TheAll MightyJaguar

I. Jaguars of the Rainforest 

     In the Northern part of South America lives a powerful mammal with mega jaws called the Jaguar. I found the Jaguar very interesting and wanted to find out more about it. While we search through the forest floor we will learn more about the Jaguar.

    II. The Family Tree

     The cat family contains many cats from Lions to Ocelots. The Jaguar is one of them. It's closest relative is the Leopard. They are easily mistaken because of their spots. Jaguars are very solitary animals, which means they live alone the only time a male and a female are together is when they need to mate.

III. Amazing Features

     Jaguars look almost look like regular house cats. Except that Jaguars are much much bigger and more powerful. This magnificent animal is five to nine ft long from head to toe and its tail is twenty-seven to thin. The average weight is from two hundred twenty to three hundred fifty lbs. When Jaguar cubs are born they are a dark brown or black. As they get older they either stay black or they become a shade of yellow with black bull's eye looking spots.

                                                  IV. HabitatMap of Jaguar Habitat

          The population of Jaguars is slowly decreasing and these poor animals are forced to live near people. Jaguars live in Mexico, Central, and South America. Jaguars do not migrate because they have every thing they need in the rainforest and they are able to adapt to seasonal changes. Jaguars live in an area from 1 square mile to five square miles                                                                           A hunting Jaguar

                                                                                V. Diet

         A Jaguar is a carnivore which means it eats meat. A Jaguar's diet contains: deer, peccaries, monkeys, birds sometimes fruits, capybaras, alligators, crocodiles, and other small mammals. To get its food the Jaguar must stalk its prey on the ground or in a tree then it pounces on its prey crushing its neck or skull with its extremely powerful paws. Then The Jaguar will drag its prey up a tree or across a river where no animal will steal its food.

VI. Enemies

     The Jaguar doesn't have many enemies because of its size and strength. Its main enemy is man. Humans, especially poachers hunt the Jaguar for its beautiful fur, shiny claws and giant teeth. 

VII. Defence

     The Jaguar doesn't have to defend itself very often but when it has to or it is hunting it pounces on its prey or enemy and either strangles it with its jaws or it crushes the animals skull with its powerful forearms.

VIII. Reproduction

     Since the amount of Jaguars is shrinking, Jaguars must reproduce more. Female Jaguars stay pregnant for about ninety-five to one hundred ten days. When cubs are born there are about one to six in a litter. In the wild a Jaguar can live up to eleven to eight teen years, in captivity they can live up to twenty-five years. 

2 month old Jaguar

 IX. Relationship to Humans

     Jaguars are an endangered species. They are hunted every day for their fur, claws and teeth. Not only that their habitat is being destroyed to meet our needs.

X. Population

Everyone knows that that Jaguar population is getting smaller and smaller. Right now the population is around fifteen thousand to twenty thousand We should do something now before the population reaches zero.

XI. Sleeping Habits

     Jaguars are nocturnal most of the time which means sometimes they will sleep during the day and hunt at night. They sneak up on the prey and kill it in its sleep.

XII. Adaptation

     The Jaguar has evolved a lot over the years. Their claws have grown longer and thicker allowing them to climb trees and hold on to prey with a much stronger grip. The paws of a Jaguars have grown wider, so they can swim gracefully across rivers. Their ears have also enlarged to pin-point a certain sound and follow it threw the noisy Rainforest.

XIII. Habits

     When a Jaguar isn't sleeping or stalking prey it can either be sharpening its claws on a tree or it could trying to attract a mate by marking trees with urine or by vocalizing.

  XIV. Characteristics

     The Jaguar has many characteristics that make it special. One characteristic is its amazing hunting skills and powerful back legs allowing it to jump twenty ft on to its prey. The Jaguar's tongue has little hooks called papillae which can scrape all the meat off of a bone until nothing is left.

XV. Long Live The Jaguar

     Everyone knows that the Rainforest is becoming smaller and smaller because of deforestation. The Rainforest contains so many magnificent animals such as the Jaguar. More importantly the Rainforest supplies us with oxygen. So help us clean our mess. LONG LIVE THE JAGUAR!!!!!!!! 

                                                                Full grown male Jaguar

Works Cited

Books:

Cole, Melissa. "Jaguars and Leapords." 2002.

Encyclopedias:

Taylor, Richard. "Jaguar." World Book. 2001. pg 21.

"Jaguar, Panthera Onca." Amazing Animals of the World. 1995. pg 31.

Websites:

The Belize Zoo. http://www.belizezoo.org/zoo/zoo/mammals/jag/jag1.html. 3-24-09.

Big Cat Rescue. http://www.bigcatrescue.org/cats/wild/jaguar.htm. 3-24-09.

Magazines:

Zoobooks. Big Cats. May 2006. vol 23 #8. pg 4-5