Jaguar

The Jaguar is the biggest cats in the Americas. They are the third biggest cat in the world and the biggest in the western hemisphere. Jaguars most resembles leopards but are larger and sturdier build. Their habitat and behavioral characteristics are more closely to tigers. While their preferred habitat is rain-forest they will range from a variety of forest and open plains, they are strongly associated with water and is known like the tiger to like swimming.  

Jaguars are a near threatened species and its numbers are going down. The threats include the loss of habitat, they are frequently killed by humans particularly by with ranchers and farmers in South America. 

Like all cats, jaguars are a carnivore feeding only on meat. They are an opportunistic hunter and their diet consists of at least 87 species, they regularly take adult caimans, deer, capybaras, tapirs, peccaries, dogs, zorros and sometimes anacondas. They will also take smaller animals such as frogs, mice, mainly ground birds, fish, sloths, monkeys, and turtles. 

Some jaguars will take livestock such as cattle and horses. There killing method is to bite through the skull and pierce the brain with their canine teeth. When they are attacking caiman they leap onto it and they sever the cervical vertebrae, making the target immobile. Jaguars are apex predators in several different environments.

Jaguars have up to four cubs, but mostly they have two. They will stay with their mother for one to two years, their life span is between 12-15 years, but in captivity they live up to 23 years.