In 1500 the explorer Amerigo Vespucci
thought he had found leopards in South America. Vespucci reported he found
huge spotted cats. As it turned out they were not leopards. Other European
explorers started calling the cats “el tigre”, the cats weren’t tigers
either. The explorer had actually discovered jaguars (Panthera onca) the
biggest cat in the Americas. Jaguars are closely related to tigers and
lions. Most big cats make a loud coughing sound often called a roar. This
is how they communicate and locate each other. Jaguars in Brazil and Argentina
are much larger than jaguars in Central America. The average male Jaguar
weighs usually around 120-200 pounds. The average female Jaguar ranges
in size from 80-100. The largest Jaguar ever recorded was 350 pounds and
was caught in Brazil. The reason for this is Brazil is hot and it rains
a lot. The Jaguars habitat is dark, wet, tropical places with a river or
swamp near by. They can be found in South America, Central America, Mexico,
California, Texas, and New Mexico. Most of the time if your lucky enough
to see one its going to be resting which it spends one-forth of its life
doing. The rest of the time its going to be hunting, grooming, or sharpening
its teeth. Jaguars usually hunt alone except for the cubs and the females.
They usually have a territory in which they spend most of their time hunting.
Jaguars are the most powerful of cats and
there are over two-hundred fifty different species. They hunt by stalking
their prey and it moves up with lightning speed and mostly gets what it
wants. Jaguars can kill large animals such as tapirs, deer, and smaller
cats but can also get smaller animals like turkeys, and turtles. Even though
Jaguars are very dangerous they have special meaning to the Native Americans.
They are both feared and respected in a lot of ways. Many tribes keep them
as pets to keep away other large animals. The only enemy that the Jaguars
might have is humans. Through the 1960’s and 1970’s they have been hunted
for their beautiful fur. In ten years they were reduced from 50,000 to
less than 4,000. It wasn’t until about two years ago that they were put
on the endangered species list. All in all I think the Jaguar is the most
beautiful and most dangerous animal in the animal kingdom.
