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Species: jaguar
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The jaguar is a wild cat species and the only extant member of the genus Panthera native to the Americas. It is the largest big cat of the New World, and the third largest big cat overall, behind the lion and tiger. It bears a close resemblance to the leopard, albeit larger and sturdier.
It is a solitary, apex predator that uses the stalk-and-ambush method of hunting. Opportunistic, it mostly goes after smaller prey, but can take pretty much any terrestrial vertebrate in its native habitat, except for certain large crocodilians such as the black caiman. It is also more aquatic than other big cat species, and is quite capable of carrying a large kill while swimming.
While the jaguar often employs the deep throat-bite and suffocation technique typical among pantherines, it sometimes uses a killing method unique among cats: it pierces directly through the temporal bones of the skull between the ears of prey (especially the capybara) with its canine teeth, piercing the brain.
See also:
The following tags are aliased to this tag: melanistic_jaguar, white_jaguar, black_jaguar (learn more).
This tag implicates pantherine (learn more).
