Research Paper

Spots like Shooting Stars 

Native to their land 

And a native thinks their name holds 

Their cubs are a mirror of their parents 

That will hold their legacy

Saving them is my inspire

Jaguars in dire

Their coat like fire, 

But their homes are catching fire

Now they’re in piles

Running for miles

You won’t see their smile.

The largest cats in three

Tick-Tack

Their time is ticking 

Before their territory is gone 

Their territory is shrinking 

Just like the number of snacks I have.

Marking their territory with waste and claw, 

Solitary souls, in nature's awe.

Jaguars great swimmers

Like fish through the stream.

Fish in their diet is what a carnivore dreams. 

Like a jaguar roar 

Let us call each other to save them

Their fur is full of spots 

Like that night full of shooting stars 

Wishing on day 

To save them all.

Wonderful Spots

Introduction

The jaguar is part of the cat family. Many of them are endangered species just like them.  Jaguars are mostly spotted in most of the South of America. And they are also known for having impressive fur coats, with black spots, and also having strong bites to eat their prey. But these impressive mammals are on the endangered list and it has to get help to get saved.  Humans killing them to protect their farmland is one of the reasons why they are going extinct. Yet climate change has also impacted them in a big way too and is another reason why they are endangered. This is why the jaguars are worth the effort to get saved and restore their population because the younger generations should be able to see and learn about them and not only think that the jaguar is a mythical creature. And because this animal is one of the most important parts in the food chain and without them, it would have a big impact on all its prey.

Description

The jaguar, its common name, or the Panthera onca its scientific name, is an animal with very unique characteristics and features that allow the people to spot them in the wild. “The jaguar has a robust head and compact, but muscular body. These cats have short limbs and tails, and powerfully built chests and forelegs” (Jaguars ).  Jaguars can reach a length of 5 feet to 8 feet being an adult also having an equivalent of 1.5 to 2.4 meters. But the jaguar cub can reach 16 inches or 40 centimeters when it’s born. Jaguars are also known for their one-of-a-kind coat of fur, which is made up of reddish brown, pale yellow, tan, and reddish yellow fur and whitish on the inside of the limbs, neck, and belly. Its most impressive feature is its back rosette-shaped spots all over its body. This coat helps them blend in with the surrounding area and helps them hunt for their prey. This species once it becomes an adult, can reach a weight of 80 to 348 pounds or 36 to 158 kilograms, this helps it place as the third largest cat species in the world behind the tiger and the lions (Jaguars).

Habitat

In North America, the jaguars were the only species of big cats located on the continent. Jaguars can be located in the south of  North America and Central America. But mostly being located in Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Colombia in South America (Jaguar Animal Facts). These places where the jaguar lives have something in common. For example, they are all full of different kinds of plants and how they are hot and moist habitats. Jaguars have a preference for being close to wet habitats or bodies of water like lakes and rivers, unlike regular cats. Jaguars enjoy water because they are good strong swimmers. The jaguar population had previously been larger and abundant all over the continent but recently decreased to almost half of what it was before, because of how humans have treated their habitat. ‘However, populations have been substantially reduced or eliminated in some areas, including El Salvador, the United States, and large portions of Mexico’ (Nogueira). This recent decrease in number has put the Jaguars endangered, but they have learned to adapt. One of the ways they have adapted is by using their spots to blend in with all the different types of plants in their environment. They have also adapted to being able to swim and becoming a strong swimmer.

Food

The Panthera onca or the Jaguar is known for being an apex predator. Meaning that it’s at the top of the food chain. Jaguars have been reported to hunt and feed off of more than 85 different species. Those included mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish. “Jaguar prey species include peccaries, capybaras, pacas, agoutis, deer, opossum, rabbits, armadillos, caimans, turtles, livestock, as well as various reptiles, birds, and fish species. In general, jaguars preferably feed on medium-to-large-sized prey” (Jaguars). Jaguars when hunting tend to either directly bite and then suffocate them, or they bite their skulls with their canines, instantly killing them and then taking them to the place where they’re going to eat their prey (Nogueira). This species tends to hunt on their own. They also spend most of their time being solitary except during the mating season in which the jaguar goes looking for a mate.  Knowing that the Jaguar is one of the few animals that are at the top of the food chain, it still has one hunter that is after them. Jaguars are primarily hunted by humans, who are later illegally victims of poaching by humans and their pelts, paws, and teeth (Nogueira). Humans hunting jaguars is one of the reasons why this species is going extinct.

Issues

The jaguar as most people know is an endangered species and some of the reasons for them being in that state are poaching, habitat loss, and human conflict. The coats of the fur of this species have always been important to the humans that share their habitat. In the year 1960 all the way till 1970 a fashion industry left the jaguar population to almost the brink of extinction. The species were given the highest level of protection in the year 1975 by the Convention on Internal Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). CITES later outlawed the sale of jaguar fur  (Jaguar). Another problem that contributes to jaguar issues is having to deal with habitat loss, like logging, mining, and farming. These also lead to jaguars losing part of their land and food. Having them lose some of their food resources leads them to start looking and hunting ranchers' livestock resulting in the ranchers trapping them and poisoning them (Jaguars). Currently, the jaguars continue to roam through Central and South America without being caught in captivity, Scientists estimate that there are 10,000 left in the wilderness and the rest are being left in captivity to help them out and avoid their extinction. Although mating isn’t a problem, finding a mate for them is difficult because of all the deforestation that they have to go through almost every day. Female jaguars tend to have one to four baby jaguars called cubs. When they reach the six to eight-week mark the cubs are more than capable of following their mom. Although they have previously been nursed and occasionally aten meet that their mothers have hunted, “the youngsters start to hunt on their own by 15 to 18 months of age, but continue to stay near their mother until they are about two years old when they are ready to claim their own territory” (Jaguars).

 Conclusion / Preservation Plan

If a jaguar in a later future reaches the point of extinction it will have a large effect on the rest of the environment. For example, some of their prey would overpopulate and abound because they have no predators to hunt them and keep them in check. It would also unbalance all the rest of the food chain and it would force all the rest of the animals to adapt in order to survive without jaguars as a top predator. A reason why people should save this species is that “many populations remain stable but jaguars are threatened throughout most of their range by hunting, persecution, and habitat destruction. Jaguars are persecuted especially in areas of cattle ranching, where they are often shot on sight despite protective legislation”(Nogueira).  When deciding between saving the jaguar species, having to think about all the benefits of saving them and the cons of not saving them, people have to go over all the factors about what would happen. A reason why people should save the jaguar population is that jaguars keep the rest of the population of the rest of its prey in check. Regardless of whether people should save them or not, the people who think we should are already out there helping them. For example CITES, they passed the law that it is now illegal to kill, sell, or buy a jaguar's fur in all the countries that they live in (Jaguars). Jaguars are also being treated and considered endangered by the INCU. Although some people are working non-stop to save the jaguars there is a lot that can be done to save them.  Jaguars should not be an animal that you’ll have to say “Yeah, I remember when they once used to roam all over the American continent”. People should really consider doing something to save them. An example of something they can do is donate to one of these big corporations or one of the many places that have jaguars in captivity that are working to save them.

Works Cited 

Jaguar Animal Facts: Habitat, diet & threats. IFAW. (n.d.). www.ifaw.org/animals/jaguars

“Jaguar.” San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Animals and Plants, animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/jaguar.

“Jaguars.” U. S. Fishing & WildLife Service, www.fws.gov/species/jaguar-panthera-onca.

Nogueira, Jonathan. “Panthera onca (jaguar).” Animal Diversity Web, 2009, animaldiversity.org/accounts/Panthera_onca/.