Ganesh Marin, a student at the University of Arizona, caught a jaguar on camera in Mexico, just two miles south of Arizona. Marin named this spotted cat:
El Bonito or The Beautiful
The other jaguar that traveled from a preserve in Mexico was called:
El Jefe or The Boss
The last jaguar that lived in the United States was killed by hunters in 1993. True of false?
False. 1963.
Why did poachers and ranchers kill jaguars?
Poachers hunted jaguars for their spotted pelts, and ranchers killed jaguars to protect their cows and livestock.
Jaguars are the only big cats that live in Americas.
True.
They are not picky eaters. Their ultrastrong bite that can break through:
Tough crocodile skin, animal bones, and turtle shells.
Jaguars are called "...." predators.
Apex predators, or the animals at the top of the food chain.
What is the relation between jaguars and the growth of plants?
Jaguars eat armadillos, armadillos eat earthworms which are responsible to maintain the soil, allowing plants to grow and flourish.
Today, jaguars are found mainly in:
Brazil’s Amazon rainforest.
These big cats are already extinct in two countries, where?
El Salvador and Uruguay.
According to the text, what is deforestation?
People remove forest trees to build towns, roads, and farms for food production. This purposeful burning or cutting down of trees is called deforestation.
In 2019, farmers in Brazil burned seven million acres of the Amazon rainforest to clear space for two activities: what were these?
Cattle farming and soybean fields.
A primary threat to jaguars is...?
The destruction of their habitat.
What is the home to the second-largest jaguar population in the world?
Brazil's Pantanal.
How do fires start in Pantanal and why do they spread uncontrollably?
The fires started when farmers burned forest to create space for cattle ranches, but the fires spread uncontrollably due to drought.
Why do jaguars start to hunt livestock?
A jaguar requires up to 100 square miles of land to hunt, prey, and mate. With less land and fewer prey, they hunt livestock.
