Jaguar

=**Jaguar **=

= = = =

__Basic Statistics __

 * Species name: //Panthera onca// [[image:jaguar_2.jpg width="342" height="290" align="right"]]
 * Kingdom: Animalia
 * Phylum: Chordata
 * Class: Mammalia
 * Order: Carnivora
 * Family: Felidae
 * Genus: Panthera

Jaguar sitting down

Jaguar taking a break from nature

Ecology
Jaguars favorite food is the deer. Jaguars other favourite meals are peccaries, capybaras, birds, crocodilians, and fish, etc. Making it a total of more than 85 different prey. There's no really an animal that eats jaguars as a meal, except us humans that hunt for their fur to make items out of them. This species is a carnivore. Jaguars have a competitive relationship among organisms that are in the same enviornment. Jaguars' male fights between each other over territory are perhaps the only real non-human related threat faced by this animal, that can lead to injury, infection, and sometimes death. They're normally found in forest habitats and areas close to water sources such as wetlands, rivers, and lakes because of course they love to swim. Of the three biggest cats, Jaguars being the third, they're the ones that enjoy being in the water. Jaguars live in tropical rain forests located near the equator. The biome for Jaguars is wild. They prefer to live in climates where its warm and sunny, rain forest like.

Physiology
Jaguars are often confused with leopards, but the jaguar is a larger and solid animal with a broad head and shorter legs and tail. A jaguar's spots are also different. On its sides and back a jaguar's spots are a circle of spots around a middle spot while the spots on the legs, head and lower sides are black. A jaguar's fur is normally yellowish brown, but can be white or black with black spots too. Jaguars found in South America are black with black spots and are sometimes called black panthers. Jaguars can be up to 67-76cm (27-30in) in size and weigh up to 56-96kg (124-210lbs). They have a large head especially equipped for peicing the skull of their prey with their canines, teeth, and are very good swimmers which accomidates their living styles. Forest jaguars are much smaller in size than the ones inhabiting open areas. This may be due to the fact that forests have a smaller number of large herbivorous prey. They also created a shortening of the legs that may be an adaptation to being active in climbing, running and swimming.Reproduction wise, males and females meet in the wild to mate. Jaguars breed in the early spring in temperate zones and can breed all year in the tropics. The gestation period is 93-110 days. The male leaves as soon as the mating is over and the female brings up the young on her own. She gives birth to one to four cubs. Cubs are blind at birth and weigh between 25- 32 ounces. The cubs begin exploring the world outside the den at about two weeks, which is when their eyes open for the first time. They begin hunting with their mother at the age of six months and they remain with her for the first two years before leaving off to find a territory of their own in which to hunt. A jaguar is sexually mature after three years of age. The average life span of a jaguar is from 20-25 years.

Endangerment/Conservation
Jaguars are listed as an endangered species. Many people hunt them for their fur to make coats and other items. There are many types of conservations being made to help jaguars being saved. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The government of South America set up refuges. South America also now made laws not to kill the jaguar. Other jaaguars are put in zoos as well. Wildlife have worked extremely hard to make sure that the remaining jaguar populations are protected. Recently in March 2009, the Wildlife defenders have achieved a major victory when during a court case against the federal government ruled in our favor for protecting jaguars. They said that jaguars deserve the full protection of the Endangered Species Act.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Citations
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Hershkovitz, Philip. "Jaguar." //Encyclopedia Americana//. 2010. Grolier Online. 16 May. 2010 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">.

Sentman, Everett. "Jaguar." //Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia//. 2010. Grolier Online. 16 May 2010 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[]