Female Jaguars Research Articles

Reproductive analysis of male and female captive jaguars (Panthera onca) in a Colombian zoological park

A reproductive analysis of a captive group of jaguars (Panthera onca; n = 6) at the Santacruz Zoological Foundation in Cundinamarca, Colombia, was conducted by performing a longitudinal, noninvasive, hormonal analysis of estradiol and progestogens in females and of androgens in males. During four seasons, female jaguars confined in solitary were evaluated for ovarian activity and spontaneous ovulation, male jaguars for testicular activity. A second hormonal follow-up was conducted in the females after administration of gonadotropins. Hormones were extracted from fecal samples of three females (n = 3) and two males (n = 2). Estradiol measurements were obtained by RIA and progestogens by enzyme immunoassay. The linear mixed-effect regression showed that there was a significant effect of seasons in the concentrations of estradiol (chi square = 15.97, degrees of freedom = 3, P < 0.01). Posthoc comparisons of all pairs of seasonal means were conducted according to Tukey's honest significant difference, revealing significant differences between seasons: Dry 1 versus Rains 2 (P < 0.01), Rains 1 versus Rains 2 (P < 0.05), and Dry 2 versus Rains 2 (P < 0.05). Elevations of progestogens compatible with spontaneous ovulation occurred in three jaguars, and the linear mixed-effect regression showed that there was also a significant effect of seasons (chi square = 28.56, degrees of freedom = 3, P < 0.01). Posthoc comparisons showed significant differences only between seasons: Dry 2 versus Rains 2 (P < 0.01). The season with the lowest average concentration was Rains 2 (October, November, and December). During this season, periods of anestrous were registered that lasted between 31 and 83 days. The three females presented estradiol peaks after the administration of eCG. A noninvasive longitudinal analysis for androgens was also made (males 1 and 2) over the course of 1 year, and no significant differences were found between the different seasons. A seminal analysis of three adult male jaguars (Panthera onca; n = 3) was also performed after electroejaculation under general anesthesia (male 1 and 2) and by a postmortem epididymal wash (male 3). The mean concentration of spermatozoids was 5.7 × 106 ± 1.1 × 106 spermatozoa/mL. The progressive motility + standard deviation averaged 80%. The percentage of normal spermatozoids obtained by electroejaculation was 80 ± 2.8%, and the abnormalities found more frequently were head defects (7 ± 1.4%). The seminal fluid obtained by epididymal flush contained 35 ± 1.4% normal spermatozoids, and the most frequent abnormalities found corresponded to distal cytoplasmic droplets (39 ± 11.3%).

The effect of visitor number and spice provisioning in pacing expression by jaguars evaluated through a case study.

Captive animals exhibit stereotypic pacing in response to multiple causes, including the inability to escape from human contact. Environmental enrichment techniques can minimize pacing expression. By using an individual-based approach, we addressed whether the amount of time two males and a female jaguar (Panthera onca) devote to pacing varied with the number of visitors and tested the effectiveness of cinnamon and black pepper in reducing pacing. The amount of time that all jaguars engaged in pacing increased significantly with the number of visitors. Despite the difference between the males regarding age and housing conditions, both devoted significantly less time to pacing following the addition of both spices, which indicates their suitability as enrichment techniques. Mean time devoted to pacing among the treatments did not differ for the female. Our findings pointed out to the validity of individual-based approaches, as they can reveal how suitable olfactory stimuli are to minimizing stereotypies irrespective of particular traits.

Characterization and manipulation of reproductive cycles in the jaguar (Panthera onca)

Basic reproductive information in female jaguars (Panthera onca) is lacking, thus longitudinal fecal samples from seven females were analyzed via enzyme immunoassay to measure estradiol and progestin metabolites throughout the year. Mean estrus length of 194 estrus periods measured hormonally was 6.5±0.3d, mean peak fecal estradiol concentration was 138.7±5.7ng/g; and in one female, estrus resumption occurred approximately 15d post-partum. Ovulation, as indicted by sustained elevated progestin concentrations (>20d), was successfully induced one time by treatment with exogenous hormones in one female and by physical vaginal stimulation in two females a combined total of three times. Elevated fecal progestin was observed outside exogenous stimulation on five occasions, suggesting ovulation occurred spontaneously. Mean length of physically induced and spontaneous pseudopregnancies was 24.7±4.2d and 29.6±2.6d, respectively, and mean length of pregnancy (n=2) was 98.0±0.0d. Mean peak progestin concentration for spontaneous and induced pseudopregnancies, and pregnancy was 7.4±1.4μg/g, 6.4±1.2μg/g, and 13.7±1.0μg/g, respectively. This data suggests jaguars are polyestrous and generally induced ovulators, with a moderate incidence of spontaneous ovulation. Additionally, two protocols to successfully stimulate ovarian activity in jaguars are described.

