Habitat
Dense rainforest, often near rivers and flooded forest
Amazon Heroes collection
Jaguar
Scientific name: Panthera onca
Try this
Mini mission: draw a jaguar's spotted pattern and compare it to a leopard's.
Diet
Carnivore -- hunts capybaras, tapirs, fish, and other rainforest animals.
Ecosystem role
Apex predator. Keeping prey populations in balance is generally considered important for forest health.
Fun fact
Jaguars are strong swimmers and, unlike most cats, often hunt near and in water.
Where it lives
- Continent
- Americas
- Region
- Found from the southwestern United States and Mexico through Central America to northern Argentina -- the Amazon rainforest is one of its biggest strongholds, but not its only home.
- Environment
- Dense rainforest, often near rivers and flooded forest
Did you know?
- The jaguar has the strongest bite (for its size) of any big cat -- strong enough to pierce a turtle shell or crush a skull.
- You can spot a jaguar by the small dot inside each of its rosette-shaped spots -- leopard rosettes don't have that center dot.
- The name "jaguar" comes from an Indigenous word often translated as "he who kills with one leap."
Test what you learned
What kind of animal is a jaguar?
What makes the jaguar's bite so powerful?
How can you tell a jaguar's spots apart from a leopard's?
