Jaguar: Animal of the Kings

In the tropical forests of South and Central America, a jaguar lives - an animal revered by many ancient peoples. Jaguar worshiped, he was worshiped, he was considered the progenitor of the family, and the skin of a jaguar from the beginning was considered a sign not just High position, and the ability to influence the fate of the people and the tribe. This idea of jaguars as a half-gods was, from the point of view of ancient peoples, completely justified. This majestic predator in mythology has always been associated with night, dark forces. The Aztecs counterposed his eagle as a symbol of the sun. As the sun and the moon are always in a confrontation, so the jaguar and the eagle are fighting unceasingly, the Indians believed. According to legend, the shaman, when he left his body, turned into a jaguar. Therefore, it was believed that the danger can save even the painted jaguar. The animal was for a long time an object of worship. Moreover, if the ancient Egyptians depicted people with the heads of birds and crocodiles, American Indians - with the heads of jaguars. Perhaps there is no more adapted predator than this animal. Jaguar can see perfectly at night, even better than during the day. Therefore, he was always associated with darkness, night and magic, and also with force, wild and unchecked. The fact is that the jaguar's jaws are so strong that it easily bites the tortoise shell.

Jaguar is an animal of the cat family, so it has similar habits. He has a strong muscular body, the coat is thick, and the color can range from sandy-yellow to brown. Despite the fact that at first glance. The spots of the jaguar are absolutely chaotic, it is not. The spot itself is a torn black ring or semicircle, inside of which is a black dot. If you enter the search query "jaguar animal photo", you can see that the beast is not completely covered with spots, but has a striped belly and paws. Interestingly, the famous black panther is a jaguar, who for some reason has a mutation in one of the genes responsible for color.

Jaguar is a single animal. He always hunts alone in a certain territory. A female with calves can occupy the territory up to 25 km, and males - up to 100 km. Jaguar is a thunderstorm of all animals, since it feeds on literally everything that moves and can easily kill a person. But still this graceful predator prefers ungulates as a meal, although it can begin hunting for tapirs, turtles and other animals. The peculiarity of the jaguar is that, although it does not eat all the prey at a time, it does not Throws it, like lions, and drags it on branches of trees.

Unlike other animals, a jaguar does not have a clearly defined breeding season. In this respect, everything depends on the female. The pregnancy of the jaguar lasts 100 days. Kittens live with their mother for 6 weeks in a den, and then start a joint hunt until they find their own territory. Now the jaguars are getting smaller and smaller. Deforestation, human expansion into the habitat of these large cats does not contribute to reproduction. In addition, the poachers who hunt for jaguars because of their fine furs and sharp fangs also do not improve the situation. In order to preserve the population, the jaguar was listed in the Red Book.

Jaguar - the result of a long process of evolution and adaptation to the environment, so in the forests of the Amazon there are no hunters equal to him.