Jaguars of Brazil - Dynamics,Lifestyle,Datas,Studies,Reports

[Pckts]

(07-21-2020, 04:05 AM)OncaAtrox Wrote: @Dark Jaguar and others who may understand Portuguese or want to see the footage.

There was a recent report done on the jaguars from Southern Pantanal from the Pousada Aguapé which is the same site where the large female and the large male I posted some time ago were recorded. The female was featured in the report and according to them, she killed the cow-calf and dragged the carcass several meters from inside its enclosure into the forest to consume it, a real show of strength.

They spoke about how restrictions are being lifted in regards to COVID-19 and they hope to see an increase in tourism into the area. Some good news stated in the report was that the number of jaguars sighting in the area have increased progressively through the years, and at least 15 individuals have been identified around it.

At the end of the video, they showed footage of a large and powerful female who was crossing alongside a pathway and then a bridge on top of the marsh. I'm not sure if this is the same female as the one from the calf video, but either way, she has a very impressive frame. 

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

It's safe to say that the jaguars in that area are quite big and healthy (I'm still waiting on more footage of that impressive male I keep talking about), but most importantly it's nice to see areas of Pantanal continuously showing signs of improvement in jaguar conservation and utilizing it to increase the economy through ecotourism.

Full report:

She's massive! Reply

[Dark Jaguar]

(07-21-2020, 04:05 AM)OncaAtrox Wrote: @Dark Jaguar and others who may understand Portuguese or want to see the footage.

There was a recent report done on the jaguars from Southern Pantanal from the Pousada Aguapé which is the same site where the large female and the large male I posted some time ago were recorded. The female was featured in the report and according to them, she killed the cow-calf and dragged the carcass several meters from inside its enclosure into the forest to consume it, a real show of strength.

They spoke about how restrictions are being lifted in regards to COVID-19 and they hope to see an increase in tourism into the area. Some good news stated in the report was that the number of jaguars sighting in the area have increased progressively through the years, and at least 15 individuals have been identified around it.

At the end of the video, they showed footage of a large and powerful female who was crossing alongside a pathway and then a bridge on top of the marsh. I'm not sure if this is the same female as the one from the calf video, but either way, she has a very impressive frame. 

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

It's safe to say that the jaguars in that area are quite big and healthy (I'm still waiting on more footage of that impressive male I keep talking about), but most importantly it's nice to see areas of Pantanal continuously showing signs of improvement in jaguar conservation and utilizing it to increase the economy through ecotourism.

Full report:

during the pandemic the lack of people and turism in the area led jaguars, maned wolves and other creatures of nature come out to the ''sighting spot'' much more often in Aquidauana, the same is happening in Fazenda San Francisco as well.

I Wonder how things are going in Central Pantanal.

I watched this content when it aired on TV here last Sunday.

About the female she was looking for her teenager son and she is pretty shredded and athletic, watching her on TV was brilliant.


Jaguars are the Arnold Schwarzenegger of the big cats. Reply

[Dark Jaguar]

Rare sighting.

Mom calling for her cubs - Pantanal.

Reply

[Balam]

(07-24-2020, 08:03 PM)Dark Jaguar Wrote: Rare sighting.

Mom calling for her cubs - Pantanal.

This is Totin female from Aurora, Colombia Llanos. Reply

[Dark Jaguar]

(07-24-2020, 08:30 PM)OncaAtrox Wrote:

(07-24-2020, 08:03 PM)Dark Jaguar Wrote: Rare sighting.

Mom calling for her cubs - Pantanal.

This is Totin female from Aurora, Colombia Llanos.

@OncaAtrox

Thanks she looks like Julia though.

I am gonna take advantage and make an off topic question that I wanted to make in a while already regarding Llanos nowadays.

Do you know if there is any registration of Maned Wolves in modern Llanos?? Reply

[Balam]

@Dark Jaguar maned wolves aren't present in los Llanos most likely due to the barrier that the Amazon presents between the Pantanal and los Llanos. You can find crab eating foxes and bush dogs in los Llanos tho. Other charismatic Pantanal fauna not found in los Llanos are rheas, as well as marsh and pampas deer, instead you find white tailed deer and other birds like scarlet Ibis. Both areas are very similar but have their own unique animals too, it's very beautiful. Reply

[Dark Jaguar]

@"OncaAtrox"

That makes sense I was just wondering if the maned wolves population from the grasslands of Bolivia in the past ventured into those areas as some from Cerrado will venture into south Pantanal due to human encroachment and poaching unfortunately as there are a few cases of retaliation of farmers due to barn chickens predation by maned wolves in farms in the past. ( similar to jaguars and cattles but with chickens instead ). but the agricultural expansion is the bigger issue.