An opportunity for testing multiple paternity in a wild Jaguar (Panthera onca)

We performed a paternity test for three cubs from one wild female jaguar (Panthera onca). The opportunity for this study was generated by an accident involving a vehicle collision with a pregnant jaguar in the central Amazon. The cubs are polyzygotic triplets and were found to have been sired by the same male. Here, we also provide an overview and discuss several aspects of jaguar reproduction.

Predatory behavior and kill rate of a female jaguar (Panthera onca) on cattle

AbstractKilling behavior and consumption rate are important components that determine the final predation rate. We studied the predatory behavior of a female jaguar with one offspring in Hato Piñero in Venezuelan Los Llanos. Seven carcasses of freshly killed calves were found over a period of 9 days. Automatic video recording was used to document the jaguar’s behavior. Our study revealed a detailed, repetitive sequence of female jaguar behavior while hunting for calves. The sequence started with the female killing a calf by biting through the skull or neck, then she dragged the carcass to concealment, eviscerated it and left it concealed; then, the next evening, the female returned with its cub, fed intermittently for a total time of about 90 min while in the meantime it hunted for new prey. All this sequence seems to have a highly adaptive significance for a female jaguar rearing cubs and utilizing large prey. During the short period of our observations, the estimated kill rate of the female jaguar with one offspring was from 0.67 to 1 calf per day. Proper cattle management is necessary to avoid high losses of calves from predation by jaguars.

PERITONEAL MESOTHELIOMA IN A JAGUAR (PANTHERA ONCA)

A 21-yr-old female jaguar (Panthera onca) died in a zoo in Teresina, Piaui, Brazil, following a history of abdominal distension, ascites, anorexia, and dyspnea. At necropsy, a dark red, watery, blood-tinged serous fluid was present in the abdominal cavity. The peritoneum was thick with firm, yellow, villous projections. Histologically, the tumors were composed of a biphasic population of cells, which reacted to anti-cytokeratin and anti-vimentin antibodies, consistent with a biphasic benign mesothelioma of peritoneal origin. This is the first reported case of mesothelioma in a captive jaguar.

High jaguar densities and large population sizes in the core habitat of the southwestern Amazon

Over 80% of the currently occupied range of the jaguar (Panthera onca) lies in the Amazon. However, few density estimates exist for this habitat. Between 2005 and 2010 we carried out six camera trap surveys at three different sites in the department of Madre de Dios in the Peruvian Amazon. We analyzed our data using a Bayesian spatially explicit capture recapture model (SECR) with sex covariates to account for differences in home range size and detection probabilities of male and female jaguars. As several of our camera grids where too small for reliable density estimates, we used estimates for the σ parameter from the largest camera grid to correct for the bias. Density estimates for our surveys were similar with an average density of 4.4±0.7 jaguar 100km−2. Both home range size and encounter rates varied significantly between sexes with males having a larger home range and higher encounter rate than females. Our estimated sex ratio was 1:1.5 compared to an observed ratio of 1.9:1. Not accounting for sex would have resulted in an underestimation of the true density. The densities found in this study are among the highest documented and show that the Amazon is indeed a core habitat for the jaguar. We estimate that three jaguar conservation units in our study region (areas defined by experts as having a high conservation priority) could harbor as many as 6000 jaguars (CI: 4278–8142).

High Proportion of Male Faeces in Jaguar Populations

Faeces provide relevant biological information which includes, with the application of genetic techniques, the sex and identity of individuals that defecated, thus providing potentially useful data on the behaviour and ecology of individuals, as well as the dynamics and structure of populations. This paper presents estimates of the sex ratio of different felid species (jaguar, Panthera onca; puma, Puma concolor; and ocelot/margay, Leopardus pardalis/Leopardus wiedi) as observed in field collected faeces, and proposes several hypotheses that could explain the strikingly high proportion of faeces from male jaguars. The proportion of male and female faeces was estimated using a non-invasive faecal sampling method in 14 study areas in Mexico and Brazil. Faecal samples were genetically analysed to identify the species, the sex and the individual (the latter only for samples identified as belonging to jaguars). Considering the three species, 72.6% of faeces (n = 493) were from males; however, there were significant differences among them, with the proportion from males being higher for jaguars than for pumas and ocelots/margays. A male-bias was consistently observed in all study areas for jaguar faeces, but not for the other species. For jaguars the trend was the same when considering the number of individuals identified (n = 68), with an average of 4.2±0.56 faeces per male and 2.0±0.36 per female. The observed faecal marking patterns might be related to the behaviour of female jaguars directed toward protecting litters from males, and in both male and female pumas, to prevent interspecific aggressions from male jaguars. The hypothesis that there are effectively more males than females in jaguar populations cannot be discarded, which could be due to the fact that females are territorial and males are not, or a tendency for males to disperse into suboptimal areas for the species.

