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JAGUARS OF TAMBOPATAKINGS OF THE
RAINFORESTLUCAS M. BUSTAMANTE’S ENCOUNTERS WITH
THE AMAZON’S APEX PREDATORIN PERU’S WORLD-FAMOUS NATURE RESERVE
SCOOP!SCOOP!
The jaguar Panthera onca is a large and stocky feline in thePanthera genus, and is the only extant Panthera species nativeto the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after thetiger and the lion, and the largest in the Americas.
t was 4: 30 in the morning, and the alarm startedringing! Time to begin another day by boat looking forjaguars along the Tambopata River. We started at 05h00until almost 14h00, a very long day to say the least. So farI had not been successful during my visit to the TambopataResearch Center in the Peruvian Amazon, a place with oneof the highest sightings of jaguars in South America (nearly20% approximately along the river shore). I woke up, andPedro, our local guide, started screaming furiously that Iwas late and would miss the boat. I took all my gear withme, and then I realized that I had forgotten the memorycard of my camera in the room. After I grabbed it, I startedto run to the beach, when I suddenly noticed a jaguar
footprint in the middle of the trail. I walked ten moremeters...and saw my guide and the boatman lying behinda big log, looking at something hidden at the forest edge,just off the main harbor of the lodge, in front of the canoes.There it was! A cat - asleep, it wagged his tail and thenlooked at us with all the confidence in the world, knowingwell who is the king of the rainforest. The only thing missingwas the smoke from my camera! Everybody talks about theBrazilian Pantanal as the favorite place to find andphotograph wild jaguars. It certainly is... But theadvantage of Tambopata is that this location offers youencounters with the world's third largest cat as a realadventure, which you never know how will end.Additionally, encountering them in Tambopata it is a much
more personalized experience. I have visited thesePeruvian rainforests many times, two of which I spentlooking for jaguars. All in all, I've succeeded in finding fourjaguars and photographing all of them. Not to mention theencounters with two pumas and an ocelot, whichappeared while I was looking for the jaguar. Conclusion:it is high time to diversify the places to search for big catsin South America. Moreover, surely other varieties of largemammals, dozens of primates, hundreds of birds andthousands of macro models will make your journey pass inthe blink of an eye. And if you need more to convinceyourself, just check the two articles Anima Mundi -Adventures in Wildlife Photography has devoted in the pastto Tambopata here and here. .
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY LUCAS M. BUSTAMANTEwww.tropicalherping.com
5While denserainforest is thepreferred habitat,jaguars will rangeacross a variety offorested and openterrains. Preferredhabitats are usuallyswamps andwooded regions, but jaguars also livein scrublands anddeserts. The jaguaris notable, alongwith the tiger, as a feline that enjoys swimming.
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The jaguar is anear-threatenedspecies and itsnumbers aredeclining. Threatsinclude loss andfragmentation ofhabitat. Whileinternational trade injaguars or their partsis prohibited, the catis still frequentlykilled by humans,particularly inconflicts withranchers andfarmers.
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The jaguar is a solitary,opportunistic, stalk-and-
ambush predator at the topof the food chain (an apexpredator). It is a keystone
species, playing animportant role in stabilizingecosystems and regulating
the populations of the animals it hunts.
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A short and stockylimb structure makesjaguars adept atclimbing, crawling,and swimming.The head is robustand the jaw extremelypowerful, with thethird highest bite forceof all felids, after thetiger and lion.
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The base coat of thejaguar is generally a tawny
yellow, but can range toreddish-brown and black, formost of the body. The cat is
covered in rosettes forcamouflage in the dappled
light of its forest habitat. The spots vary over individualcoats and between individualjaguars: rosettes may includeone or several dots, and theshapes of the dots vary. Thespots on the head and neckare generally solid, as are
those on the tail, where theymay merge to form a band.The ventral areas are white.
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Like all cats, the jaguar isan obligate carnivore,
feeding only on meat. It is anopportunistic hunter and its
diet encompasses at least 87species. Jaguars can take
virtually any terrestrial or riparian vertebrate
found in Central or South America, with a preference
for large prey.
