills
- Solitary except when mating or when females care for young; courting pair may travel and feed together
- Young litter mates may travel together
- Young males nomadic until establishing a home range
- Hunt and play in water, even more often than tigers
- Most often seen by humans when resting on tree limbs over water
Activity Cycle
- Hunt primarily at night, but active in day also; pattern varies considerably with prey abundance and activity and local human activity.
- One female individual studied:
- rested after midnight (0030 to 0300) and late morning (0930 to 1200)
- traveled before dawn (0330 to 0600) and at dusk
Territory Size
- Preference for dense habitats makes monitoring of territories difficult for researchers
- 2 to 5 sq. km (.8 to 1.9 sq. mi) in Mexico to 390 sq. km (150.6 sq. mi) ( Brazil)
- 65 sq. km. (25.1 sq. mi) for males; up to 29 sq. km (11.2 sq. mi) for females in Kaa-Iya del Gran Chaco's reserve of Bolivia & Paraguay
- 33.4 sq. km (12.9 sq. mi) for males in wet tropical forests: Belize
- 142.25 sq. km (54.8 sq. mi) in wet grassland and woodland: Pantanal of Brazil
- Over 1,359 sq. km (524.7 sq. mi) for one adult male: Arizona
- Comparable for males and females
- Determined by prey characteristics, jaguar's body size, seasonal land variations (wet season may be underwater)
Territorial Behavior
- Use a "land tenure" system
- first in an area claims the area
- when "owner" dies, ranges of others adjust
- same system used by tigers, leopards, pumas
- Spacing patterns based on regions of exclusive use within a home range
- Both males' and females' ranges may overlap
but
not often in their "core" area
- Recent studies in Brazil: males do not show strong aggression or territorial defense against other jaguars
- Scent marking (backward urine-spraying, cheek-rubbing, claw-raking) observed in an Arizona jaguar
suggest the individual was in its territory
(2004 to 2007 observations)
Aggression
- Ritual fighting by young captive jaguars include "threat and attack" and "neck snapping"
- Females avoid all males when caring for cubs
- Genetic studies indicate under certain conditions, young may be killed by their own sires
Play
- Females play with cubs
- Cubs play together, often in water; when emerging from water, shake each paw separately
Communication
Vocalization
- Young have adult vocalizations by one year (except for calls used in reproductive behavior).
- Most commonly noted sound: "grunt" or "snore" similar to a hoarse barking cough of uh uh uh uh (both male and female); for long distance communication and home range maintenance
- Male grunts more resounding and stronger than females'
- Females' call becomes louder when in estrus
- Lower pitched roaring produced by shift downwards of larynx (lengthening the vocal tract) as animal ages. Other animals whose larynx changes position with development include humans and red deer.
- Series of low-intensity, short snorts called prusten or chuffings; are also heard in tigers, snow leopards and clouded leopards.
- Jaguars develop adult structured calls without learning from other jaguars
Olfaction/Scent Marking
- Scraping the ground with hind paws, urination , scent and feces marking, tree raking, and head rubbing may function as territory markers or
simply in communication.
Locomotion
- Strides about 50 cm.(19.7 in) long, made with tail carried upwards
- Travel frequently via watercourses; swim from one forested island to another during flood season
- Tire quickly at top speed; typical sequence: walking then breaking into a full charge for 7 to 30 meters (23 to 98 feet)
- Don't capture prey by much running; prefer to ambush and quickly dispatch their prey.
- Swim with head and spine out of water; in Amazon Basin rarely venture more than .5 km (.3 miles)
from water
- Can climb well and known to eat forest canopy species such as spider monkeys; not known if jaguars climb to reach them
Interspecies Interaction
- Pumas and jaguars coexist within overlapping territories but tend to specialize in different size prey (jaguars in large, pumas, medium-sized)
- Both jaguar and puma intensively use prey-rich transition zones between forest and savanna habitats (eco tones); pumas may prefer drier microhabitats
- Pumas and jaguars may avoid conflict by selection of small patches of preferred territory yet do compete for the same prey species, according to scat studies
- Anecdotal accounts of attacks by jaguar on pumas and ocelots, but no reports of attacks on people in the wild.