Habitat Use by Sympatric Jaguars and Pumas Across a Gradient of Human Disturbance in Belize

ABSTRACTJaguars (Panthera onca) and pumas (Puma concolor) are sympatric across the entire jaguar range, where they coexist in increasingly fragmented landscapes under threat of persecution mainly in response to livestock predation. Pumas are known to inhabit a greater variety of natural habitats than jaguars, but little is known about the influence of anthropogenic factors on the coexistence of these two similar‐sized cats. This study compares habitat use of jaguars and pumas in Belize, Central America, using 1380 jaguar and puma photo captures from 3 yr of camera trapping, comprising 64–74 individual jaguars and an unknown number of pumas. Jaguars and pumas did not differ in their use of a large block of relatively homogenous secondary rain forest. However, pumas were scarce outside this forest block, whereas jaguars were detected throughout the human‐influenced landscape. Reasons for this discrepancy may include differential tolerance to human disturbance, and resource limitation for pumas outside the forest block. Intra‐specific variation in jaguar activity in the form of sex‐dependent habitat use was detected across the landscape. Male jaguars were detected at more locations than female jaguars and more frequently at each location, with a declining difference from a 50‐fold greater detection in the protected forest, through forest buffer, savannah, pastures, to negligible difference in the disturbed forest.

Kill rates and predation patterns of jaguars (Panthera onca) in the southern Pantanal, Brazil

Jaguars (Panthera onca) often prey on livestock, resulting in conflicts with humans. To date, kill rates and predation patterns by jaguars have not been well documented. We studied the foraging ecology of jaguars in an area with both livestock and native prey and documented kill rates, characteristics of prey killed, patterns of predation, and the influence of prey size on the duration at kill sites and the time interval between kills. Between October 2001 and April 2004 we monitored 10 jaguars equipped with global positioning system (GPS) collars. We collected 11,787 GPS locations and identified 1,105 clusters of locations as sites of concentrated use (e.g., kill sites, bed sites, and dens). Of these, we found prey remains at 415 kill sites and documented 438 prey items. Kills were composed of 31.7% cattle (9.8% adults and 21.9% calves), 24.4% caiman (Caiman crocodilus yacare), 21.0% peccaries (mostly Tayassu pecari), 4.1% feral hogs (Sus scrofa), 3.9% marsh deer (Blastocerus dichotomus), 3.2% giant anteaters (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), 2.0% capybaras (Hydrochoeris hydrochaeris), 1.6% brocket deer (Mazama americana and M. gouazoubira), and other avian, mammalian, and reptilian species. Individual jaguars differed in the proportion of each species they killed and the proportion of native prey versus cattle. Although all 10 cats killed cattle, 5 killed a high proportion of cattle (.35% of kills), and 3 killed few cattle (,15%). Males (27%) and females (35%) killed cattle in similar proportions. In contrast, male jaguars killed a higher proportion of peccaries than did females, and female jaguars killed more caiman than did males. The mean kill rate for all jaguars was 4.3 days 6 4.4 SD between known consecutive kills. The time interval to the next subsequent kill by jaguars increased with increasing prey size. Jaguars also increased the length of time at a carcass as prey size increased. Jaguar kill rates on peccaries steadily increased over the 4year study. In contrast, kill rates on cattle decreased during the same period. Rainfall, and subsequent water levels on the Pantanal, was the main driver of seasonal kill rates by jaguars on cattle and caiman. As water levels increased, predation on caiman increased as caiman became more distributed throughout the landscape. Conversely, as water levels fell, caiman became less plentiful, and cattle were moved out into pastures thereby increasing their availability to more jaguars. DOI: 10.1644/09-MAMM-A-171.1.

