THE PHANTOM OF SOUTH AMERICA

         THE PHANTOM OF SOUTH AMERICA

                     

                   In the deep rainforests of South America, a lone peccary moves looking for food. What the little pig doesn't notice is the pair of eyes staring straight at it from the dense forest coverings. When the ignorant pig moves closer, a creature strikes it and with a single bite, the peccary's skull is cracked. This creature is the phantom of the south american jungles - The Jaguar. 

                         

                  The jaguar (Panthera onca) is the third largest cat of the panthera genus and the only big cat in the continent of South America. With strong climbing skills and excellent swimming skills, the jaguar is the apex predator of S.America. The jaguar's body is well-built and muscular. This brute strength is assisted by a 2000 psi bite force, which can crack bones with ease, making the jaguar a well-designed killing machine. The jaguar preys on mammals like peccaries, capybaras, monkeys, tapirs, mice, dogs and also boldly takes on other apex predators like adult caiman and anacondas. Reports say that a jaguar can carry a 350 kg bull in its jaws without any problem. This brute of the animal kingdom is also an excellent stalker. The jaguar can get as close as 4 or 5 ft  near its prey giving the prey no clue about its presence.

                              

                            The jaguar showing his killer jaw.

                The jaguar is a stalk and kill predator. It stalks its prey silently in the dense rainforests and gets as close as 5 ft near the victim. It relies on one crushing bite to the skull or the throat rather than a long chase. The most significant thing about the jaguar is its bite. The jaguar's bite is twice as powerful as a lion or a tiger's bite. It owes its strength to is robust skull and powerful jaw muscles.

                       The fur of the jaguar is golden yellow with rosette patterns. The rosette patterns contain little spots inside them. the rosettes are also considerably larger than the rosettes observed in leopards. The tail is relatively short compared to the body size. A muscular body with short stocky limbs help the jaguar in climbing, running and swimming, making it an all-round hunter.

                   

                                 A jaguar skull and lower jaw

              

                                The current extant of the jaguar ranges from southern United States across Central America and Mexico to almost the entire part of South America. The Jaguar and the Leopard may have had the same ancestor in an old world cat which move to Africa and the Americas through the Beringia bridge which connected Asia and America during the pleistocene (2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago).

                                                                                      - Vignesh CV