The Jaguar - A Casualty Of The Olympics

To round off this Olympic week the creature we’ll be learning about today is the national animal of Brazil, the jaguar.

Jaguars are the third largest feline in the world behind tigers and lions; this also means that they are the largest cat in the Americas. Unlike many of the other large cat species jaguars currently have fairly sizable populations in different areas of South America and so a survey in 2008 made the IUCN red list classify them as near threatened. This is due to the ever increasing pressure being applied on the species through deforestation because of illegal logging and other activities. Despite the sound of this information though it is important for efforts to be made to protect and conserve the jaguar, because as of 2002 54% of its historic range had been destroyed and so there is a strong likelihood of a tipping point coming soon which will see a drastic decrease in total populations driven by lack of habitat. This time point is drawing ever closer as populations have been slowly decreasing since 2002.

Contrary to popular belief jaguars unlike other cats actually enjoy water in fact a large amount of their diet is made up of fish, turtles, capybaras and even caimans. However due to their original large range which used to stretch from Argentina to Arizona the jaguar will take an extremely wide variety of prey. It is common for jaguars to hunt on the ground but not unheard of some animals taking up positions in trees which allows them to pounce onto their unsuspecting prey from above. Once they have succeeded in catching a prey item jaguars sometimes bury their prey so as to save it for later.

Like the majority of big cats (excluding lions) jaguars are solitary animals usually only coming together to breed. In Brazil, Peru, Colombia and Mexico it is estimated that there are around 1.7-4 adults per 100km² with males possessing territories which overlap several small female territories.  

Along with the habitat destruction which is creating heavily fragmented populations which jaguars have to cope with there is also pressure being applied through poaching. Up until the mid-1970s the jaguars coat was in high demand, thankfully demand has declined to some extent. However there is still a trade of jaguar parts for traditional medicine which has created a black market for jaguar goods. Some jaguars are also being shot due to cattle farmers claiming they cause a risk to their herds and so they are seen as a pest by some.

As this is an Olympic themed post it’s sadly important to bring to the attention to everyone what happened during the Olympic torch relay. In the city of Manaus a jaguar escaped its handler in the ceremony that was taking place. Despite then being shot with four tranquilizing dart the jaguar proceeded to attack a soldier and was shot dead with a pistol. This is sadly another example of when humans and wildlife simply don’t mix and we shouldn’t be creating situations like this as it is believe the animal escaped and attacked due to the stress it was being put under from being surrounded by hundreds of people.

Hopefully although the jaguar is currently still in a stable (ish) situation they will with the correct conservation effort remain at decent total population number for many many more years to come.

Thanks for reading!

Check out this video of a jaguar hunting from classicgrag