The jaguar is the largest species of cat in the Americas, but has recently been seen in the United States. In 1964 the last known jaguar in Arizona was killed by poachers.
The jaguars that have been found in Arizona and New Mexico today are all male to our knowledge which makes sense. The males will grow up and because their mother lives in their father’s territory, they must move to their own territory. That is why they are going to these new areas. The males will head down south back to Mexico for when they breed with the females and will go back to the sky islands. As the males venture further out, in a few generations the females will follow with the young which will establish a permanent population in the United States.
The strange assumption about this is that New Mexico and Arizona are deserts which are very different from the rain-forests that the jaguars normally live in. The places that they have been seen are in the Sky Islands mountain range. The reason for this name is also why they are there. These mountains are called sky islands because they have a unique environment as elevation increases with it getting more mild and humid as you go up the mountain. These conditions make it optimal for a jaguar to live in. It would take a very long time for the jaguar population to go beyond the Sky Island range because of the large desert that is between them and another area that they would be able to inhabit.
Many are wondering whether it is a good idea to have these animals in the country with worries that they will eat livestock or lead to potential attacks to the people that live in these areas. There are also worries that this will ruin the ecosystems in these areas. What these people do not know is that jaguars used to live far into North America past North
Carolina. Many are calling for a reintroduction to boost the pace of them building a population in the U.S. Like many other predators that are extinct in certain areas like the Red Wolf, reintroducing a top predator would fill in the gap of an apex predator and would lower the numbers of invasive animal species in the areas. One area that would benefit most from the reintroduction is the Everglades in Florida because there are many escaped exotic animals because of their loose exotic pet laws. The jaguar would prey on many of these species which would heal the damaged ecosystem.
A lot of people think that the jaguar is the same as the leopard or mix the 2 up. The leopards are only in parts of Asia and Africa, while the jaguar lives across Central and South America. The jaguar also has much larger spots that pattern their coat than the leopard and they are much more muscular. They both climb but the leopard is faster and the jaguar is stronger. Both the leopard and jaguar can be seen as panthers. This is when there is an excess production of melanin in the skin of the animals that makes the fur look almost completely black. This can make it difficult for them to hunt. Some jaguars with this condition have adapted to hunt more at night so that they can blend in better.
