Come in and smell the "big orange cat"! Uncover the secrets of the jaguar's yesterday, today and tomorrow

When it comes to Jaguar, many people may think of cars, while others may think of the real Jaguar, the jaguar. The jaguar (Pantheraonca) has the word "leopard" in its name, but they are two different species from the leopard (Pantherapardus) we usually talk about.

The two also differ in appearance. The jaguar has hollow ring-shaped spots with multiple small black dots on the sides of its body, while the leopard's spots are hollow black circles without black dots.

Compared to leopards, jaguars have larger heads, thicker bodies, shorter tails, and heavier average weights than leopards. They are the third largest cat species after tigers and lions.

Jaguar photographed at Shijiazhuang Zoo

Leopard photographed at Tianjin Zoo

yesterday

Origin and Three Ancestors of the Modern Jaguar

More than 4 million years ago, the Old World was inhabited by the saber-toothed tiger subfamily. At the same time, a group of cats with cone-shaped teeth appeared, namely the Panthera genus.

They split into two major branches , one based in Asia, including tigers and snow leopards. The other branch originated in Africa and then moved to other continents, including leopards, lions and jaguars. They will expand and compete with the saber-toothed cat subfamily for the "throne".

In the "African family" of the genus Panthera

Jaguars split from lions and leopards more than 3 million years ago

A new expansion of the Panthera family

Between 1.95 million and 1.77 million years ago, some jaguar-like fossils were found in Africa, and they later left Africa. They became Pantheragombaszoegensis (also known as the European jaguar), which roamed across Eurasia. This is the ancestor of today's jaguar, and its average weight was larger than today's jaguar, ranging from 80 to 90 kilograms to nearly 200 kilograms, close to the level of the South China tiger.

Their fossils have also been found in many parts of Europe, the Indian subcontinent, and the Jinyuan Cave in Luotuo Mountain, Dalian, China. New research this year suggests that the Gambazog leopard may have arrived in the area of ​​today's Malay Archipelago.

Skull of the Gambazog leopard, source: Wikipedia

Note: In 2022, there was also a study based on the fossils of Panthera gombassog in Belgium, which believed that Panthera gombassog was not the closest relative to the modern jaguar, but was closer to the tiger, which means that it may have to be renamed, and the evolution of the jaguar also needs more scrutiny. (This article first uses the statement that Panthera gombassog is closely related to the jaguar)

Around 850,000 years ago, a group of descendants of Panthera onca crossed the Bering Land Bridge between Russia and the United States and came to the New World. They became the Augusta jaguar (Pantheraonca augusta) in North America and the Lanyu jaguar in South America. The former is slightly larger than Panthera onca, while the latter can even weigh 230 kilograms, which is about the same as the Siberian tiger.

These three jaguar ancestors hunted various wild horses (Equidae), cattle, antelopes and deer on the grasslands of America and Eurasia - this is not very similar to today's jaguars, after all, today's jaguars do not hunt on relatively cold grasslands at all.

Augusta Jaguar, Gambazog Jaguar, and modern jaguar compared to human size

Image source: prehistoric-fauna.com

Image of Mayer's jaguar, source: prehistoric-fauna.com

The Gambazog jaguar died out across Eurasia 350,000 years ago, and the other two American jaguar ancestors died out at the end of the Ice Age about 12,000 years ago, along with many of the large herbivores they depended on for survival. But the modern jaguar survived.

Jaguar preying on crocodile. Image source: benny-rebel.de

Wait, having said so much, where did the current jaguars come from?

They evolved in South America between 510,000 and 280,000 years ago. Compared to their three predecessors, these jaguars were smaller and ate more smaller prey, including armored turtles, armadillos, and crocodiles.

They have a wide range of food, and they survived to this day when the Ice Age ended and large herbivores decreased. They have become the top predators in many parts of America today, and are now the largest cats in America.

Jaguar at the water's edge. Image source: panthera.org

today

Food and life in different regions

After escaping the crisis of the Ice Age, modern jaguars spread from South America to the southern part of North America, occupying tropical rainforests, alluvial plains and wetlands in America, as well as some humid grassland forest areas. A few jaguars also walked to the relatively arid areas of today's US-Mexico border, where they "opened up the wilderness".

Jaguars don't just live in hot and humid places. In dense forests, black jaguars are more common, as their black color helps them hide in the deep forest.

Black jaguar, photographed at Shijiazhuang Zoo

Jaguars in different locations

The food is different

The local environment breeds the local leopard

For example, in the Pantanal wetlands of Brazil, jaguars will attack small crocodiles of the genus Caiman, some turtles and tortoises, and a variety of land mammals. Jaguars in the Cerrado region of Brazil like to eat giant anteaters and tapirs.

