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

[GuateGojira]

Jaguar size comparison:

Check my new comparison about the largest and smallest jaguar population:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Here is the description:

Pantanal jaguar:
The main source for it is the book "Wild cats of the world" from Dr Sunquist and his wife Fiona (2002) and this is for two reasons:
 1. All the animals in the list came from scientific studies, and although some of those figures were from hunted animals, they were vouched by the authors.
 2. I don't have the complete data from De Almeida, just some random sheets, so it will be incorrect to quote him if I don't know what is in the other pages.

The side note is about the heaviest jaguar recorded by scientists. I have the confirmation from Dr Cavalcanti, but now I managed to have a conversation with Dr Hoogesteijn and he not only confirm it too, but also add that the jaguar was captured with a bait, but this was no more than 4 or 5 kg. Sadly, he don't have the body measurements and he don't present estimations, however he send me a picture of the animal during the capture, check it:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Now, he told me that some years latter, the jaguar, now with old age, was beaten by another jaguar and he lost his territory, and in by 2014 it was very old and had an injure in its jaw, check the image:

*This image is copyright of its original author

It is a fascinating history, and although is very sad to see such a magnificent animal in this form, that is the nature's way.

Belize and Calakmul (south of Mexico) jaguar:
These are known to be the smallest jaguars on record, although is possible that those of the north of Mexico, the border of USA and in Peru, could be of the same size, if not smaller.

The main source was originally Sunquist & Sunquist (2002) just like the Pantanal jaguars, however, I manage to found the original source for the Belize jaguars, which are one document and one book, both from Dr Rabinowitz, so I decide it to use it as is the primary source.

The problem was that there are no adult females captured in Belize, so where did Dr Sunquist get the data for the females? Well, reading the sources, those female jaguars came from the Calakmul reserve in the south of México, they are not from Belize. Dr Rabinowits captured 6 males, so the other 6 males from Dr Sunquist list were probably from Mexico. I separate them from those of Belize, with the help of other source, specifically the blog of the Biologist Rodrigo Nuñez. Now, in the case of the females (only weights are available), those are obviously from Mexico, so I use it with its correct label.

It is interesting that when I scaled this jaguar, the result was a very short animal at the shoulders, maybe the standing height would be larger in the real animal (about 60 cm or more), but for the moment, I stick to the figures presented.

The images are from a Pantanal male and from a Belize male, differences between the coat patterns are probably caused by the light effect. It is incredible that genetically, these two populations belong to the same group and for that, there are no subspecies among the modern jaguars. This is a dramatic evidence about what the clinal effect can make (not even the difference between the Sumatran and Amur tigers is so dramatic).

If someone ask, why I don't scale the jaguar of Venezuela, which seems larger than that of the Pantanal? Well, I have a single page from the original source of Sunquist & Sunquist (2002) and it say that the records came from several hunters and I did not found any description about if the animals were measured over curves, between pegs or from skins.

Hope you like it, doubts (or corrections), you can ask me.

Greetings to all. Reply