The jaguar is a Mammifère carnivorous, related with the leopard and of the family of the félidés (like the tiger, the Lion or the cat). Its natural habitat is on the American continent: Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil, Guyana, north of Argentina and with the north of Mexico, but it is extinct in the south of the the United States (Arizona, New Mexico). Its old surface of distribution was reduced (see chart) of almost half. Three large cores of populations are relatively insulated, in particular by the Panama Canal, factor of Fragmentation écopaysagère being added to the many lots of mileage done in forest, which support the legal and/or illegal cuts and hunting.

Physical and physiological characteristics

  • Height with the shoulder: 68 - 76 cm.
  • Length: 112 - 185 cm; tail, 45 - 75 cm.
  • Weight: from 80 to 120 kg
  • Longevity: ten year, up to 22 years in captivity.

Food

The jaguar has a carnivorous food . The Chasse is mainly Diurne and recluse, particularly seeking Pécaris, Singe S, Rongeur S, Tapir S, agouti S, tortoise S, caiman S, Poisson S, and sometimes of the Bétail, reason for which it is killed by the stockbreeders. Its retractile claws is useful for him to maintain the prey of its legs postpones, while the legs before choke.

Lifestyle

  • When it does not drive out, the jaguar rests the day in the thick shade, sometimes in a cave, or lengthens on a branch. He lives in all kinds of habitats: sea level up to 1.000 meters, but up to 2.700 meters in the the Andes and even with 3.800 meters with the Costa Rica. Good swimmer, it prefers the areas where there is sufficient water such as the forests which border the rivers, the rivers and the lakes, the mangroves where the easily flooded plains of the Brazilian Pantanal and the Llanos Venezuelans. Its preferred habitat is marshy savanna and the timbered rock hills, close to a river or a lake, where the game abounds.
  • When the weather is hot, it arrives that the jaguar takes a bath in a river in the vicinity.
  • the vocalization most characteristic of the jaguar is a series of calls short and deep, a length and of a relatively constant intensity, marked in very fast succession is generally regular. This vocalization is rather similar to that of the leopard. When it is done threatening, a jaguar can grogner, to thunder and blow.

Reproduction

The female increases its small during 93 to 110 days.

The female jaguar can have of one to four small per annum.

The small ones are born blind. They weigh 700 to 900 grams. They open the eyes two weeks after their birth.

In six months they start to drive out. The small jaguars remain with their mother for two years. Then, they leave their mother to have their own territory.

Survival of the species

The jaguar is a threatened species, in certain zones the number of jaguars strongly decreased. The jaguar is a species to be supervised because its habitat is destroyed little by little.

References

See too

  • Photo

    of a black Jaguar to the zoo of the Mount Faron.

Simple: Jaguar Zh-yue: 美洲豹

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