Jaguar vs Cougar claws

[drumiz]

I am trying to differentiate between puma and jaguar claws, both species are native to Bolivia and their parts subject to illegal trafficking. I is not easy to tell them appart when found without any skin that helps identification.  I am including pictures of claws in their paws (sold as souvenirs) from museum's specimens, which suggest they overlap in size between species but puma dew claw (finger I in front paws) is quite larger than the rest (photos 1 & 2). That does not seem to be the case for jaguars, where in the paws we have, dew claw is smaller (photos 3 & 4).  This agrees with pictures of a jaguar skeleton in post #1,838 ('Troncha' from Onçafari). However, I could not identify the species of clean claws seized to traffic (photos 5 - 7), and I wonder if you know  any morphometric description or rules that would help with tell them appart.  Thanks. Reply

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