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| Ocelot Cub
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| Habitat
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The jaguar is one of the largest carnivores of Central America, and Costa Rica's largest,
an endangered species. It was once fairly common in habitats such as coastal mangroves, lowland
savannas, and wet and dry shrub lands and forest up to about 3000ft elevation.
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| Food
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Although
jaguars seem to prefer peccaries as prey, they also take monkeys, agoutis,
deer, birds, fish, lizard, turtles, and other animals. Mud tracks reveal
feeding on dead fish, alligators, iguanas and any other carrion left by receding
waters.
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| Breeding
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The season of births probably varies regionally. Gestation is about 3 months,
and the usual litter is two. Apparently males take no part in the raising
of the young, which may accompany the mother for a year. Females reach sexual
maturity at about 3 years of age and do not breed in successive years if
their young survive.
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Education
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Literature & eBooks
Children's Classic Literature by Twain, Bronte, Fitzgerald, Hawthorne, Thoreau and more.
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Endangered Jaguars and Pumas in the Rainforest
Because of the jaguar's conspicuous tracks, the high value of its pelt, its reputation
as a predator of sheep and cattle, and its vulnerability to hound pursuit and hunting,
this cat is now rare except in parts of large unhunted reserves. It lives
in Costa Rica on the Tortuguero, Santa Rosa, Corcovado and Rio Macho National
Parks. It is also found in the lower elevations of the Cordillera Talamanca and the Jaguarundi Wildlife
Refuge.
Jaguars are rarely seen in daylight, but occasionally one suns on a cliff
or log. They scratch tree trunks, but its not sure that they urine-mark objects
or make territorial scratches on the ground. They are fairly aquatic and
easily swim rivers, small lakes, and straits between mangrove islets. They
favor damp sites such as streambeds in gallery forests, where footprints
often reveal jaguar's presence, approximate size , and travels. At any season
jaguars of either sex may roar at night. § continued below ...
Jaguars seem not to avoid the scent of a man, and one may follow a man walking
in a trail. Although unprovoked attacks on men are rare, in Panama a jaguar
recently charged a man who was carrying a bag of trapped birds.
The main threat to the remaining jaguars in Central America is the clearing
of forest for crops and grazing. When roads penetrate a primitive zone, the
jaguar and white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari ) are the first mammals
to disappear. Jaguars seem to be poor colonizers of cutover lands or new
areas regardless of the abundance of prey there. Jaguars range from northern
Mexico to northern Argentina.
The puma has much greater ecological and geographic range and occurs along
with jaguars throughout Costa Rica. Other cats (felines) that range in this
area are the ocelet, margay, and the jaguarundi. §
| Cats of Costa Rica
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Jaguarundi
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Jaguar
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