JAGUAR FACT SHEET STATUS: Endangered DESCRIPTION: The jaguar is one of the most majestic and mysterious animals in nature. Its beautiful spotted fur coat once was a sought-after commodity for the fashion industry. The jaguar has a compact body, a broad head and powerful jaws. It is the largest cat in the Americas. SIZE: The jaguar measures five to six feet from its nose to the tip of its tail and weighs 140 to 220 pounds (females are slightly smaller). POPULATION: Only an estimated 15,000 jaguars remain in the wild. LIFESPAN: Jaguars can live between 12 and 20 years. RANGE: Found mainly in Central and South America, some continue to survive in Mexico. Two confirmed sightings of male jaguars occurred in 1996 in Arizona and New Mexico about ten miles north of the Mexico border. They are rarely seen in mountainous regions. The species has declined numbers in some areas due to habitat loss, especially in rain forests and grassland turned into cropland and hunting for their pelts. HABITAT: Although they prefer thick forest or swamps with good cover and water access, jaguars have been known to hunt in arid, open areas.

FOOD: Jaguars are hunters that do not work with one another outside the breeding season. They hunt around 85 different species including: deer, tapirs, peccaries, and even caiman, up to a certain size. They are opportunists and will take anything from frogs, mice, birds, fish, to domestic livestock. A jaguar's bite can pierce the shell of a turtle. Jaguars are considered a stalk and ambush predator that do not run over long distances, but prefer to surprise unsuspecting prey. The jaguar uses a different killing method from most cats to kill its prey. Instead of biting the neck, to suffocate or sever the spinal cord, the jaguar delivers a fatal bite directly to the skull, piercing the brain. It is because of this killing technique that jaguars often break teeth as they progress in age.

BEHAVIOR: The South American name jaguara is said to mean "carnivore that overcomes prey with a single bound." Jaguars stalk and ambush their prey, often dragging carcasses to safe locations some distance away before eating. They are solitary animals, denning in caves and canyons close to a source of freshwater. Known for their strong swimming abilities, the jaguar is one of the few cats besides tigers that enjoy water. They often prefer to live by rivers, swamps, and in dense forest with thick cover for stalking prey. They are the largest carnivore in the Western Hemisphere. OFFSPRING: Young jaguar males reach sexual maturity at about three to four years of age, with females reaching maturity about a year earlier than males. Females give birth to as many as four cubs after a 90 to 110 day gestation, but raise no more than two of them to adulthood. The young are born blind and can see after two weeks. They remain with their mother for up to two years before leaving to establish a territory for themselves, which can be anywhere between 25 and 150 square kilometers in size (depending on the availability of suitable prey). Typical lifespan is 10 or 11 years in the wild; they can live up to 20 years. THREATS: Jaguars continue to be threatened by hunting, but their populations are suffering chiefly from habitat loss and fragmentation. The ecological role of the jaguar most closely resembles the tiger. They are considered an umbrella species. An umbrella species is defined as a species that generally cover large areas in their daily or seasonal movements. They serve as "mobile links" at the landscape scale, through predation, seed dispersal or pollination. Protecting enough habitat and connectivity to assure viable population of these organisms benefits many other species more restricted in their range. CAPTIVITY: Animal acts and exhibits run a deplorable gamut. Animals used in these spectacles are often subjected to abuse in order to provide "entertainment" to patrons. Even under the best of circumstances, captivity can be hell for animals meant to roam free. Kept in small, barren cages, forced to sleep on concrete slabs, and imprisoned behind iron bars, performing animals often suffer from malnutrition, loneliness, the denial of all normal pleasures and behaviors, loss of freedom and independence, even lack of veterinary care, and filthy quarters. Attracting customers is the first consideration and the animals' welfare is often the last. Even when the mere display of the animals themselves is the "draw," the animals rarely receive proper care--and almost never the socialization and stimulation they crave. Animals used for entertainment are subjected to rigorous and abusive training methods to force them to perform stressful, confusing, uncomfortable, and even painful acts; training methods can include beatings, the use of electric prods, food deprivation, drugging, and surgically removing or impairing teeth and claws. Confined to tiny cages and gawked at by crowds, animals in exhibits and acts endure constant stress. They may suffer from temperature extremes and irregular feeding and watering. Without exercise, they become listless, their immune systems are weakened, and they become prone to sickness; many resort to self-mutilation in reaction to stress or boredom. Mental illness is rampant among confined animals. Torn from their families and deprived of all dignity, every part of their lives is controlled by their captors. While zoos and aquariums may appear to be educational and conservation-oriented, most are designed with the needs and desires of the visitors in mind, not the needs of the animals. Many animals in zoos and aquariums exhibit abnormal behavior as a result of being deprived of their natural environments and social structures. Some zoos and aquariums do rescue some animals and work to save endangered species, but most animals in zoos were either captured from the wild or bred in captivity for the purpose of public display, not species protection. The vast majority of captive-bred animals will never be returned to the wild. When the facility breeds too many animals they become "surplus" and often are sold to laboratories, traveling shows, shooting ranches, or to private individuals who may be unqualified to care for them. PROTECTION: *CITES Appendix I, Endangered Species Act *Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, an international treaty with more than 144 member countries. Appendix I listed species cannot be traded commercially. Appendix II listed species can be traded commercially only if trade does not harm their survival.