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Jaguar

The name jaguar comes from the Indian word yaguar, meaning "he who kills with one leap". The jaguar is also the only one of the big cats which doesn't roar.

The jaguar is the most magestic and certainly one of the most beautiful animals in the Amazon rainforest. It is the largest cat in the Americas (and third largest in the world after the lion and tiger) weighing up to 160 kg. However, jaguars in the Amazon rainforests tend to be smaller than average, probably due to the smaller size of their prey compared to more open areas. Forest-living jaguars tend also to have a darker colouring which enables them to hide better in the dark forest undergrowth. Melanistic jaguars, coloured entirely black, are also occasionally found in forested areas.

Despite its heavy build, the jaguar is very agile and can run fast over short distances. It climbs trees, where it sometimes sits while waiting for its prey, and is a good swimmer. When hunting it is extremely fierce, occasionally diving into the waters of rivers and streams to attack jacarΘs. They have very powerful jaws which enable them to bite through the protective shells of armadillos, or to crush through an animal's skull with a single bite. Other things that jaguars eat include wild pigs (peccaries), capybara, fish, lizards, deer, and sloths. The jaguar's only natural enemy, other than man, is the anaconda – a giant snake which hides in rivers and streams, sometimes attacking and suffocating jaguars and they attempt to cross.

Jaguars also have the reputation for being mankillers, but this may only be when they are threatened or short of food – there are numerous stories of travellers in rainforests being followed by a solitary jaguar which, instead of stalking them as prey, appears merely to be escorting them off its territory. There are even stories from Amazon Indians of jaguars emerging from the rainforest to play with village children.

The jaguar's original habitat stretched from the south-western United States, down through Central and South America to the bottom of Argentina. However, their numbers have declined dramatically. They are now virtually extinct in the United States, and continued deforestation is fragmenting the population into isolated pockets in which it is difficult to sustain numbers. Jaguars have been known to survive in a circular area three miles across but, where food is scarce, a single jaguar may need to roam an area as great as 200 square miles. In the Central American country of Belize, the government has set aside 150 square miles of rainforest as a reserve which is home to about 200 jaguars – the greatest concentration of jaguars in the world. It is estimated that there are about 15,000 jaguars remaining.

Another significant factor in the jaguar's decline has been hunting – it is estimated that during the peak of hunting in the 1960s and 70s, about 18,000 jaguars (and 80,000 ocelots) were being slaughtered each year for their valuable skins. Commercial hunting is now outlawed, and it is illegal to buy or sell jaguar skins or related products, but illegal hunting still continues on a smaller scale and it is still possible to buy jaguar skins in some markets. Hunters generally hunt for jaguars at night – one hunter stands on the shore near a river or stream playing an instrument which imitates the panting groan of other jaguars. If a jaguar comes to investigate the noise, it is spotlighted by the hunter's companion (sitting in a boat near the shore), and then shot using a high powered rifle.

The power and fine hunting skills of the jaguar was well respected by the Indians. Many Amazon tribes claim to have been decended from jaguars, and jaguar gods were worshipped by ancient Indian civilisations including the Aztecs and the Chavin (predecessors of the Inca).