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

[Dark Jaguar]

@Rage2277

Indeed I also find it strange and its strange cause they don't see people as prey haha.

And Yes they're still big cats, wild animals and can easily kill you if it wants.

I got more cases of attacks.

Even nowhere near as many cases as the likes of tigers cases numbers of attacks on humans, the small number of jaguars attacks on humans registered exists but they're not shown or told that much, specially by the conservationists of the species that will avoid to talk about these cases that much and others might have never experienced, seen or heard of one, but it doesn't mean it never happened at all in history you know.

The jaguar will wisely avoid direct contact with people as much as they can, they'll even alert you through behaviors when they not comfortable with your presence and in some cases with wild ones if they're feeling threatened (cornered wise) most of the times they will alert us with a pre-attack by growling and shrinking their ears backwards and will do those bluffs to let us know to stop right there, but if you continue to approach and trespass that ''security zone space'' it will stop the bluffs and will attack you but not to eat you, its actually more of a reaction by your act than an attack, its a defence.

Overall it rarely happens in the wild and they're awkwardly very tolerant in comparison to other big cats but each individual got their own temper that should be respected and some won't tolerate at least to be that much close and will alert us like Tusk, CG, Mendanha, Hollyfied...

Shi** happens when humans won't follow the animals warnings and space or can't read their behavior if its not comfortable or habituated enough and as you saw in those cases the outcome is ugly and cringy.

In sudden moments, experts tell attacks could happen when they're cornered and feeling threatened, when they're feeding on carcass and you're get close to it suddenly surprising the cat, the jaguar may attack you to defend its carcass, also when approaching too much female with cubs, she might feel forced to protect the cubs by attacking you or when you approach too much when they're mating like the case of the mating jaguars in Mato Grosso do Sul I posted in the ''Animal-Human Conflicts thread'' that one of the mating cats attacked the guy on a horse that was riding by and didn't know they were there, he rode by very close to the mating cats and he was attacked and almost died with a ''pre skull bite'' he had to be quickly rescued by his friends who were also riding horses and was rushed to the hospital.



In captivity in Brazil the attacks are more common and here is what Leandro Silveira says on this Wild/Captive during his live earlier this year after being questioned about jaguar attacks.


I took some time to translate it cause its very worth the read.


IN THE WILD.

''Naturally Jaguar don't see people as preys, this is a big advantage and luck we got here in the american continent to not have jaguars seeing us as preys like it happens in Africa and Asia where lions, leopards and tigers will see human as prey and will atack and kill humans, we don't have this problem that much with jaguars, the attacks of jags on humans are very rare and what we know with the more than 80 jag attacks cases registered in Brazil is that these attacks occurs most of the times with very old jaguars that ain't able to hunt anymore or with very young jaguars who aren't secure without its mother and yet learning to hunt and ended up attacking humans but as an experiment of a prey, with that being said naturally a jaguar won't see a human and suddenly run after them to kill and eat, attacks occurs when the animal feel threatened, cornered, with carcass, cubs. Its very common you see in Pantanal when the rancher on horse is camping his cattles then there are vultures nearby he approaches to see the cause of the cattle's death or to see whats in the middle of the vultures then he gets surprised by the jaguar and the jaguar gets surprised by him leading the jaguar attack, such an act we consider as a defence and any species would do that for example a domestic house cat that is not used to you out in the streets then you grab it and lock it in a small bathroom and try to catch it, the cat will scratch you, bite you and then you'd say the cat attacked you, no it didn't, it was reacting.''

''With that being said its worth noting that with jaguars every time that I got bit or had a nervous situation in captivity and in the wild, they were provoked attacks, it was a defence so I already got my bites to the point to quickly learn how to read a pre-jaguar attack, meaning before the attack it will warn you just like a rattle snake will shake its rattle for you not step on it or approach it, jaguars will do the same.''

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IN CAPTIVITY.

''Captivity-wise with the intense management with jaguars allow us to take care of them 24/7 in contact with them and that will allow us to know which jaguars can be ''manageable'' and which are the jaguars you will never touch, within 15 days you will notice one animal's temper, there are several jags we bottle feed as cub and some we already notice won't be docile and to confirm later over the years if I try to get into the enclosures it will try to kill me, I know it will kill me, from the outside I can call it by the name and it will come to me but if I get into the enclosure it will kill me, I know that and how do I know that? what keep us alive is to make that pre-reading behavior the way it looks at you, the way it acts, you already realise that this animal doesn't want me here and it doesn't want contacts''

''So far we've had one dark jaguar who came from nature that frightened us, it gave me  much fear, it was a jaguar that brutally came up to the base of the enclosure with much violence, every time someone passed by the enclosure it came all the way from the background where it was and rapidly came up to the front pounding the enclosure and back then my son was very small and at night I had nightmares that I wake up at night thinking if that dark jaguar escaped and I was fighting the dark jaguar, the nightmare appeared so real that after waking up I went to its enclosure in the middle of the night to see if that dark jaguar really escaped the enclosure, this dark jaguar made me very worried and nervous and we managed to remove it and sent it to another place where it found a mate and reproduced. ''

''About the male or female who are more docile in the sanctuary, it will vary between individuals its not about genders its more on the animals nature but by coincidence until now the most calm jaguars here have all been males, the females are always alert, they never spend too much time on a relation of security with you, the males on the other hand gets relaxed much more, we started observing this, but we see there's much more of the nature of the animal, the most calm jaguar we got so far is Xavante, a large male who is very calm with me but when he is eating he is the first one who will want to kill. ''

'' So the truth is you gotta respect the animal, respect the time when its eating, respect its space if the animal is not in the mood don't mess with it, in situations of when a female is in heat or when there's a wild male wondering around and is letting the captive ones nervous I don't mess with them, so before we walk the animals and before getting them and removing them from the enclosure we do a reading on how it is that day, its kinda like humans there's moments when you don't wanna talk, walk and something we never do is to force the animal, its all on their will and when we walk them its as if they know it'll be their leisure moment they'll play, climb, scratch trees... ''

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FINISHING UP.

''So regarding  the attacks thats it, I've already experienced some attacks in situations of reactions in the wild and in captivity and what I have learned about all of this is to read their behaviors and not to abuse the luck, the jaguar in Brazil is one of the big cats who kills the most in captivity and one of the reasons and technical interpretations presented is because its the most treacherous and its extremely strong, its a species that evolved to kill with one single bite at base of the nape, so just imagine an animal that can kill a cow, a tapir with one bite to the nape what would it do to us with our carcass that are so vulnerable.''

Leandro Silveira.

*This image is copyright of its original author

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