Where does the jaguar live?
The jaguar lives from Mexico across most of Central and South America, down to northern Argentina and Paraguay. It is present in the wild in French Guiana. It disappeared from the United States in the early 1970s, apart from a few wanderers from Mexico. It prefers tropical and subtropical moist forests, wetlands and wooded regions, but also uses open terrain.
What does the jaguar eat?
It is a solitary, opportunistic stalk-and-ambush predator. Its bite is so powerful that it pierces the shells of turtles, and it often kills mammals by biting directly through the skull between the ears. It swims very well. Its tail, 45 to 75 cm long, is the shortest of any big cat.
Is the jaguar endangered?
The species is listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN. It is the biggest cat in the Americas and the third largest in the world. A jaguar usually weighs 56 to 96 kg, and exceptional males have reached 158 kg. The smallest females in Central America weigh about 36 kg.