But I think unfortunately they're pretty much extinct in all those other countries too Argentina, Paraguay, Peru and northern Uruguay.



Regarding the other animals the lack of Rheas and Pantanal deers and there you find White Tailed Deer, I can see both Biomes as you mentioned although similar they got unique features in animals and enviornment.

Nature is Amazing. Reply

[Balam]

Abstract from: What are jaguars eating in a half-empty forest? Insights from diet in an overhunted Caatinga reserve


"Persistence of top predators in protected areas requires healthy populations of prey species. Jaguars (Panthera onca) are top predators in the Caatinga dry forest, a xeric domain in northeastern Brazil. Poaching is a threat to populations of jaguar prey in the Caatinga, but it is still widely popular among locals. Here, we investigated molecularly identified jaguar scats to assess prey composition in a protected area where large prey has been heavily depleted or driven extinct by poaching. We also make direct comparisons between trophic niche width and mean prey size through a literature review. We show that over 90% of the diet of jaguars was comprised of prey under 5 kg, mainly armadillos. Furthermore, we found that the values of trophic niche width (2.21) and mean prey size (5.23 kg) in our study area are among the lowest ever described for jaguars in the literature. Our results demonstrated that jaguars are able to shift their diet to small prey when larger quarry is scarce. However, subsisting in such a stressful trophic position may lead to decreased levels of recruitment and low emigration rate. Breeding females would have difficulty raising cubs without abundant large prey. If jaguars are to persist in the Caatinga, effective actions to reduce poaching inside protected areas and corridors must be implemented. One of the most important jaguar populations in this domain inhabits our study site, and prey conservation is paramount for long-term persistence of this top predator in the Caatinga.


© 2018 American Society of Mammalogists, http://www.mammalogy.org"

The very small mean prey size for jaguars in Caatinga explains why they are the smallest in the world. Jaguars adapt their sizes to the resources available in the environment. This pattern of non-insular dwarfism is also seen in some areas of the Amazon and Central America/Mexico on a lesser scale, where the mean prey size for jaguars is also small. Reply

[Dark Jaguar]

@"OncaAtrox"

Very interesting information, that lack of abundant prey in some Caatinga areas explains more the reason Lampião male ( the 41kg adult melanistic one ) died by starvation, its such a shame and thats what leads jags to predate domestic dogs, pigs and bovines in that area.

And speaking of Caatinga I watched an interview with Leandro Silveira and he said when they studied jaguars there in Parque Nacional Serra da Capivara area in Caatinga 20% of the jaguar population there are melanistic.

Its really impressive having so many melanism in Parque Nacional Serra da Capivara, its the highest melanism density I've ever heard in a population of jaguars located in one area and Leandro said its out of normal the immense quantity of melanism there.

I think the only place that could top it would be the almighty Amazon which have by far the highest population of jaguars on the planet.


I wish I could get my hands on that study of IOP.


Parque Nacional Serra da Capivara is one place we all should keep our eyes on, I already follow their official page in a while.

---

Here are some Caatinga Jaguars from Parque Nacional Serra da Capivara.

Photos: Fundo para a Conservação da Onça-Pintada (FCOP)


Note: Their paw pads are very rough and flat due to the dry and thorny soils of Caatinga.



Male 1  ( adult )

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Male 2 ( adult )

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Female 1 ( adult )

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Female 2 ( adult )

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Male 3 ( adult )

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Male 4 ( adult )

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Female 3 ( sub adult )

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Male 5 ( adult ) Impressive battled scarred specimen, he is probably 45kg of muscle.

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Male 6 ( adult )

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Female 4 ( adult )

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Sub Adult Caatinga Jaguar ( No Gender Revealed )

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*This image is copyright of its original author

Female 5 ( sub adult )

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Cub.

*This image is copyright of its original author

As you can see there's a very high density of melanism in Parque Nacional Serra da Capivara and although these jaguars weight 35-42kg they yet keep their stocky build no matter the size and even more impressive is that Caatinga is the only place where Jaguars overlap in size with Pumas. Amazing. Reply

[Balam]

@Dark Jaguar it's impressive that even relying on such small prey those jaguars still manage to retain their stocky build. It's pretty clear that naturally jaguars are supposed to be much bigger than that but their adaptability is what has allowed them to thrive in areas with low quantities of large prey. For Central American jaguars the mean prey mass was also calculated at around 5 kg, and Amazon jaguars at around 11 kg. Pantanal and Llanos had a range of 50 to 118 kg including cattle.

I like to compare the ecology of jaguars to that of tigers because it provides a good comparative idea of how they react to biomes with higher amounts of prey. For example, tigers in Ranthambore prey predominantly on axis deer, followed by Sambar and then lower quantities of hog and other animals. I haven't seen any study that jajas calculated their mean prey mass but judging by their prey choice I'd put it at around 75-80 kg, and yet they grow to be some of the largest tigers in India. For jaguars I think 30 to 50 kg of mean prey that can be accessed in high quantities (capybara and caiman) should be enough for them to reach large size as well if they can catch their prey at least twice a week. But this also posses the question, for large jaguars in the Cerrado like Tiago, What exactly would they be eating to reach Pantanal-like sizes? I've read a study that in Emas National Park they eat mostly giant anteaters, but even then for a 117 kg jaguar consuming predominant anteater is unexpected. I would've thought that white lipped peccary would've been their main prey but according to that same study they appear to avoid them for the most part. A more in-depth look into their costs would be really interesting, I'm sure IOP has recent data about it but it's unlikely we'll get access to it anytime soon. Reply

[Dark Jaguar]

@OncaAtrox

Yeah thats how they are build and regardless of the size it could be an adult of 37kg or 140kg they will still keep their stocky build and those massive jaw cheek muscles, thats in their DNA, their morphology, thats what they're build for and I love those small Caatinga jaguars.

Regarding the Cerrado jaguar reaching Pantanal jaguar sizes, those sizes is actually how big they really are and don't forget the unknown 118kg cerrado male jaguar that was captured as well a while back mentioned in a conversation with Gediendson, they're just recovering little by little from mass poaching in cerrado from the past, don't forget they also predate on cattles as well. and as I already mentioned you cerrado jaguars from PNE prefer to stay in areas near ranching areas in the sorrounding borders of the Emas ( Rheas ) National Park, Cerrado jaguars natural preys consists of both species of pecaries with their mean size being of 30-40kg, giant anteater, tapir (300+ kg), in small portions there will be armadillos, deers, monteiro pig, cutias and others.  

These big sizes aren't that big of a deal, In Brazil there's a few areas where some individuals of large male Atlantic forest jaguars will reach and slightly surpass the 100kg range for example in Morro do Diabo in Brazil and Parque Estadual das Varzeas do Rio Ivinhema ( this place got massive Tapirs ) also in Brazil some individuals will reach 100kg and there's a table where Atlantic Forest Jaguars from Parque Nacional do Iguaçú the average size for males are of 85.8kg sourced by Peter Crawshaw in 1995.

In Brazil Atlantic forest jaguars are definitely the third largest population after Cerrado and Pantanal.

check the table bellow of average sizes only for males IOP showed to compare with 87.5kg average cerrado jaguar back in 2000-2004.

NOTE: the cerrado jaguars says ''presente estudo'' meaning they're still studying cerrado jaguars when IOP showed this table as a comparison on their study in 2004. so possibly there could be a new modern study launched for cerrado jags average weight which is what we're expecting to be near 100kg or 100kg. I still have hopes haha.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Anyways what do you think of the caatinga jaguars from the unique Serra da Capivara being 20% of melanistic jaguars?? Reply

[Balam]

@Dark Jaguar I definitely think that peccary and feral hog are prey items underestimated in Cerrado jaguars based on the study I read. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if hogs are the main prey item for certain males in the region. Do you know much about how common these hogs are in the Cerrado and in areas surrounding the Emas National Park?

And yes, that data of Caatinga jaguars being 20% melanistic is very interesting, my personal opinion is that Caatinga jaguars have Cerrado roots and their size difference is more recent, thanks to the poaching of prey in the biome. It'd be interesting to see how Caatinga jaguars looked at the end of the Pleistocene and beginning of the Holocene when human intervention had not been as dramatic.

What I find the most interesting about Cerrado and Caatinga jaguars presenting melanism is that they live in grasslands and dessert environments, when you'd think melanism would only be present in forest populations. Perhaps the links between the jaguars who cross between the Cerrado to the Amazon brought the genes to the Cerrado, and from there to Caatinga, but why the Pantanal and Atlantic forest haven't receive those genes is a mystery. Reply

[Dark Jaguar]

(07-27-2020, 04:19 AM)OncaAtrox Wrote: @Dark Jaguar I definitely think that peccary and feral hog are prey items underestimated in Cerrado jaguars based on the study I read. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if hogs are the main prey item for certain males in the region. Do you know much about how common these hogs are in the Cerrado and in areas surrounding the Emas National Park?

And yes, that data of Caatinga jaguars being 20% melanistic is very interesting, my personal opinion is that Caatinga jaguars have Cerrado roots and their size difference is more recent, thanks to the poaching of prey in the biome. It'd be interesting to see how Caatinga jaguars looked at the end of the Pleistocene and beginning of the Holocene when human intervention had not been as dramatic.

What I find the most interesting about Cerrado and Caatinga jaguars presenting melanism is that they live in grasslands and dessert environments, when you'd think melanism would only be present in forest populations. Perhaps the links between the jaguars who cross between the Cerrado to the Amazon brought the genes to the Cerrado, and from there to Caatinga, but why the Pantanal and Atlantic forest haven't receive those genes is a mystery.

@"OncaAtrox"


No I haven't heard of hogs predation by cerrado jaguars yet but as soon as I hear anything related to this I will let you know.

Pecari will still be their main preys regardless, the giant anteater increase in predation was a very interesting recent research by Leandro but it could decrease as well depending on the seasons, regardless of anything the pecari are still their important preys overall as a whole hence why Leandro got a massive creation of pecaries in the sanctuary so jaguars won't lose their main natural prey.

In the interview Leandro gave the impression they already knew the reason Serra da Capivara having so many melanism but the interviewer changed subject. Thats why I said I need to get my hands on the study documents haha.

But melanism in open areas like cerrado and caatinga sounds pretty normal to me.

By the way there are register of melanistic Atlantic forest jaguars.

Amazon, Atlantic Forest, Caatinga, Cerrado all got melanism. Pantanal is the only biome who don't have the melanism luxury, despite their massive sizes its one of the reasons of the proposal (Ameghino, 1888) of separate pantanal jaguars as a different subespecies but the main idea was their massive sizes so it would go in the Bolivian area of Pantanal ( Panthera onca boliviensis ), in the Paraguay area of Pantanal ( Panthera onca paraguensis ) and lastly in the Brazilian area of Pantanal ( Panthera Onca Palustris ).

I would support this if a subespecie of jaguar really happened and it doesn't bother me since Pantanal jaguars definitely got something different related to the others. Reply

[Balam]

(07-27-2020, 04:43 AM)Dark Jaguar Wrote:

(07-27-2020, 04:19 AM)OncaAtrox Wrote: @Dark Jaguar I definitely think that peccary and feral hog are prey items underestimated in Cerrado jaguars based on the study I read. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if hogs are the main prey item for certain males in the region. Do you know much about how common these hogs are in the Cerrado and in areas surrounding the Emas National Park?

And yes, that data of Caatinga jaguars being 20% melanistic is very interesting, my personal opinion is that Caatinga jaguars have Cerrado roots and their size difference is more recent, thanks to the poaching of prey in the biome. It'd be interesting to see how Caatinga jaguars looked at the end of the Pleistocene and beginning of the Holocene when human intervention had not been as dramatic.

What I find the most interesting about Cerrado and Caatinga jaguars presenting melanism is that they live in grasslands and dessert environments, when you'd think melanism would only be present in forest populations. Perhaps the links between the jaguars who cross between the Cerrado to the Amazon brought the genes to the Cerrado, and from there to Caatinga, but why the Pantanal and Atlantic forest haven't receive those genes is a mystery.

@"OncaAtrox"


No I haven't heard of hogs predation by cerrado jaguars yet but as soon as I hear anything related to this I will let you know.

Pecari will still be their main preys regardless, the giant anteater increase in predation was a very interesting recent research by Leandro but it could decrease as well depending on the seasons, regardless of anything the pecari are still their important preys overall as a whole hence why Leandro got a massive creation of pecaries in the sanctuary so jaguars won't lose their main natural prey.

In the interview Leandro gave the impression they already knew the reason Serra da Capivara having so many melanism but the interviewer changed subject. Thats why I said I need to get my hands on the study documents haha.

By the way there are register of melanistic Atlantic forest jaguars.

Pantanal is the only biome who don't have the melanism luxury, despite their massive sizes its one of the reasons of the proposal (Ameghino, 1888) of separate pantanal jaguars as a different subespecies but the main idea was their massive sizes so it would go in the  Bolivian area of Pantanal ( Panthera onca boliviensis ), in the Paraguay area of Pantanal ( Panthera onca paraguensis ) and lastly in the Brazilian area of Pantanal ( Panthera Onca Palustris ).