Jaguars in Guatemala will attack capybaras and coatis. There are too few large prey in the Caatinga region, so local jaguars eat a lot of prey that weigh no more than five kilograms.

On the U.S.-Mexico border, the white-tailed deer that inspired Bambi and the American black bear (Ursus americanus), the prototype of the Teddy Bear, were killed by jaguars. In the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, green iguanas are sometimes eaten by jaguars.

A coati photographed at the Beijing Zoo

The spectacled caiman at the Beijing Zoo is one of the jaguar's prey.

The current jaguar weight range is roughly 36-158 kg. The jaguars distributed in the alluvial plains of Venezuela and the Pantanal of Brazil are very large, weighing 75-150 kg, even larger than the smaller tigers. The jaguars in the Cerrado and Amazon are relatively small, with few weighing more than 100 kg. The jaguars in some small countries in southern North America are only 35-65 kg, similar to the weight of common leopards.

But overall, they are still the third largest cat species. Without any natural enemies, they can rely on the powerful bite force provided by the temporalis muscles of their heads to compete with predators such as black caiman, American black bear, green anaconda, etc.

Image source: animal.memozee.com Jaguar skull

"Wild beasts always walk alone" and "invincible is lonely" are not true for lions on the grassland, and they are not entirely true for jaguars. Although they live alone, they also have social activities from time to time.

Academics have found that male jaguars sometimes gather together and share the overlapping areas of their respective territories and form "alliances" to seize other territories. Of course, this alliance is usually just two "good friends" together, and will not form more than three or even five or six male alliance teams like lions.

When they are young, they need to live with their mother and siblings to form a relatively large group. Jaguars around one year old need to live independently.

Two male jaguars working together. Image source: livescience.com

tomorrow

Jaguars in the human world

When the Ice Age ended, the Indian peoples also established their first civilization in America. They saw the jaguar as the new king of the land where many large carnivores had become extinct, and they also wrote the image of the jaguar into their own myths.

The "Pumpkin" mythical beast that appears in the animated film "Coco" is actually designed based on the jaguar. In the beliefs of some local tribes in America, the jaguar will not hurt people when there are enough prey such as capybaras. Of course, some worshipped creatures will also be hunted by humans, and the jaguar is no exception.

Aztec Jaguar Warrior, source: Wikipedia

In Latin America, jaguars are also facing survival crises such as habitat fragmentation. Jaguars in Ecuador, Argentina, Guatemala and other places are facing habitat destruction and fragmentation problems, and even poaching. In the United States to the north of Latin America, jaguars, which only exist in a small area in the southern United States, have once become extinct.

In addition to poaching and habitat fragmentation, human-animal conflict caused by jaguars attacking livestock is also a threat. In other countries where jaguars are not distributed, people have also reached out their greedy black hands to them. From the end of World War II to the 1970s, the demand for jaguar skins increased significantly. Jaguar body products were also considered a relevant substitute for tiger bones, and claws were a popular part in industries such as jewelry and other decorative items.

Jaguar eating cattle

People hunting jaguars. Image source: laurelneme.com

Fortunately, the jaguar's threat level is now Near Threatened (NT), which is not as critical as lions, tigers and giant pandas, and protection of the jaguar is also ongoing.

In 1975, the signing of the Washington Convention greatly controlled the trade in jaguar skins. In 1986, Belize established the world's first jaguar reserve, the Cockscomb Reserve.

Some people conduct ecotourism in the Pantanal, where jaguars are distributed, to protect them. Others monitor their habitats and build electric fences to prevent jaguars from attacking domesticated zebu (Bosindicus) and other livestock.

Jaguar 2030 Conservation Roadmap, source: WWF

Jaguars in Arizona, USA in recent years, source: Wikipedia

Today, jaguar conservation has become a "money" prospect. The economic value of ecosystem services such as hydropower and tourism provided by some jaguar habitats in Brazil exceeds US$4 billion per year. The Jaguar 2030 Conservation Plan has also been put on the agenda. This plan aims to solve the migration problem of jaguars between different habitats to ensure their survival and reduce human-animal conflicts. The US "Jaguar Reintroduction Program" allows them to roam on the US-Mexico border.

I hope that this American big cat that came from ancient Africa, crossed mountains and seas, passed through the sea of ​​beasts and humans, and survived the Ice Age can survive and have a bright future.

References:

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Big Cats and Their Fossil Relatives [US] Alan Turner, translated by Li Yu, [Spanish] Illustrated by Mauricio Anton Publisher: Commercial Press Publication Date: 2021-09 ISBN: 9787100196185

Article: Two Million Years of the Jaguar Dynasty

Author: Great Qing Dragon

Editor: Dong Xiaoxian

Reviewer: Liu Kun and Li Peiyuan