The Jaguar
by Brian D.
Jaguars are perhaps one of the most fascinated creatures in the United States. While they are actually small in size, they are immense in beauty.
It’s incredible that the jaguar’s eyes are strong enough to hunt in the night, and that its tawny coat blends in with its environment so it can play hide and kill with its prey. The jaguar’s coat and the leopard’s coat are hard to tell apart, but if you look VERY closely, you can notice that the leopard’s coat has more rosettes on its back. If you’re thinking that this carnivore weighs 400-500 pounds, you are absolutely wrong! Jaguars actually only weigh 100-250 pounds, giving it a perfect combination of power and speed! Jags are 2 ¼ feet to 2 ½ feet tall.
Baby deer, helpless peccary, scared crocodiles and little monkeys are only half of what jaguars can feast on. However, it does depend on where it lives. These big cats hunt alone, except during mating season when it hunts with its mate. While this could be any time during the year, the jags only mate during a specific period. Female jaguars can give birth to up to eight kittens, or cubs.
These big cats can adapt to any climate. The jags can live in decidous forests, rain forests, deserts, swamps, grasslands, and mountain scrub areas. Jaguars are usually found in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas all the way down to Argentina. The male’s home range is from 19 to 53 square miles. The female’s home range is from 10 to 37 square miles.
The jaguar has been on the endangered list since 1995, and the population of these big cats has decreased dramatically. There are only 92 jaguars left in the United States, and only 292 left worldwide. One major cause of these big cats becoming endangered is that hunters are illegally killing them for their smooth, warm fur, and for their bones, which some people believe are magical. Yet another reason these carnivores are endangered is because of the loss of their natural habitat. People are cutting down trees for paper, and people are plowing right through the jaguar’s habitat to build power plants and buildings. Also, some of the big cats’ prey, such as the canary, are also endangered, and this causes the jags to be forced to feed on livestock, which makes people even more determined to kill them. The Fish and Wildlife Services (“F.W.S.”) has been helping jaguars, giving them a safe but authentic home, better shelter, and appropriate food.
As you can see the fate of these unique looking wild cats and their limited habitat rest in our hands. If we don’t do something soon, the jags might just become extinct!