Jaguars are amazing animals. These predators are able to cope with almost any prey, while they are extremely secretive and inventive. To see a jaguar, if he does not want, is almost impossible – this can be confirmed by any wildlife researcher. Fortunately, in the mass of their jaguars rarely attack people, preferring their more common prey.
Jaguars are the third largest among all big cats.
The largest jaguar, ever found by researchers, weighed 158 kilograms. However, usually jaguars weigh less – in the range of 100-120 kilograms.
Jaguar lives only in the New World – in South and Central America.
The name “Jaguar”, quite possibly, comes from a similarly sounding word from the Guarani language, spoken by Indians in the territory of modern Paraguay. The word is translated as “the beast that kills with one blow”).
At one time, many Indian tribes worshiped the jaguars, honoring them for sacred animals.
In the trees, jaguars climb no worse than leopards.
Jaguars, contrary to popular belief, do not know how to growl at all. An angry jaguar hisses and snorts before attacking, and does not growl.
Jaguars can interbreed with lions. True, the resulting offspring are born sterile, without the ability to reproduce further.
The color of the jaguar is very similar to the color of other representatives of the cat family – ocelots, cheetahs and leopards.
The hunting grounds of a single jaguar can reach fifty square kilometers, or even more.
Jaguars swim well. There is evidence that they swam huge distances – tens of kilometers.
The pattern of stains on the skin of a jaguar is unique – there are no two identical jaguars in nature.
Jaguars sometimes attack even crocodiles, though, mostly on young animals – an adult crocodile is too dangerous for this proud member of the cat family.
To overcome water obstacles, jaguars often use logs in the same way that people would use them – they cling to them and row.
Jaws jaguar larger and more massive than any other representative of the family of felines.
Jaguars are able to imitate the voices of monkeys to lure the congeners of the latter. In particular, researchers have seen how the jaguar imitated the cries of a cub of a monkey. Adult monkeys hurried to the rescue, but, fortunately, they noticed the predator in time and disappeared.
Jaguars lead an exceptionally nocturnal lifestyle, preferring to sleep somewhere in the day in a hiding place.
Jaguar hunts any prey – from small rodents to large mammals like deer or water lilies.
The most ancient fossil remains of the jaguar, ever found, lay in the earth for about two million years.
There have been recorded cases of attacks by jaguars even on large anacondas, which are the largest snakes on the planet.
Unlike the cheetah, who prefers to attack the victim with a swift jerk, the jaguars attack from the ambush.
Jaguars attack people extremely rarely, mostly only in case of self-defense.
All life, the jaguars spend alone, meeting each other only during the breeding season.
The best warriors of the Maya Indians in ancient times called themselves jaguars. Only they were allowed to wear the robe from the skin of this beast.
Until the age of two, only half of the jaguar cubs survive.
