Fun Facts About The Jaguar

You can find jaguars throughout North and South America. These beautiful big cats can be identified by their orange or yellow coats, short legs and dark spots. The spots on a jaguar’s coat are quite unlike spots found on any other cat. The individual spots on a jaguar’s coat looks like roses and for this reason are known as rosettes.

Jaguars are that biggest of big cats throughout the America’s and are in fact the third largest cat species in the world. The length of a jaguar ranges from between 4 to 6 feet and when you include the tail another 2 feet can be added.

Rather unsurprisingly, the male jaguar is heavier than the female and can weigh between 126 to 250 pounds whilst females weigh between 100 to 200 pounds.

Baby Jaguars

Jaguars mate during August and September and the gestation period for a pregnant jaguar is roughly 100 days. A female jaguar will give birth to anywhere between one and four young.

Baby jaguars are born with their eyelids sealed shut and open their eyes for the first time after about two weeks. After the cubs reach six months old, their mother will teach them how to hunt and after they reach two years old, the cubs leave their mother to live on their own as adults.

What do jaguars eat?

Jaguars are carnivores and this means a diet that consists exclusively of meat. Wild jaguar make use of their speed and stealth to hunt deer, birds, fish, frogs, alligators and small rodents. When wild food becomes scarce the jaguar will take to hunting domestic livestock

The jaws of a jaguar are stronger than any other cat species. This means jaguars are able to crunch and eat bone. In fact bones are a regular feature of the diet of jaguars held in captivity.

Where do jaguars live?

You will usually find jaguars living in woods or forests, but you can also find them in desert areas such as Arizona. The jaguar tends to stay close to water because they like to fish. The jaguar will dip its tail into water in order to attract fish in much the same way as a fishing line operates.

Jaguars are solitary animals and this means they only spend time with other jaguars when they are mating or raising cubs. The jaguar will mark its territory through urine or by marking specific trees using their claws.

Jaguars really don’t like to share food and usually only eat their prey once they have dragged it into the trees, even when the trees are quite a distance away.

Are jaguars endangered?

The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources has placed the jaguar on its red list which means the species is “near threatened”. This is the result of poaching and the destruction of rainforest. According to the WWF, there are just15,000 left in the wild.