The Jaguar

Kingdom: Animalia
Family: Panthera Onca

The Jaguar is one of the great cat hunters. Found in places like the Amazon River Basin, Pantanal in Brazil and other areas of the Tropical Rainforests this species of the cat family needs a diverse habitat for survival; this is referred to as a 'Landscape Species'. For examples areas like Southern and Central America are teeming with Jaguars.. Its natural abilities allow it to climb trees for catching prey as well as on the forest floor. Its habitat is also located in areas with plenty of water like wetlands, rivers and lakes as the Jaguar is an amazing swimmer. Essentially all the jaguar needs is a 'healthy habitat' to live in. In short this means that the soil must be healthy, so that vegetation can grow as it should, so that herbivores can eat it. These creatures can than have a plentiful and healthy population for the carnivores to hunt. Healthy soil also leads to clean watering holes.
The biggest area that climate change affects for the Jaguar is of course its habitat. The sad part is, the Jaguars habitat is everything to it. It is not a picky predator therefore the health of its habitat dictate its choice and amount of food. So if temperatures rise and plants can't grow properly, the Jaguar loses out on much of its prey that are herbivores. If rainfall is reduced its watering holes which are very important to its health and its food supplies are crippled. If there are weather fluctuations such as more rain, cooler, or large storms occur, this can affect the health of the overall environment of the Jaguar, affecting the health of the Jaguar itself.
For such a strong creature, the Jaguar is seemingly very delicate. It depends on biodiversity and the health of that environment to survive. Take that away and you are harming the beautiful creature. The Jaguar is so important to preserve because it for one, helps balance out the populations of creatures. Like any predator it kills off some other creatures like for example, the red eyed tree frog so that, that species doesn't become over abundant and throw off kilter the balance in the ecosystem. A Jaguar living in the area also means to scientist that this is a healthy ecosystem and therefore is a measure on how things are being damaged, where and how it can be changed.


Sarah Wilkins