DIET & FEEDING
(Azevedo & Murray 2007) (Crawshaw & Quigley 1991) (Emmons 1991)
(Mondolfi & Hoogesteijn 1986) (Polisar et al 2003) (Seymour 1989) (Sunquist & Sunquist 2002)
Hunting strategies
- Hunt by stalking and ambush
- Prefer larger prey species and typically make kills in core area territory
- Kill with neck bite as do lions, tigers, and leopards
- Kill by canines piercing prey's skull (only large cat to use this technique)
- With small prey, use paw for single blow to head
- Drag prey to suitable cover by straddling it with forelegs
- May drag kill over great distances through difficult terrain
- Tend to consume large mammals front end first; eat heart, liver, spleen, but not intestines
- Do not hide killed prey as do tigers
- Two reports and folk legends claim jaguars use their tail to attract fish to water's surface
Diet
- Records of attacks on humans rare; least likely of all big cats to attack humans
- Some 85 prey species reported; most common are terrestrial mammals:
- Preferences for
capybara, marsh deer, giant anteater, and red broket deer
- Also tapir, marsh deer, peccary, armadillo
- Besides mammals, caiman (alligator), fish, turtles, iguana, anaconda, birds
- Only large cat with a decided taste for reptiles
- Whole turtles and tortoises may be eaten
- Larger turtle and tortoise shells broken with teeth or a paw is inserted between top (carapace) and bottom (plastron) and turtle's insides scooped out (without breaking the shell)
- Caimen are killed by a crushing bite to neck
- Compete with humans for edible turtles
- May occasionally take larger prey such as cattle; studies suggest these jaguars often have gunshot wounds
- Estimates from wild jaguars feeding habits: 1.2 to 1.5 kg (2.6 to 3.3 lb) per day for a 34 kg (74.8 lb) animal
- Larger bodied jaguars in Pantanal of Brazil require more food (and larger home ranges) than smaller jaguars elsewhere
- Jaguars preyed on large grazers in the Pleistocene Epoch; feeding on cattle today may be their response to introduced equivalents of large prey that went extinct in North America 11,00O years ago (Polisar et al 2003)
REPRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
(Hoogesteijn & Mondolfi 1993) (Quigley & Crawshaw 2001) (Seymour 1989)
(Slaughter et al. 1974) (Sunquist & Sunquist 2002) (Weigl 2005)
Courtship
- Estrus duration about 12 days; cycle repeats about 47 days
± 5 days
(captive female)
- Females in estrus travel widely, roaring for a mate;
- Several males may follow female
- Males rarely fight over females
- Males and females do not stay together after mating but may travel and feed together during courting
Reproduction
- During mating female growls and male licks the nape of her neck
- Copulation is rapid and frequent (noted in captivity)
- Ovulation is mating induced
Gestation
Life Stages
Birth
- In tropical area and in captivity, births occur throughout the year
but more often during the rainy season (when prey abundant)
- In temperate climates births may occur more in summer months
- Weight at birth: about 800 g ( 1.7 lb.)
- Up to four cubs born; two most common
- Cubs hid in dense cover, in dens, caves, under an uprooted tree, or under bank of a river
Infant (< 1 year old)
- Eyes open after about 8 days
- Cubs walk after about 18 days
- Cubs take meat at about 10 to 11 weeks but continue to suckle until 5 to 6 months
- Cubs begin to follow mother at about 6 weeks but may remain in den for 2 months
Juvenile
- Cubs leave mother around 1.5 years, may maintain social bonds until 2 or more years
Adult
- Sexual maturity occurs in females around 2 to 3 years; males mature between 3 and 4 years.
- Development stages judged by permanent teeth: erupt in the same sequence as other felids
Longevity
- In the wild unknown; estimated from observations in Belize around 11 years.
- In captivity 20 to 27 years
Mortality
- Hunting by humans, plus competition with humans for food and living space; some researchers suggest competition with humans is the primary cause
- Other causes: wounds inflicted by prey species, especially group living species such as capybara and javalina
DISEASES AND PATHOLOGY
(Camus et al 2004) (Choi et al. 2002) (Hope & Deem 2006) (Kolmstetter et al. 2000)
(McAloose et al. 2007) (Patton et al. 1986) (Seymour 1989)
Diseases in captive jaguars
- Degenerative spinal disease
- Symptoms include progressively decreased activity and appetite, rear limb muscle atrophy, impaired and uncoordinated movement, unnatural curvature of spine (spondylosis)
- Age onset of symptoms - 10-19 years
- Pathologies include mineralization or herniation of discs, collapsed discs
- Lumbar vertebrae most commonly affected, but also cervical and thoracic
- Pyhium insidiosum (fungal-like organism) lung infection
- rare
- Symptoms: shortness of breath, raised white blood cell count
- Pathology includes fibrous growth in lung tissue
- Morganelliasis pneumonia
(family Enterobacteriaceae; gram negative)
- Symptoms: anorexia, depression, respiratory difficulty in six yr. old male
- Pathogen isolated: culture of lung, spleen, and heart blood
- Exact source and mode of infection unknown
- Dental disease very common
- Chewing on cage bars promotes tooth fractures
- More prevalent in older individuals
- Gastrointestinal disease common
- Peritonitis and gastroenteritis increase with age
- Skin diseases common, often secondary to stress, behavior issues
- Include footpad dermatitis, abscesses, trauma from cage mates, and self-trauma
- Inflamed tail lesions due to tail sucking found in all ages
- Reproductive disorders in sixty percent of females exposed to melengestrol-acetate (MGA, a progestogen-like compound used as a contraceptive for felids and also used as a growth promoter in cattle)
- Stillbirths or unexplained deaths, trauma, and pneumonia account for most mortality in unborn and very very young individuals
- Nosebleeds in young and old individuals; ingrown toenails in old individuals
- Various tumors, anthrax, pox virus, diabetes, and renal failure
- Parasites include:
- internal: protozoans, trematode lung flukes, tapeworms, trypanosome, hookworms, nematodes, whipworms, acanthocephalans (spiny-headed worms)
- external: screwworms, warble fly larvae, the fungus trichophyton
Diseases in wild jaguars
- Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) in neotropics
- Parasites from fecal samples in Belize jaguars include: hookworm eggs, hookworms (Ancylostoma tubaeforme and Ancylostoma pleuridentatum), spiny-headed worms (Oncicola oncicola), tapeworm eggs (Diphyllobothrium), tapeworm (Taenia macrocystis and Echinococcus oligarthrus) and lung flukes (Paragonimus), roundworms (Capillaria).