Sex matters: Modeling male and female habitat differences for jaguar conservation

Competition for mates, cub rearing, and other behaviors differ between males and females in large carnivores. Although these differences can be reflected in patterns of habitat use, gender has rarely been incorporated into habitat models. We evaluated differences in habitat use between male and female jaguars in the Mayan Forest of the Yucatan Peninsula by modeling occupancy as a function of land cover type, distance to roads, and sex. Nested models were fitted to high-spatiotemporal resolution satellite (GPS) telemetry, controlled for temporal autocorrelation, and eliminated selection bias of pseudo-absences using a semi-non-parametric bootstrap. Although both male and female jaguars prefer tall forest, short forest was also preferred by females but avoided by males. Whereas females significantly avoided roads, males didn’t and ventured into low-intensity cattle ranching and agriculture. Females’ preference for intact forests and against roads led to their habitat being fragmented to a greater degree than that of males. Models that ignored sexual differences failed to capture the effect of roads and agriculture on jaguar habitat use, blurred the distinction of use between short and tall forest, and underestimated fragmentation of female jaguar habitat; but incorporating these differences increased precision of habitat maps and allowed the identification of potential jaguar-human conflict areas associated with male’s use of cattle and agricultural lands. Specifying sex differences increases the power of habitat models to understand landscape occupancy by large carnivores, and so greater attention should be paid to these differences in their modeling and conservation.

Jaguar: A Story of Africans in America (review)

Stoller, Paul. Jaguar: A Story of Africans in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 213 pp. Novels written by third world authors have long been used in anthropology classrooms as a kind of native anthropology because they provide a rich and immediate sense of worlds that, while fictional, are also compellingly real. Ethnography, while factual, has often proven to be much less compelling, particularly to broad audiences beyond anthropology itself. Paul Stoller's recent book jaguar is a novel written by an American anthropologist about West Africans in New York and in Niger and one cannot help but feel, when reading it, that much of his intended audience is that large group of people who have found traditional ethnographies too dry (and therefore boring) and so have missed out on the insights anthropology offers. His is an effort to draw readers into worlds they probably know little about, except in passing, and to make those worlds exciting and accessible not by exoticizing them, but by making them real. Idrissa and his wife Khadija are both successful traders, he in New York's Harlem, and she in Niger. Theirs is a marriage ruled by the pressures of a global and transnational economy, and throughout the novel's several-year course, their only contact is through the money orders Idrissa sends his wife, the occasional letter, and later, weekly phone calls. The worlds of Harlem and Niger are closely observed and described in detail that bespeaks Stoller's intimate experience with the raucous and demanding life of street vendors, whether on 125th street or in urban Niamy. He takes us into the spartan tenement rooms where West African street vendors live, with clothes hanging on nails stuck into crumbling plaster walls and toilets down the hall; traditional Songhay family compounds, with their separate huts for wives and husbands; the enclosure of Arabic Muslims living in Niger where women in Purdah do not speak to male guests. The title Jaguar refers to traders from west Africa; Idrissa considers himself a modern Jaguar, and arriving in New York he quickly falls into camaraderie with a group of French and Songhay-speaking jaguars like himself. His wife Khadija, independent and resourceful, is left behind to live in Idrissa's natal compound. She is unwelcome there, because she is of common birth, while Idrissa's family is of noble lineage. Considering most kinds of work beneath them, most of the 50 persons in the compound depend heavily on the infusions of money Idrissa sends from New York. They also depend heavily on Khadija's ability to manage most of the domestic chores, including the daily cooking and shopping for the compound's residents. Over the course of the novel, Khadija becomes increasingly powerful on her own as a trader, and comes to consider herself a female Jaguar. The writing is relatively unadorned and dominated by short sentences. This style evokes the external expression rather than internal dialogue that, as Stoller explains in his author's note, is the way social selves are constructed in the part of Africa he knows best (p.211), and such sentences seem closer to spoken rather than written language; the writing has the rhythm of speech, although not quite the form (and purposefully so). There is no doubt of Stoller's fluency in English, but the writing style has the effect of making the text seem slightly foreign, and helps readers feel more directly the perceptions and experience of Idrissa as he encounters New York, Chicago, McDonald's, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. …

Ecology and behaviour of the Jaguar (Panthers onca) in Belize, Central America

Five adult male Jaguars and a translocated subadult female Jaguar were captured and followed by radio‐telemetry in Cockscomb Basin, Belize. One adult male Jaguar, two resident female Jaguars, and a Puma were followed only by their tracks. Radio‐collared males maintained overlapping ranges of 28–40 km2, while resident females moved in minimum areas of 10 km2 within the ranges of individual males. Despite range overlap, evidence of aggression or sign of more than one large cat in the same area simultaneously was uncommon. Such avoidance behaviour suggested some means of communication. Visual marking in the form of faeces and scrapes were found uncovered along roads and trails in areas of overlap between the cats; such marking could have helped in boundary delineation as well as spatial and temporal positioning. Males often remained in small areas of 2·5 km2 for up to two weeks, a behaviour made possible by abundant prey. This behaviour may have facilitated avoidance with other Jaguars. Faecal analysis indicated opportunistic feeding on 17 prey species. Armadillo, Paca and brocket deer accounted for 94% of the available terrestrial prey and comprised 70% of the identified prey in the faeces. All Jaguars were primarily nocturnal, though activity varied between animals. The translocated female showed changes in activity patterns when feeding upon cattle. At least one Puma travelled within the ranges of several male Jaguars and appeared to be feeding on smaller prey items. The behavioural and ecological plasticity exhibited by the Jaguars in this study is beneficial for an animal whose habitat is rapidly diminishing.

