Common Name:Black Jaguar
Scientific Name:Panthera Onca
Kingdom: Animalia
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family:Felidae
Suborder:Feliformia
Genus:Panthera
The black jaguar is the Americas largest cat. It has a compact body, a wide head and powerful jaws. The coat is usually yellow and tan, but colors can range from black to reddish brown. The spots on its coat are more defined and blacker on its head and neck, becoming larger rosette-shaped patterns on the sides and back.
Black Jaguars are widely distributed, inhabiting New Mexico and southern Arizona south toward northeastern Brazil and northern Argentina. Populations have been drastically reduced or in some areas and even eliminated, including the United States, El Salvador, and large parts of Mexico.
Jaguars like thick, moist tropical lowland forests with plenty of cover, but can be found in reed thickets, scrubland, coastal forests, thickets and swamps. They are superb swimmers and are usually found living near water: rivers, slow moving streams, watercourses, lagoons, and swamps.
Black Jaguars are polygamous. Mating usually increases during December through March. Females are sexually mature between 12 and 24 months, males at 24 to 36 months. Throughout the mating season, females will call loudly to attract males into their territory. Females generally give birth to between 2 to 3 cubs, following a 91 -111-day gestation period. Once the cubs are born, females will not tolerate a male in her territory, being very protective of the cubs. Cubs are weaned at 5 to 6 months old, when they start to hunt alongside their mother. Young are dependent until almost 2 years of age.
The jaguar's diet mostly consists of medium sized mammals, such as deer, capybara, tapirs and peccaries, which they silently stalk through the thick jungle. In water, jaguars hunt fish, turtles, and even small caiman. The jaguar is an aggressive and formidable hunter and is believed to eat over 80 different animal species.
Once living throughout South America, jaguars have been hunted mainly for their fur, teeth, and paws. Despite legal protection, fewer people hunting them for their fur, jaguars are now at risk due to loss of habitat mainly because of deforestation, so they are being pushed into the more remote parts of their native range.
Near Threatened