Jaguar Large cat native to the Americas
The jaguar most likely entered the Americas from Eurasia during the Early Pleistocene via the land bridge that once spanned the Bering Strait. Jaguar fossils excavated in the Americas date back to 130,000 years BP. Today, the jaguar's range extends from extreme southern Arizona in the United States across Mexico and much of Central America, the Amazon rainforest and south to Paraguay and northern Argentina. It inhabits a variety of forested and open terrains, but its preferred habitat is tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest, wetlands and wooded regions. It is adept at swimming and is largely a solitary, opportunistic, stalk-and-ambush apex predator. As a keystone species, it plays an important role in stabilizing ecosystems and regulating prey populations.
The jaguar is threatened by habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, poaching for trade with its body parts and killings in human–wildlife conflict situations, particularly with ranchers in Central and South America. It has been listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List since 2002. The wild population is thought to have declined since the late 1990s. Priority areas for jaguar conservation comprise 51 Jaguar Conservation Units (JCUs), defined as large areas inhabited by at least 50 breeding jaguars. The JCUs are located in 36 geographic regions ranging from Mexico to Argentina.
The jaguar has featured prominently in the mythology of numerous indigenous peoples of the Americas, including those of the Aztec and Maya civilizations.
The word "jaguar" is possibly derived from the Tupi-Guarani word yaguara meaning 'wild beast that overcomes its prey at a bound'. In North America, the word is disyllabic, while British English pronounces it with three syllables. Indigenous peoples in Guyana call it jaguareté. "Onca" is derived from the Portuguese name onça for a spotted cat in Brazil that is larger than a lynx. The word "panther" is derived from classical Latin panthēra, itself from the ancient Greek πάνθηρ (pánthēr).
