Endangered Species: Jaguar

Endangered Species: Jaguar

A Christiansburg Elementary Project
Submitted by Corey from Christiansburg Elementary School
Christiansburg, VA, U.S.A.

Jaguar

Photographer Unknown

Why Study This Topic?	What Was Already Known	Search for Information	Description of Plant or Animal	Habitat Requirements
Adaptations	Reasons for Endangerment	Restoration Actions	What Was Learned	Conclusions from Research

Why Study This Topic?

I want to learn why the jaguar is the color it is, and what it eats. I want to learn were the jaguar sleeps. I want to learn were the jaguar lives.

What Was Already Known

Before I started this search, I already knew some things about the jaguar. I already knew that the jaguar is the largest of the new world cats. I also knew that the jaguar is a carnivore. I knew that the jaguar is a cat. I knew that the jaguar is yellow with blak spots, and that the jaguar lives in rain forests. These are the things I already knew about the jaguar before I did my search.

Search for Information

To get the information for this search on the jaguar, I had to look the jaguar up in books, encyclopedias, and on the computer.
I went to the public library and got four books. The books were called Animal World, Cat World, Rare Mammals of The World, and Peterson First Guides Mammals. I got four pages from the computer. I got one from the Internet, and two from encyclopedias on computers, and one from TecnhoZoo.

Description of Plant or Animal

The jaguar's color varies from pale yellow to reddish brown. The jaguar has spots in the form of rosettes. Rosettes are circles of spots with a spot in the middle. The belly is white with a single black spot. The jaguar is 84 inches long and 60 cenimeters high. It weighs around two hundred pounds. That is what a jaguar looks like.

Habitat Requirements

The jaguar eats many diffrent kinds of animals. When a jaguar goes swimming, it eats capybaras, tapirs, crocodiles, and fish. When a jaguar goes hunting on land, it may catch rodents, deer, sloths, and sometimes cattle. This species of the jaguar gets its water from rivers that run near by.
The jaguar's space of living is two through five square miles long. The territory of the male is twice the size of the female. The territory of the male overlaps the territory of many females. The female wanders around until it finds a male to mate.
The last stronghold of the jaguar is Amazonia near the Amazon rain forest, but it has been seen in the desert. The jaguar used to live in the United States of America, but not any more.

Adaptations

The only natural enemy of the jaguar is man. It is that way because the jaguar is so big and powerful. The way the jaguar kills its prey is different than the way a tiger kills its prey. The jaguar kills its prey by biting it in the head, which sends the jaguars teeth into its victim's brain.
The jaguar is territorial and solitary. The jaguar is one of the only cats that is fond of water, and spends most of its time around rivers.
The jaguar is stronger than it is graceful, and more powerful than it is fast. The jaguar has strong jaws, and can climb well.

Reasons for Endangerment

It is belived that there are a few hundred jaguars left in Central America. The reason that the jaguar is endangered is deforestation, persecution, and fur trapping. Fur trapping records show that in the 1960's there was an annual slaughter of no fewer then 15,000 jaguars in the Amazon alone. Today, 15,000 is probably not to far from the number of jaguars left in the world. The jaguar ranged throughout much of the southern United States until the early 1900s, but is extrapated there.

Restoration Actions

To help save the jaguar from extinction, the goverment of South America set up refuges. The refuges protect the jaguars and other animals from hunters and from lumberjacks that want to cut down their habitat. Many jaguars were put in zoos all over the world, so that the jaguars can breed freely. South America also made laws that say that it is illegal to kill the jaguar.

What Was Learned

I learned that the way the jaguar kills its prey is different than other wild cats. I also learned what rosettes (circle spots with one spot in the middle) are, and I learned that the jaguar is the third largest cat, only the tiger and lion are larger. I learned that the jaguar can eat a crocodile, and that the size of the jaguar's territory is two through five square miles long. I also learned that a jaguar pulled a dead full-grown horse one mile, and that the jaguar can live in the desert.That is what I learned doing this report. .

Conclusions From Research

One of the benefits I received from doing this report is better research skills. Another benefit I got from doing this report is self-confidence that I can hand in a well-written report on time. I also learned where to go to get information for a report. I found out that people in the world have to work together to save the jaguar.

Bibliography

Morris, D. (1997) Cat World, Peguin Group, Peguin Books, U.S.A Inc. New York, New York, pages 233-234.
Kittiwake, H. (1995) Encyclopedia of the Animal World, Bay Books Ltd., Sidney, Australia, page 1,030.
http://www.bev.net/education/schools/ces/Techno Zoo/southamerican.html.
Alden,P.(1987) Peterson First Guides: Mammals,Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachuesetts, page 46
Burton, A. John & Pearson Bruce, (1987). Rare Mammals of the World, Viking Peguin Inc., New York, New York, page 152.
Funk and Wagnall, (1984). New Encyclopedia, Funk and Wagnall Corporation, USA, page 378.

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Last updated on March 9, 1998