Did you know?

• The Jaguar is the sole surviving species of Panthera in the New World, making it the biggest cat in the Americas. They are the third biggest cat in the world.
• The Native American term yaguar, which means “he who kills with a single leap,” is where the name “jaguar” originates. Unlike other big cats, they attack the prey’s skull rather than the throat.
• The black spots on their fur, known as “rosettes” because they are patterned like roses, are similar to leopards’, although jaguar rosettes contain spots inside them, whereas leopard rosettes are hollow.
• Jaguars have traditionally been viewed as loners, but studies published in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology suggest that male jaguars occasionally band together to form coalitions.
• Jaguars are believed to occupy only around 51% of their historical range, having completely vanished from about half of the previous range.
• The species is more firmly linked with water than any other big cat, and it is exclusively found near waterways. This trait swiftly brings them into conflict with the spread of agriculture, which has the same nearby water sources for irrigation requirements.
• Commercial hunting and trafficking of Jaguars for their pelts had decreased dramatically since the mid-1970s when anti-fur campaigns and CITES regulations gradually closed down worldwide markets.
• Jaguars are being used as substitutes for tiger bones by Latin America’s growing Asian community.
•  A recent analysis from the Wildlife Conservation Society revealed the purchasing and selling of trafficked jaguar parts online in Latin America, with little to no response from law enforcement,
• Jaguar populations are being reduced and isolated across their range due to habitat destruction and fragmentation.