Return of the Jaguar

Return of the Jaguar

Hello, Neighbor In the fall of 2015, a giant spotted cat wandered in front of a hidden camera in the mountains of southern Arizona--and into history. It was the first video footage captured of the only known wild jaguar living in the United States.

Jaguars once lived in parts of what is now the United States. There are old reports of jaguars in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana. Since 1997, jaguars have been roaming north from Mexico onto the same land where their ancestors once lived. Scientists say all seven that have been sighted are males. Male jaguars are the ones that typically find new territories in order to start their own families, if females will follow. Students at a Tucson (TOO-sahn), Arizona, middle school where the mascot is a jaguar held a vote to name the big cat caught on camera. They settled on El Jefe (HEF-ay), which means “ the boss" in Spanish. Within months, the video footage of El Jefe had been seen by more than twenty million people around the world. He was a star.

What Is a Jaguar? Jaguars are the third-largest wild cats in the world and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. Only lions and tigers are bigger. Jaguars have thick legs, a large chest, and jaws that are capable of crushing a skull. In fact, that's how they often kill their prey. Their yellowish fur is covered in a grouping of spots called rosettes. People often confuse jaguars and leopards, but it's easy to tell them apart. Jaguars have spots in the middle of their rosettes, and leopards don't.

Jaguars can weigh 150 to 250 pounds (68-113 kg). They can be as long as 7 feet (2 m) from their nose to the tip of their tail. Despite their size, they are stealthy, fast, and even pretty good at climbing trees. These traits make them perfect predators in the wild.

People and Predators More than four hundred thousand jaguars once lived in the wild. Their range stretched from the forests and swamps of South and Central America to drier parts of the southern United States.