Jaguar #3 - Ready to Attack

by Allen Beatty

Title

Jaguar #3 - Ready to Attack

Artist

Allen Beatty

Medium

Photograph - Photographs

Description

The jaguar is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus, and is the only extant Panthera species native to the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline species after the tiger and the lion, and the largest in the Americas. The jaguar's present range extends from Southwestern United States and Mexico across much of Central America and south to Paraguay and northern Argentina. Though there are single cats now living within the western United States, the species has largely been extirpated from the United States since the early 20th century.
This spotted cat most closely resembles the leopard physically, although it is usually larger and of sturdier build and its behavioral and habitat characteristics are closer to those of the tiger. While dense rainforest is its preferred habitat, the jaguar will range across a variety of forested and open terrains. Its preferred habitats are usually swamps and wooded regions, but jaguars also live in scrublands and deserts. The jaguar is notable, along with the tiger, as a feline that enjoys swimming. The jaguar is largely a solitary, opportunistic, stalk-and-ambush predator at the top of the food chain (an apex predator). It is a keystone species, playing an important role in stabilizing ecosystems and regulating the populations of the animals it hunts. The jaguar has an exceptionally powerful bite, even relative to the other big cats. This allows it to pierce the shells of armored reptiles and to employ an unusual killing method: it bites directly through the skull of prey between the ears to deliver a fatal bite to the brain.


Just before I took this shot, the jaguar was sleeping peacefully when suddenly it shot up to the alert ready to attack mode seen here. A zoo patron with a seeing eye dog had just walked up to the exhibit and then turned the corner in front of the viewing glass. Once the dog was in front of the glass the jaguar jumped off the rock and came charging at the dog.The cat may be in a zoo but it is still a wild animal controlled by instinct. I was thrilled to witness it.
Image taken at the Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange, New Jersey.

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Uploaded

February 23rd, 2023

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