Movement Patterns of Jaguar

Jaguar on two small ranches in southwestern Brazil had a density of about one animal per 25 sq km. Females ranged over at least 25-38 sq km and males over twice that much terrain. The ranges of females overlapped, and the range of a resident male included the ranges of several females. Jaguar and puma ranges also overlapped, but each species favored parts not much used by the other. Day-and-night radio tracking revealed precise travel and activity patterns of two female jaguar. The social system of jaguar is in most respects similar to that of other large solitary cats such as puma, leopard, and tiger. As PART OF A WILDLIFE STUDY in the Pantanal region of Mato Grosso, Brazil, we collected information on jaguar (Parnthera onca). Data were gathered intermittently between April 1977 and September 1978 on the Acurizal and Bela Vista ranches (17?45'S, 57?37'W) at the western edge of the Pantanal, a vast swampy plain near the Bolivian border. During 1977 we assessed the impact of jaguar predation on a prey population (Schaller and Vasconcelos 1978) and deduced movement patterns from spoor; during 1978 we radio-tracked two jaguars. Ranch hands on Acurizal shot two of the study animals, and this action prematurely terminated our research there. Because jaguar literature is based mainly on anecdotal accounts by hunters and naturalists (see Guggisberg 1975), our preliminary findings contribute a more substantial understanding of the species and provide data for comparison with information available on other large, solitary cats (Hornocker 1969, Muckenhirn and Eisenberg 1973, McDougal 1977). STUDY SITE The Acurizal ranch, 137 sq km in size, consists of a strip of land, 24 km long and 5-10 km wide, between the Paraguay River and the crest of the Serra de Amolar which at its northernmost point ceases abruptly at the shore of Lake Gaiba. Two broad valleys, named here the First and Second valleys, cut into the range (fig. 1). Three kilometers north of Acurizal, across Lake Gaiba, is Bela Vista, an island of about 90 sq km, its size varying somewhat with the water

Oestrous and ovarian activity in a female jaguar (Panthera onca)

The mean +/- s.e.m. duration of oestrus was 12.0 +/- 1.0 days (n = 7) and the oestrous cycle length was 47.2 +/- 5.4 days (n = 6) for a captive jaguar. Ovulation did not occur spontaneously, but was induced by treatment with hCG or LH-RH.

Echinococcus oligarthrus (Diesing, 1863) from a Panamanian Jaguar (Felis onca L.)

FIGURES 1, 2. Echinococcus oligarthrus from a Panamanian jaguar. 1. Maturing proglottid showing position of genital pore and cirrus sac X 100. 2. Hooks from scolex; two large and one small X 500. redescribed the species on the basis of a collection from a jaguarundi (Felis yagouaroundi Geoffroy) that had died at the London Zoo. Recently Thatcher and Sousa (1966, Ann. Trop. Med. Parasit. 60: 405-416) presented a redescription of E. oligarthrus based on Panamanian material from both the previously known felid definitive hosts, and implicated man as a possible intermediate host. The present report supplements the previous paper in that it records E. oligarthrus from the jaguar (Felis onca L.) for the first time. In February 1967, a 75-lb female jaguar was shot near Achiote, Colon Province, Republic of Panama. Examinations of the upper intestinal tract revealed the presence of about 6,000 specimens of Echinococcus. The parasites occurred throughout the small intestine, but were more concentrated in the anterior portion. The worms showed development of the reproductive structures, but they were not gravid. That the worms belong to the species E. oligarthrus is shown by the limited number of testes and the anterior position of the genital pore (Fig. 1). The hook morphology is typical of young specimens of E. oligarthrus. Although the small hooks are almost completely developed, the large hooks lack well-developed handles (Fig. 2). The jaguar was obtained in an area of Panama that Thatcher and Sousa (loc. cit.) had reported to be endemic for E. oligarthrus. To date, infections have been found in four wild felids (two pumas, one jaguarundi, and one jaguar) from the Achiote area. Two young jaguars from the same area were negative.