Comparing big cats - differences/changes with time

[Pckts]

@BlakeW39 
That's actually the study I quoted as well.

I think we agree for the most part, but again with Tapir it has to do with abundance but obviously they are not an easy task, just like all Boar type animals that can be double the size of the big cat hunting them. 
But in general, I don't think anything you wrote takes away from Jaguar prey preference. Like you stated, all Big cats prey on animals available, Jaguars not having as many large herbivores as options chose to prey on most abundant large prey available *Caiman and Capybara* 
But correlating the Jaguars ability to survive the extinction of large mammals in S. America to them not being specialized in hunting large herbivores seems to be misleading.
All big cats have adapted to the prey available and they show morphological differences from that.  


Lastly, while I agree that Cattle should be classified in it's own category, this doesn't change the fact that Jaguars prey on them often when available and this shows that Jaguars prefer larger prey when abundant. If this has to do with cattle being more docile than other animals is up for debate. But any bovine of that size can be dangerous to it's attacker, arguably more dangerous than a Tapir IMO. Reply