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

[Balam]

(06-13-2020, 05:17 AM)Dark Jaguar Wrote: From the post above as you already know there's one large dark jaguar of 125kg that smashed/crushed a dog on the fall mentioned in one of Platero's hunts in the 90's. Last week This jaguar gave me sleepless nights wondering whether it could be from Cerrado or Atlantic Forest due to the area it was poached, Santa Clara farm. I knew the chances of that poached dark jaguar being from Atlantic forest would be very unlikely due to its massive size so he could definitely be a Cerrado jaguar. I did tons of researches and investigations in order to see if there's any area that Cerrado jaguars could trespass to the Sta Clara farm which is very near Atlantic Forest. I even found mountains and other  areas on the borders that cerrado jags could trespass but it wasn't enough for me to conclude my doubts and investigation. So I decided to ask someone who knows better than anyone else on these regards.

I messaged Peter Crawshaw last Saturday and for my surprise he answered the same afternoon of that day, I was really surprised and happy.

*This image is copyright of its original author

He even sent me a voice note.

*This image is copyright of its original author

I asked him if that area where Santa Clara farm is located in Atlantic forest could be a slight possibility of that dark jaguar of 125kg poached in the 90's be from Cerrado?.

So he asked me if the Sta Clara farm is the one near Anaurilândia MS?

I confirmed and then he said that Sta Clara farm is located in neither Cerrado nor Atlantic forest.

''Its a unique area with rich biodiversity its like a mini-Pantanal with Cattles and thats why jaguars reach large sizes there however today most of that place is found underwater and now its Porto Primavera.''

That area can't be considered Cerrado or Atlantic Forest.

He also said he captured a Dark Jaguar of 110 kilos in Santa Clara farm in the 90's.

So I asked it doesn't belong within any brazilian biome?

He said ''Yes it does,  Its Varjões do Paranazão which were very characteristic even with the presence of Pantanal Deers. It was this wealthy of fauna and more specifically of prey that allowed them to reach these weights of jaguars of the Pantanal and that's why you can't compare them to jaguars of the cerrado, where some of the preys are even the same but their densities are much lower but where cattles are introduced, they always inflate the prey base and this makes a difference in the weight that jaguars can reach as well, if they have regular access to cattle as food''

So yeah cattles literally boost jaguar's sizes.

I took advantage and asked about the relation between Black/Açú Caimans and Jaguars in Amazon.

He said ''I believe that the relationship between Jaguars and Black/Açú Caimans is very different, perhaps even of mutual respect. I think I remember a video of a Black/Açú Caiman preying on a jaguar cub, but I never knew if it was legitimate''

I told him about the table we gathered through projects captures and also I told him about OUR thoughts on pantanal male jaguars today being larger on average and overall than 40 years ago that animals had tough times with hunts.... and I mentioned my guess of 105kg on average for pantanal males and I also mentioned the modern cerrado male jags with large males near 120kg or possibly above.

he said ''I haven't been following the projects that are happening anymore, and I wouldn't know how to answer you, especially regarding the cerrado jaguars. But it seems difficult to me that the average weight even of males in the cerrado exceeds 100 kg - unless as I said before if they have regular access to predation on cattle/livestock.

then I asked is it possible with the big amount of male pantanal jaguars with 130 kg+ with caimans and cattles on their diet, can pantanal males average be above 100kg today?

he said ''It is quite possible that the average has exceeded 100 kg already, for adult males in the Pantanal''

I asked him if he has skull sizes of jaguars. he told me he had 2 skulls but donated them to museums but he still got their measurements but he gotta find it.

''what I have of more is the length of the head of animals, which would be equivalent to the length of the skull, but it is not exact.''


@OncaAtrox Regarding your predation question I quoted 2 very tough animals for jaguars to take. adult Buffalo and adult Boar.

he said ''I don't know if there's that information with field data. I've seen videos of jaguars running away from buffaloes in the Pantanal and heard about it in Maracá-jipioca in Amapá (Amazon).''

''Predation may occur on boars, but I haven't heard anything about jaguars predating boars yet.''

So turns out that cattle do make jaguars grow bigger. Since we know that the jaguars from the Pleistocene were twice as big and jaguars, in general, were forced to reduce in size after the megafauna extinction, my guess is that by consuming larger prey such as cattle these jaguars are reawakening the potential in size they could reach. A clear example is the 136+kg cattle killer from Middle Magdalena, Colombia, this wasn't even a Llanos specimen yet it grew huge thanks to the cattle it predated on.

I'm also incredibly intrigued by this new biome in Brazil, according to him such biome has been lost now due to floodings? If so that would such a shame seriously, who knows the amount of fauna and biodiversity lost along the way, and the fact that the jaguars in that area were also growing big seems to solidify the idea that jaguars who inhabit floodplains with access to large food in large quantities are bound to be the biggest. I can only imagine how majestic that 125 kg panther must have been.

Great info! Reply