MANAGED CARE
(Hemmer 1968) (Hsu 1962) (Pocock a & b 1908) (Seymour 1989)
Captive Breeding
- Crossed and backcrossed successfully with leopards (jaguar karyotype almost identical to leopard's)
- Female hybrids with leopards fertile;
male hybrid's fertility unrecorded
- Hybrid of male leopard and female jaguar: a leguar
- Many leguar's bred as animal actors (more easily trained than jaguars)
- Hybrid of leopard and jaguar, irrespective of which parent is which sex: a lepjag
- Hybrid of female leopard and male jaguar: a jagupard.
- One jagupard bred at Hellbrun Zoo, Salzburg, Austria
- Hybrid of male jaguar and female lion: a jaglion
- By accident, jaguar and lion mated producing two jaglions in 2006 at
Bear Creek Wildlife Sanctuary, Ontario, Canada; one cub spotted, one melanistic
- A famous lepjag/lion cross in 1908 resulted in an animal referred to as a Congolese Spotted Lion
(a
"lijagulep")
- Zoos today focus on conservation of pure species rather than deliberate breeding of hybrids
POPULATION AND CONSERVATION STATUS
(Abbitt et al. 2000) (Channell & Lomolino 2000) (Leite et al. 2001)
(Nielsen et al. 2001) (Sanderson et al. 2007) (Soisalo, M. and S. Cavalcanti 2006)
- All countries in the range of the jaguar are members of CITES
- Populations estimated:
- Guatemala: 465-550 animals in 15,000 sq. km. (9,000 sq. mi.) of Maya Biosphere Reserve (Aranda 1992)
- Belize: 600 to 1,000 (Rabinowitz 1991)
- Mexico: 125-180 jaguars in 4,0000 sq. km (2,400 sq. mi.) of Calakmul Biosphere Reserve and perhaps 350 individuals in Chiapas, Mexico (Aranda 1992)
- Brazilian Pantanal: 3,500 (Almeida 1990); 1,000 to 1,500 (Quigley and Crawshaw 1992)
- Population density estimates (Soisalo and Cavalcanti 2006) :
- Camera-trapping and capture-recapture with GPS assistance
yield population estimates lower than traditional methods in Brazilian wetlands of Mato Grosso
- 2003: 6.6 jaguars/100 sq.km
(38.6 sq. miles) vs traditional estimate of 10.3 jaguars/100 sq. km (38.6 sq. miles)
- 2004: 6.7 jaguars/100 sq. km vs traditional estimate of 11.7 jaguars/100 sq. km
- Hunting prohibited in Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, French Guiana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, United States, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Hunting restrictions in Brazil, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru
- No legal protection in Ecuador or Guyana (IUCN 2000)
1986: Conservation area established specifically for jaguar in Belize
1982: Vulnerable IUCN
1990: Vulnerable IUCN
1996: Lower Risk/Near Threatened IUCN
1997: US Fish and Wildlife Service added U.S. to area where this species is listed as Endangered (Federal Register)
2002: Forty six jaguar conservation units established in Central America
2006. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined not prudent to designate critical habitat for jaguar (Federal Register)
ISIS captive population
- IUCN Status:
Near Threatened;
2006 Red List of Threatened Species
- CITES Status:
Appendix I Species (all international trade in jaguars or their parts is prohibited);
listed in 1973
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Endangered; Jaguar Recovery Plan abandoned January, 2008 (first time in 34 years such a plan abandoned)
- USESA Status: LELE: listed endangered
Threats to survival
- Fragmentation of habitat needed by this large, mobile species
- Deforestation; conversion of habitat to agriculture, human settlement, cattle ranching
- Agrichemicals in farmed regions
- Illegal jaguar control by ranchers and others; indiscriminate hunting
- Competition with humans for same sources of protein
- Trophy hunting in Bolivia; no legal protection in Ecuador or Guyana
- Black market for pelts
- In United States, the borderland fence between United States and Mexico
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