Jaguar

Jaguars eat meat.

They catch big rodents called capybaras. They also catch fish, turtles and caimans. Their bite is super strong.

Jaguars are carnivores. Their favorite prey are capybaras, the world's biggest rodents, and wild pigs called peccaries. They also catch deer, birds, fish, turtles and caimans, which are a kind of crocodilian.

A jaguar's jaw muscles are so strong that it can bite through a turtle's shell or a caiman's tough skin. Jaguars have even been seen sitting by the water and tapping the surface with their tails, which may attract fish.

Preferred prey include capybaras and peccaries, but jaguars are opportunistic and also take deer, birds, fish, turtles, tortoises and caimans. Their name is often traced to a Tupi-Guarani word described by Britannica as meaning 'he who kills with one leap', fitting a stalk-and-ambush hunter.

Jaguars often kill by piercing the back of the skull with their canines, using very large jaw muscles; this also lets them crack the shells of turtles and tortoises. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance reports jaguars tapping the water with their tails to attract fish, and Animal Diversity Web records one dragging a 34-kilogram sea turtle more than 90 meters into forest.

Jaguars like to live alone.

They leave scratch marks and smells. That tells other jaguars, this place is taken! Jaguars can roar.

Jaguars are solitary and usually avoid each other. As a jaguar roams its territory, it leaves claw marks and scent marks to tell other jaguars that the area is taken. They are often active by day, but they do most of their hunting at night.

Jaguars are one of only four big cats that can roar, along with lions, tigers and leopards. A male's roar sounds like a bark followed by a growl, and a female's sounds like a coughing roar. They roar to warn off other jaguars and to find a mate.

Adults are solitary and space themselves through scent marks made with urine and feces and through claw marks along their routes. Britannica notes that although jaguars are active by day, they hunt mainly at night and on the ground, and they move easily between trees, ground and water.

San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance notes that jaguars, lions, tigers and leopards are the only big cats that can roar. The jaguar's call is a series of hoarse, cough-like grunts: in males more like a bark followed by a growl. Roaring is used to warn off rivals, defend territory and bring males and females together for breeding.

Jaguars need big forests to live in.

People are working to keep the forests safe. Then jaguars have room to hunt and raise their cubs.

Jaguars are Near Threatened, which means they could become endangered if things do not improve. Forests are being cleared for farms and ranches, and some ranchers trap or poison jaguars that catch their cattle. People also hunt the animals jaguars eat.

The good news is that the Amazon still has many jaguars. Protected parks, wildlife corridors that connect forests, and help for ranchers to protect their cattle all make a difference.

The IUCN Red List assessed the jaguar as Near Threatened in 2016, with a decreasing and severely fragmented population. Britannica names habitat loss, hunting and retaliatory killing for livestock losses as the causes of the range and population decline, and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance notes that ranchers often respond to losses by trapping and poisoning jaguars.

With most jaguars in the Amazon basin, deforestation there matters greatly to the species' future. Conservation aims to keep large forest blocks, connect populations through corridors from Mexico to Argentina, and reduce conflict with cattle ranching so that people and jaguars can share working landscapes.