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

[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