Jaguar
Jaguar, Panthera onca
Today, the jaguar is the largest cat in the western hemisphere and the third largest cat in the world, but the jaguars that lived during the middle to late Pleistocene may have been much larger than their modern counterparts (Kurten and Anderson 1980). In fact, a fairly inclusive comparison of fossil jaguar remains from sites in North America with modern subspecies of jaguar found that the average late Pleistocene jaguar was roughly 15 percent larger than the average modern jaguar (Seymour 1993). However, this same study also found that late Pleistocene jaguars were roughly the same size as the males of a particularly large modern subspecies of jaguar (Panthera onca paraguensis) that is currently found in Brazil.
Jaguar. Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Karen and John Hollingsworth
Height: modern - 75cm (2.5 ft) at shoulder; late Pleistocene - unknown
Weight: modern average – 55-95 kg (120-210 lbs); late Pleistocene average -85-100 kg (185-220 lbs), Seymour 1993
Physical Description:
These cats are powerfully built animals with relatively heavy bodies, muscular limbs, and a large head with square, powerful jaws. Modern individuals are generally tawny with black ringed spots along the back and sides, and solid black spots on the legs, head and tail. More rarely, black panthers have a black coat with black rings and spots. Other than an overall size difference, fossil jaguars probably looked very similar to modern jaguars. One noteable difference, is that fossil jaguars had proportionally smaller teeth, relative to body size, than their modern counterparts (Seymour 1993).
Jaguars live in forests, grasslands, open wetlands, scrub country and, more rarely, deserts, but their preferred habitat usually includes dense vegetation and access to water. Today they are most commonly found in tropical lowland forests that are close to rivers, streams or swamps.
Jaguars are obligate carnivores and feed only on meat, although they are not particularly picky about their prey. They can be classified as generalist predators in that they will prey on large and small mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles. They are well adapted for preying on shelled animals such as turtles, tortoises, armadillos.
Jaguars are stalk and ambush hunters who will attack from cover with a quick pounce. They kill their prey by either biting the throat and then suffocating them or piercing the back of the skull with their canines for an instant kill. Aside from mother-cub groups, jaguars are solitary animals except during mating season. Unlike most cats, jaguars love water and will swim, bathe or hunt in streams or pools.
Most people associate the jaguar with Central and South America. Indeed, its historic range includes much of Central and South America as well as parts of Mexico and portions of the extreme southern United States. During the late Pleistocene, however, this large cat was also found in much of the southern half of the United States, ranging as far north as Missouri, Tennessee and Nevada.
There has been a gradual restriction of the jaguar's range over the course of the Pleistocene and Holocene, such that the modern limit of their range extends only as far north as Arizona and New Mexico. It is thought that these changes in geographic distribution may be due to environmental changes and/or changes in the animal's adaptation (Kurten and Anderson 1980).
Although jaguars tend to prefer warmer average temperatures, these animals have been recovered from Wisconsinan sites in the southern portion of the midwestern U.S., particularly from Missouri and Tennessee. Most of these remains come from cave sites, including Crevice Cave, Bat Cave, Berome Moore Cave and West Cave in Missouri, and Jaguar Cave, Baker Bluff Cave, Big Bone Cave and Johnson Cave in Tennessee.
- Jaguars are classified as a roaring cat, along with lions, leopards and tigers, although their roar sounds like a deep cough.
Kurtén, B. and E. Anderson. 1980. Pleistocene Mammals of North America. Columbia University Press. New York.
Seymour, Kevin. 1993. Size change in North American jaguars. In Morphological change in Quaternary mammals of North America, edited by Robert Martin and Anthony Barnosky, pp. 343-372. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Related Animals:
