The only animal regularly mentioned but never seen during the trip was the jaguar. Some say that the mystery surrounding the biggest cat in the Americas is attributed to its rareness (but then why we never mentioned the almost extinct golden tamarin?); others say the excitement comes from the fact that the jaguar is so dangerous (what about the way more dangerous rabies virus?). We even heard someone argue that the popularity has something to do with grace and beauty, but how can we say something is beautiful if we never saw it for real? Anyway, during our arguments we realized that our knowledge about jaguars is way too little, not to mention big cats in general. Even professional opinions differ, so here is a summary of our research using the internet and local info. But before we start explaining the characteristics of jaguars, leopards, panthers, black panthers, pumas and their relatives, let’s try comparing them. Almost everyone knows there are no tigers in Africa, the lion does not live in the jungle, the jaguar is an American cat and the pink panther is not a relative of the black panther. But do we also know that leopards have both black and white (melanistic and albino) varieties, the clouded leopard is the closest relative to the extinct saber tooth and the leopard can be found in the Far-East as well? But first things first. The most confusing are the differences between the jaguar and leopard, and the word panther, used for both species.

Jaguar (Panthera onca)
Area: Central and South America
Appearance: stronger jaw, muscles and stockier body
Skin: spots are usually full or semi circles with smaller spots inside, white belly
Habitat: A good swimmer, needs and likes water and thick foliage
Hunting method: kills prey with one bite on the skull
Human contact: Rarely aggressive towards humans

Leopard (Panthera pardus)
Area: Africa and Asia
Appearance: smaller jaw, lighter build
Skin: spots are made of several smaller sports, no inner coloring, and black behind ears
Habitat: A good climber, likes open areas with trees, attacks from above
Hunting method: kills prey by strangling it by the neck
Human contact: When wounded or threatened it may attack humans

Panther (Pantherinae)
It is only partially true that we use the word panther for Asian big cats. The panther itself is not a different species; the word is often used for melanistic leopard and jaguar varieties (black panther). The black color is based on a recessive gene, like albinism, and is very rare. Melanism can be either black or red, and melanistic leopard and jaguar varieties still have their spots, but those can only be seen in special light conditions. Two more distant relatives are the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) and the clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa), both living in Asia.