I would support this if a subespecie of jaguar really happened and it doesn't bother me since Pantanal jaguars definitely got something different related to the others.

Don't forget that Chaco and Llanos jaguars also lack melanism and those two populations also get big, I wonder if size could be a factor in the presence of melanism, but that is just a random thought of mine. For Llanos jaguars, it is particularly confusing because for a long time they used to be considered the same subspecies (back when jaguars were separated by subspecies) as Amazonian jaguars, and yet no melanism is present with them. I'm also very interested to know how high feral hog predation is with them, we already have a video of Totin female chasing some hogs so that would seem to indicate that they see hogs as potential prey.

There's so much information yet to unpack with these jaguars, hopefully, we could update the forum with answers to these questions in the not too distant future. Reply

[Dark Jaguar]

(07-27-2020, 04:58 AM)OncaAtrox Wrote:

(07-27-2020, 04:43 AM)Dark Jaguar Wrote:

(07-27-2020, 04:19 AM)OncaAtrox Wrote: @Dark Jaguar I definitely think that peccary and feral hog are prey items underestimated in Cerrado jaguars based on the study I read. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if hogs are the main prey item for certain males in the region. Do you know much about how common these hogs are in the Cerrado and in areas surrounding the Emas National Park?

And yes, that data of Caatinga jaguars being 20% melanistic is very interesting, my personal opinion is that Caatinga jaguars have Cerrado roots and their size difference is more recent, thanks to the poaching of prey in the biome. It'd be interesting to see how Caatinga jaguars looked at the end of the Pleistocene and beginning of the Holocene when human intervention had not been as dramatic.

What I find the most interesting about Cerrado and Caatinga jaguars presenting melanism is that they live in grasslands and dessert environments, when you'd think melanism would only be present in forest populations. Perhaps the links between the jaguars who cross between the Cerrado to the Amazon brought the genes to the Cerrado, and from there to Caatinga, but why the Pantanal and Atlantic forest haven't receive those genes is a mystery.

@"OncaAtrox"


No I haven't heard of hogs predation by cerrado jaguars yet but as soon as I hear anything related to this I will let you know.

Pecari will still be their main preys regardless, the giant anteater increase in predation was a very interesting recent research by Leandro but it could decrease as well depending on the seasons, regardless of anything the pecari are still their important preys overall as a whole hence why Leandro got a massive creation of pecaries in the sanctuary so jaguars won't lose their main natural prey.

In the interview Leandro gave the impression they already knew the reason Serra da Capivara having so many melanism but the interviewer changed subject. Thats why I said I need to get my hands on the study documents haha.

By the way there are register of melanistic Atlantic forest jaguars.

Pantanal is the only biome who don't have the melanism luxury, despite their massive sizes its one of the reasons of the proposal (Ameghino, 1888) of separate pantanal jaguars as a different subespecies but the main idea was their massive sizes so it would go in the  Bolivian area of Pantanal ( Panthera onca boliviensis ), in the Paraguay area of Pantanal ( Panthera onca paraguensis ) and lastly in the Brazilian area of Pantanal ( Panthera Onca Palustris ).

I would support this if a subespecie of jaguar really happened and it doesn't bother me since Pantanal jaguars definitely got something different related to the others.

Don't forget that Chaco and Llanos jaguars also lack melanism and those two populations also get big, I wonder if size could be a factor in the presence of melanism, but that is just a random thought of mine. For Llanos jaguars, it is particularly confusing because for a long time they used to be considered the same subspecies (back when jaguars were separated by subspecies) as Amazonian jaguars, and yet no melanism is present with them. I'm also very interested to know how high feral hog predation is with them, we already have a video of Totin female chasing some hogs so that would seem to indicate that they see hogs as potential prey.

There's so much information yet to unpack with these jaguars, hopefully, we could update the forum with answers to these questions in the not too distant future.

@"OncaAtrox"

I don't think size is the factor for melanism. I think Its all about genes carried by the individuals in one area.

So the fact that Chaco and Llanos jaguars not having melanism takes the proposal to an even more intriguing level regarding the lack of study on the least studied of the big cats, theres much we don't know about including the scientists themselves, so its time for the ''science entity'' do this study again but this time with much more details.

On the onçafari live they said they are already studying these genetic differences of the populations and the reasons why pantanal jags do not got melanism. everybody is intrigued but with no answers as of yet, lets wait and see what is discovered. Reply