Jaguar

The swimming cat of the Amazon

The jaguar is the biggest cat in the Americas. It lives in the Amazon rainforest and loves water — it swims in rivers and even hunts crocodiles! A jaguar's spots have smaller spots inside them — that's how you tell it from a leopard. Its jaws are so strong it can crush a turtle's shell.

The jaguar (Panthera onca) is the largest cat in the Americas and the third-largest in the world (after the tiger and lion). It ranges from Mexico to Argentina, half of them in the Amazon. Of all cats it has the strongest bite for its size — it kills prey by piercing the skull, and eats caimans and turtles. It is an excellent swimmer. Its rosette spots have dots inside (a leopard's don't). Black jaguars ('black panthers') are the same species with melanism. For the Maya and Aztecs the jaguar symbolised power and the god of night. Its range has shrunk by 50%; about 173,000 remain.

Fun facts

• The word 'jaguar' comes from a Native American language and means 'one that kills with a single leap'.
• The jaguar is one of the few cats that hunts in water — it catches caimans (relatives of crocodiles).
• A black panther is just a black jaguar or leopard, not a separate species.
• A jaguar's bite is stronger than a lion's — it can crush a turtle's shell.