What Do Jaguars Eat.The jaguar is one of the symbols of Brazil’s fauna and the largest feline found in the Americas. This animal is a mammal of the order Carnivora and its scientific name is Panthera onca.The jaguars have weight ranging 35 kg to 130 kg. In addition, his body size is considerable. The total length of an ounce varies from 1.7 m to 2.4 m.The jaguar is at the top of the food chain and is a carnivorous animal. In our country, jaguars usually feed on mammals such as capybara, tapir and giant anteater. They can also feed on alligators and fish.The female jaguar reaches sexual maturity at around 2 to 3 years of age, with reports of sexual maturity prior to 2 years. Males, in turn, reach maturity at 3 to 4 years. The jaguar usually lives up to 15 years.
What Do Jaguars Eat/what it eats, where it lives, characteristics and curiosities.
The jaguar is a carnivorous animal, to get its prey it is able to climb, crawl and swim, making it difficult for the ill-fated person to escape. Its teeth are so powerful that it ranks first among all cats for having the strongest bite, even before the tiger and lion and as the second of all mammals in the world, after the spotted hyena that feeds on carrion. .
But in any case its way of hunting is lethal, there is no way for the prey to be able to escape. Once the jaguar pounces on its prey, it goes straight to the neck causing choking or alternatively impales its powerful fangs into the back of the skull, traversing the bone and reaching the brain.
Its fangs are able to pass through thick and coarse reptile skins. Likewise, it can drag very heavy animals up to eight meters and turn their bones into dust. Thanks to these unique abilities and attack techniques, it can hunt wild animals weighing up to 300 kg but usually eats birds , fish, deer, primates, sheep and snakes.
They eat almost anything they want
Jaguars are opportunistic hunters and can turn almost anything they encounter into prey. Capybara, deer, turtles, iguanas, armadillos, fish, birds and monkeys are just some of the animals they eat. They are also capable of dealing with South America’s largest animal, the tapir, or large predators such as the caiman. Jaguars hunt both day and night, and to do so they are able to travel long distances of up to 10 kilometers.
Facts About Jaguar.
- The word jaguar in Guaranì derives from the word yaguara which means: “carnivore that kills its prey with a single bite”.
- The Mayans and Aztecs admired the jaguar so much that they considered him a god.
- It is the only one of the large predatory cats that lives on the American continent.
- Unlike other cats, the jaguar kills by piercing the skull or neck of its prey with a quick bite.
- The jaguar is the initial predator in the food chain, meaning it is not eaten by another animal. It feeds on over 85 species, including mammals, reptiles, birds and some plant species.
- It is able to live in different ecosystems, from mangroves, forests, deserts and even mountainous areas, but its favorite place is the jungles and tropical forests, located less than a thousand meters high.
- It is the third largest feline in the world, surpassed in size by the tiger and the lion; It can hunt prey up to five times larger than itself, thanks to its great strength.
- Like the tiger, the jaguar is a great swimmer.
- You can eat 7 to 8 kg of meat in one sitting.
- Some jaguars are so black that their spots are invisible to the naked eye. Although they are called black panthers, they are just jaguars (or another feline like the leopard) that have more of a pigment called melanin.
- The round spots of the jaguars have smaller spots inside, while the spots of the leopards do not.
