About Jaguars

You are standing in the Amazon rainforest. Suddenly you see something golden and black hiding in the bushes. What could it be? Out leaps a jaguar! It pounces on its prey, a wild deer. The jaguar scientific name is Panthera onca. It is the 3rd largest cat next to tigers and lions. Jaguars are solitary animals. They live in the rainforest and play an important part in the ecosystem. These top-of-the-food-chain predators use their stalk and ambush technique expertly to hunt things much bigger than them. They have a strong bite, enough to break armored reptiles shells or skin. All this combined makes an excellent hunter.

Colorful Cats

Like tigers, Jaguars come in different colors. No you cannot see a purple or an green jaguar but their fur coat can be different. You know the regular spotted jaguar, but what about the black jaguar? Black jaguars make up about 6% of the population and are technically classified as not a mutation. We don't know what makes them chosen like this yet. There is also the very, very rare albino jaguar. Luckily this isn't common so it doesn't hurt the species. There are also some subspecies but they are classified by where the live. They is the Panthera onca inca, the Peruvian jaguar, the Mexican jaguar, the Central American jaguar, the Arizona jaguar, and the Goldman's jaguar. There is also P.o. paraguensis. Okay, okay. The Mexican Jaguar is like the big group, the ones below it are classified within it. Same goes for P.o. paraguensis, and Panthera onca onca.

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