behind the big cat's and bear's, who is the top predator?

[Dr Panthera]

(11-02-2015, 09:42 AM)LGuateGojira Wrote:

(10-27-2015, 09:00 AM)Dr Panthera Wrote: Thanks Guate, two quick comments
1-The jaguar feeding on a tapir in Misiones Argentina showed a fine jaguar eating a tapir of similar size for less than 10 seconds, is this what you meant...also note how the jaguar is eating standing up like a dog or a hyena versus it typical cat fashion.
2-As far I know zebu cattle in India and Africa do not exceed 350 kg..do you have a reference for them weighing almost double that in South America or could this be another breed of cattle, like several European breeds

In fact, I was referring to this case:

*This image is copyright of its original author

The animal, even with the decomposition of the body, seems larger than an average jaguar, of any area.
Link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nicstang/6210806401

And this skull from a large specimen, hunted by a jaguar:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Obviously, like any loner predator, they would prefer the preys of relative they own size, but this prove that like the other great cats, jaguar can and do predate on tapirs much larger than them.

On the zebu, I can talk to you from first hand. When I made a field camp in the town of El Adelanto, department of Jutiapa, in Guatemala, I investigate the business organization of the breeders of cattle in the area, and I can tell you that the animals are very large, even when the town itself is poor and with many hills, which cause that the animals do not produce too many milk as they use much of the energy to move between mountains. The point is that at least in that area and the surroundings, the cattle was of average size but very robust. In fact, the largest bull that I saw did not measured over 170 cm (excluding the hump of fat) at the shoulders but probably weighed no less than 700 kg! Cows probably weighed between 300 to 400 kg, with the larger specimens scratching the 500 kg (at least 3 cows, the larger was a black one and very aggressive). In the southern area of my country, zebus are way larger, with some bulls reaching the size of a pretty good gaur (I have saw them in person! They are very tall with that great white color) and cows are also large, this thanks to the fact that these areas are plane and with rich forage, which produce larger specimens (the cows in this areas produce the largest quantities of milk in the country).


Based in this facts, I can guess that the domestic and feral zebus in South America probably weight somewhat the same, and if we take in count that those territories are, apparently, more rich than those of my country, I guess that the zebu can be as large as those in Guatemala. I speak from my own experience, but there are areas where the cattle is smaller, like those in India and Africa, which look very skinny.

Just one clarification, the correct name of the cattle of those dimensions is Brahman, but in Guatemala it is popularly known as "cebú", with "c" in the wide sense of the word, because of the hump. However, in fact, there are several variations among the group zebú, some small and others large (like the Brahman), although all originated from India.

Thank you Guate this was helpful clarification, yes Brahman cattle can be twice the weight of zebu and where they are raised in Latin America they could fall prey to the jaguar.
Like other big cats , Jaguars are amazing hunters who are capable of extraordinary hunting and predatory behaviour, they are unfortunate in the sense that the neotropics do not have many large ungulates, tapirs form a small percentage of the jaguar diets as they are a challenging prey, and so do deer since they are too agile for Jaguars most of the time.
I am most impressed with jaguar predation on crocodilians , I was told a Mexican biologist when I was in Cancun that Central American Jaguars can kill American crocodiles...I would love to see that one day, jaguar predation on caimans is also interesting, I have seen tigers, lions, leopards, and Pumas prey on crocodilians but it is only the jaguar that prey on them routinely, also it is only the jaguar who dives into deeper water and extracts a good size caiman, the other cats kill crocodilians on land or in shallow water. Reply