Jaguar (Panthera onca)

node · earth · