Jaguar

*(Panthera Onca)*

Listed as endangered with a recovery plan from 4/20/2012

By, Alex Peralta

Description and Ecology

          Jaguars are typically 80 to 348 pounds, making them the largest cats in both North and South America, and are yellow, tan or reddish yellow. Jaguar litters vary from one to four cubs over a gestation of 101 days with a lifespan of 10 to 15 years, making jaguars K-strategists. These animals are specialized ambush hunters and especially talented in stalking their prey. Their main source of prey are deer, monkeys, crocodiles,  frogs, fish, or anything else they can catch. Jaguars require a pretty large habitat of about 5 to 64 square miles for males but somewhat smaller for females.

Geographic & Population Changes

Today, at best, there are only 15,000 jaguars remaining in the wild.  Jaguars previously ranged from Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, and south west United States. However, jaguars are no longer found in El Salvador or Uruguay and are almost completely eliminated from the United States today. Habitat destruction is one of the two biggest threats to today’s jaguars.  More than 60% of jaguar’s historical range in Mexico has been lost. High rates of deforestation are isolating populations so severely that jaguars are becoming very susceptible to illegal human hunting.   

Cause of Listing

The top two threats to the current jaguar population is definitely habitat destruction as well as illegal hunting. Deforestation is causing habitat fragmentation and putting jaguars in a very vulnerable position. Hunting severely effects jaguar populations directly and indirectly. Hunting for their pelts is much less prevalent as their paws and teeth. Another major reason these cats are killed is because of conflicts that arise between them and humans. Jaguars are a problem to rancher’s cattle and account for thousands of jaguars each year in Central America. Indirectly, people are hunting jaguar prey at alarming numbers, specifically 27% of the current jaguar range has a depleted prey base. Additionally, if jaguars have nothing to prey on, they cause more problems between ranchers and their cattle. It is hard to completely eliminate this risk because the take of jaguars is already illegal, but it can be suppressed by education, financial incentive programs, and improve the presence of law enforcement. 

Recovery Plan Visions

• To summarize what is known about the status of the jaguar throughout its range, and identify primary information gaps and broad actions necessary to address conservation of the species outside of the U.S. and northwestern/western Mexico.


• To address in significant detail the actions necessary to conserve jaguars in the northwestern portion of their range.

Recovery Plan Actions

Most of the recovery actions revolve around restoring damaged habitats as well as protecting the current habitats. To do this, it it crucial to control the issues between humans and existing populations. It is also a huge goal to improve connectivity of fragmented habitats to aide in the movement of jaguars without being interrupted by human interaction and possible conflicts. It is also a possibility that tax incentives will be given out to discourage the illegal killing of jaguars and additionally create educational programs to increase jaguar awareness. Something else that would benefit jaguars would be improving the protection of cattle and therefore decreasing direct conflicts between jaguars and angry ranchers. 

Personal Action

There are many steps that can be taken to help preserve and protect jaguar populations throughout the Americas. First of all, humans can stop clear cutting so many forests in South America. Deforestation is rising at an alarming rate and causing too much isolation to jaguar populations. Personally, people should make sure the timber they buy is from sustainable sources. Something else we can do it spread awareness about the dwindling jaguar populations because then maybe people would know that what they're doing has substantial effects on wildlife. 

Works Cited

http://media.sandiegozoo.org/2012/06/19/san-diego-zoo-jaguar-cub-ventures-a-paw-outside/

http://www.hdwallpapersnew.net/jaguar-animal-desktop-wallpapers/

http://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plan/049777%20-%20Jaguar%20Recovery%20Outline%20-%20April%202012_2.pdf

http://www.defenders.org/jaguar/basic-facts

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/news/photos/000/713/71394.ngsversion.1422288079140.adapt.768.1.jpg