jaguars - biology & behavoir
Like most cats, the jaguar is solitary outside mother-cub groups. Adults generally meet only to court and mate (though limited non-courting
socialization has been observed anecdotally) and carve out large territories for themselves. Female territories, from 25 to 40 square kilometers
in size, may overlap, but the animals generally avoid one another. Male ranges cover roughly twice as much area, varying in size with the availability
of game and space, and do not overlap. Scrape marks, urine, and feces are used to mark territory.
Like the other big cats, the jaguar is capable of roaring (the male more powerfully) and does so to warn territorial and mating competitors away;
intensive bouts of counter-calling between individuals have been observed in the wild. Their roar often resembles a repetitive cough, and they may
also vocalize mews and grunts. Mating fights between males occur, but are rare, and aggression avoidance behaviour has been observed in the wild.
When it occurs, conflict is typically over territory: a male's range may encompass that of two or three females, and he will not tolerate intrusions
by other adult males.
The jaguar is often described as nocturnal, but is more specifically crepuscular (peak activity around dawn and dusk). Both sexes hunt, but males
travel farther each day than females, befitting their larger territories. The jaguar may hunt during the day if game is available and is a relatively
energetic feline, spending as much as 50-60% of its time active. The jaguar's elusive nature and the inaccessibility of much of its preferred habitat #
make it a difficult animal to sight, let alone study.
hunting & diet
Like all cats, the jaguar is an obligate carnivore, feeding only on meat. It is an opportunistic hunter and its diet encompasses 87 species.
The jaguar prefers large prey and will take deer, capybara, tapirs, peccaries, dogs, foxes, and sometimes even anacondas and caiman. However, the
cat will eat any small species that can be caught, including frogs, mice, birds, fish, sloths, monkeys, turtles, and they may also hunt domestic
livestock, including adult cattle and horses.
While the jaguar employs the deep-throat bite-and-suffocation technique typical among Panthera, it prefers a killing method unique amongst cats:
it pierces directly through the temporal bones of the skull between the ears of prey (especially the Capybara) with its canine teeth, piercing the
brain. This may be an adaptation to "cracking open" turtle shells; following the late Pleistocene extinctions, armoured reptiles such as turtles
would have formed an abundant prey base for the jaguar. The skull bite is employed with mammals in particular; with reptiles such as caiman, the
jaguar may leap on to the back of the prey and sever the cervical vertebrae, immobilizing the target. While capable of cracking turtle shells, the
jaguar may simply reach into the shell and scoop out the flesh.[37] With prey such as dogs, a paw swipe to crush the skull may be sufficient.
The jaguar is a stalk-and-ambush rather than a chase predator. The cat will walk slowly down forest paths, listening for and stalking prey before
rushing or ambushing. The jaguar attacks from cover and usually from a target's blind spot with a quick pounce; the species' ambushing abilities
are considered nearly peerless in the animal kingdom by both indigenous people and field researchers, and are probably a product of its role as an
apex predator in several different environments. The ambush may include leaping into water after prey, as a jaguar is quite capable of carrying a
large kill while swimming; its strength is such that carcasses as large as a heifer can be hauled up a tree to avoid flood levels.
On killing prey, the jaguar will drag the carcass to a thicket or other secluded spot. It begins eating at the neck and chest, rather than the
midsection. The heart and lungs are consumed, followed by the shoulders. The daily food requirement of a 34 kilogram animal, at the extreme low
end of the species' weight range, has been estimated at 1.4 kilograms. For captive animals in the 50-60 kilogram range, more than 2 kilograms of
meat daily is recommended. In the wild, consumption is naturally more erratic; wild cats expend considerable energy in the capture and kill of
prey, and may consume up to 25 kilograms of meat at one feeding, followed by periods of famine. Unlike all other species in the Panthera genus,
jaguars very rarely attack humans. Most of the scant cases where jaguars turn to taking a human show that the animal is either old with damaged
teeth or is wounded. Sometimes, if scared, jaguars in captivity may lash out at zookeepers.
reproduction
Jaguar females reach sexual maturity at about two years of age, and males at three or four. The cat is believed to mate throughout the year
in the wild, although births may increase when prey is plentiful. Research on captive male jaguars supports the year-round mating hypothesis,
with no seasonal variation in semen traits and ejaculatory quality; low reproductive success has also been observed in captivity. Female estrous
is 6-17 days out of a full 37-day cycle, and females will advertise fertility with urinary scent marks and increased vocalization. Both sexes
will range more widely than usual during courtship.
Mating pairs separate after the act, and females provide all parenting. The gestation period lasts 93-105 days; females give birth to up to four
cubs, and most commonly to two. The mother will not tolerate the presence of males after the birth of cubs, given a risk of infant cannibalism;
this behaviour is also found in the tiger.
The young are born blind, gaining sight after two weeks. Cubs are weaned at three months but remain in the birth den for six months before leaving
to accompany their mother on hunts. They will continue in their mother's company for one to two years before leaving to establish a territory for
themselves. Young males are at first nomadic, jostling with their older counterparts until they succeed in claiming a territory. Typical lifespan
in the wild is estimated at around 12-15 years; in captivity, the jaguar lives up to 23 years, placing it among the longest-lived cats.
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