- Family: Panthera onca
- Genus: Felis
- Class :Carnivora
- Species: Onca
- Order: Felidae
The body length of the Jaguar is 44-73 inches long, the tail length is 18-30 inches and the total length of the Jaguar is 6 to 7 feet. The male Jaguarweighs 125 to 250 lbs. and the female Jaguar weighs from 100 to 200 lbs. andJaguars can live up to 22 years.
The Jaguar lives from Central America to Patugonia, but the largest arefound in Mato Grossa that in Brazil. The Jaguar often gets mixed up with thetiger even though they don’t really live in the same area at all, but they are bothrelated and are both also related to the Lion and the Panther.
Little is known about the family life of the Jaguar, but they do knowthat they have almost been hunted to extinction for their furs and that there areonly about 200 wild Jaguars left in the world today. Scientist find it verydifficult to study the Jaguar because the Jaguar is so rare of an animal. Mostof the information about Jaguars come from watching the ones in the zoo’sthat breed very successfully.
The Jaguar lives alone most of its life except forduring mating season witch is usually during autumn. The male Jaguar leavessoon after breedingleaves the female to raise the 1-4 cubs that are blindwhen born and only weigh 25-32 ounces. The baby Jaguars will startexploring about 2 weeks after being born and begin hunting with their motherin about 6 months. The cubs stay with their mother for 2 years before findingtheir own territory and hunting grounds. If the Jaguar finds a territory wherethere is a lot of food available the Jaguar might live in a 3 mile circulardiameter for its entire life.
But if the Jaguar is unsuccessful in finding a goodterritory with food the Jaguar might spend its life spanning over 200 squaremiles of land. The Jaguar can cover a lot of ground quickly but soon getstired. Because of this they don’t seem to hunt in the open but in the nightwere they can suprisenlly sneak up on their prey. The Jaguars diet usuallyconsist of forest animals ranging in size from a mouse to a deer. The Jaguaris a very good swimmer and an excellent fisher. The jaguar catches is fish byusing their claw to flip the fish out of the water and on to the riverbank.
