Jaguar Directory

[Balam]

@Ngonya

I saw your post about Manath/Rio on Jaguarland, unfortunately, the jaguars in the photo were Ibaca female and her cub. My guess is the photographer misidentified them which happens often. Here's a recent photo of the Witoto males (Manath/Rio):

*This image is copyright of its original author

Manath is indeed much bigger than Rio, despite being younger. They are a good example of how much good genes matter in the morphological fitness of jaguars and other big cats. Manath and Rio's mothers are sisters, so both of them share the same maternal lineage, but their fathers are likely very different. We don't know exactly who is Rio's father (I've seen Medrosa mate with the Ousado, the smallest male in the area on multiple occasions), but Manath's is almost certainly Bernard. Bernard mated with Jaju (Manath's mother) in the correct timeline for him to be born, and they are practically identical:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Jen Kampmann, Mônica Cabello de Brito.

Two young males of similar age and of closely related mothers, living in the same area and yet showing completely different sizes, all because of the genes provided by their fathers. This is why when the big males of a population are removed, there is a downsizing of the average size of the specimens of that population.

Witoto males, Manath dwarfing despite being behind Rio:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Arthur Kampmann

Bernard mating with Patricia, Rio and Manath's grandmother:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Arthur Kampmann Reply