jaguars - range & habitat
The jaguar has been attested in the fossil record for two million years and it has been an American cat since crossing the Bering Land
Bridge during the Pleistocene epoch; the immediate ancestor of modern animals is Panthera onca augusta, which was larger than the contemporary
cat. Its present range extends from Mexico, through Central America and into South America, including much of Amazonian Brazil. The countries
included in this range are Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica (particularly on the Osa Peninsula), Ecuador, French
Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, United States and Venezuela. The jaguar is now
extinct in El Salvador and Uruguay. It occurs in the 400 km2 Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary in Belize, the 5,300 km2
Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve in Mexico, the approximately 15,000 km2 Manú National Park in Peru, the approximately
26,000 km2 Xingu National Park in Brazil, and numerous other reserves throughout its range.
The inclusion of the United States in the list is based on occasional sightings in the southwest, particularly in Arizona, New Mexico and
Texas. In the early 1900s, the jaguar's range extended as far north as the Grand Canyon, and as far west as Southern California. The jaguar
is a protected species in the United States under the Endangered Species Act, which has stopped the shooting of the animal for its pelt. In
2004, wildlife officials in Arizona photographed and documented jaguars in the southern part of the state. For any permanent population to
thrive, protection from killing, an adequate prey base, and connectivity with Mexican populations are essential.
Completion of the United States-Mexico barrier as currently proposed will reduce the viability of any population currently residing in the
United States, by reducing gene flow with Mexican populations, and prevent any further northward expansion for the species.
The historic range of the species included much of the southern half of the United States, and in the south extended much farther to cover
most of the South American continent. In total, its northern range has receded 1000 kilometers southward and its southern range 2000 km
northward. Ice age fossils of the jaguar, dated between 40,000 and 11,500 years ago, have been discovered in the United States, including
some at an important site as far north as Missouri. Fossil evidence shows jaguars of up to 190 kg (420 lb), much larger than the contemporary
average for the animal.
The habitat of the cat includes the rain forests of South and Central America, open, seasonally flooded wetlands, and dry grassland terrain.
Of these habitats, the jaguar much prefers dense forest; the cat has lost range most rapidly in regions of drier habitat, such as the Argentinian
pampas, the arid grasslands of Mexico, and the southwestern United States. The cat will range across tropical, subtropical, and dry deciduous
forests (including, historically, oak forests in the United States). The jaguar is strongly associated with water and it often prefers to live
by rivers, swamps, and in dense rainforest with thick cover for stalking prey. Jaguars have been found at elevations as high as 3800 m, but
they typically avoid montane forest and are not found in the high plateau of central Mexico or in the Andes.
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