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

[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