It is quite rare to see a jaguar in the wild but during our
time in the Pantanal, we had two jaguar sightings. The first night when we pulled up to the front lodge, two jaguars were standing on the dirt
road, getting ready to cross over to a pond to drink. It was early evening and they
moved quickly away.
The third night in the
Pantanal, we found a pair of jaguar (our guide thinks it was a mother and
daughter) feeding on a cow carcass. They stayed out in the open (it was dark
but we could observe them with a spot light) for about 30 minutes. Eventually a
large group of peccary (pigs) chased them away. Our guide, Zapa, said that he has heard of peccary chasing jaguars away from a kill but he'd never witnessed it in the wild!
Jaguars are part of the Panthera genus and are one of the
largest members of the cat family. Males grow up to 250 pounds and females are
a bit smaller. The cat is solitary but kittens stay with the mother for
approximately two years, learning to hunt.
We had hoped to see jaguars but didn’t count on it because
they are so elusive. Our group felt very lucky to have not one but two
sightings of the beautiful beasts.
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