ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - C - THE JAGUAR (Panthera onca)

[epaiva]

(04-13-2018, 07:49 AM)Greatearth Wrote: epaiva  peter

What's your opinion of these?

I honestly think there is no size difference between male Pantanal jaguar and male Los Llanos jaguar. They probably caught bigger male jaguars in Los Llanos and smaller male jaguars in Pantanal. Question is female's size.  Is it because of prey abudance in Pantanal compare to the Los Llanos? Male jaguar can attack any size of animals in Central and South America, while female jaguar is different. That's why female Pantanal jaguar is larger than female Los Llanos jaguar.
There is no doubt jaguar is a king of nature in Pantanal while Los Llanos has equally powerful animal like Orinoco crocodile and Green Anaconda. I personally don't think Orinoco crocodile and Black caiman is predating huge male jaguar unless jaguar is swimming in water since 100 kg male jaguar is extraordinarily powerful animal. I think they are both number 1 predator. But female jaguar is different story since they are smaller. Maybe that's why? 
That's why skull size difference between Pantanal jaguar and Los Llanos jaguar? I don't really know what are the common prey animal in Los Llanos. 

There are 140-150 kg jaguar records in Los Llanos from old hunting. Is it true that the Los Llanos jaguar is the second largest jaguar next to the Pantanal jaguar? I think they are both the biggest jaguar in modern time. My guess is that size of the Los Llanos jaguars may have been decreased due to hunting in 60 years ago. Can you find recent size record of the Los Llanos jaguar?

What if we put few jaguars in Amazon, Orinoco delta, and Mount Romraima or Angel fall area in Canaima National Park. Do you think they will grow huge like Los Llanos jaguar? Or jaguar in those area are genetically smaller?
Why are they smaller? Is it because of dense jungle? Or Smaller prey? swamp and water environment?

@Greatearth

In the good old days you found bigger Jaguars in los Llanos with a few number of them as big and heavy as the the larger ones you find in El Pantanal but today their numbers are very low and they are smaller than the ones found in El Pantanal for sure with larger ones about 120 kgs.  The number of Orinoco Crocodiles today is about 2000 in the wild so you can say that they dont compete with Jaguars in Venezuela, Orinoco Crocodiles were over hunted, they are too big and strong for any Jaguar, in the Lanos you can find a big number of Anacondas today but a big Jaguar can hunt a big Anaconda out of the water, normally the bigger Green Anacondas over 5 meters long  stay all the time in the water.  I really dont know if Jaguars in Amazon, Orinoco Delta, and Mount Roraima would grow as big as the ones in los Llanos if they had greater numbers of prey like the ones they have in Los Llanos but they will grow more for sure. I think they are smaller in those regions because they dont have the same prey availability they find in Los Llanos. Reply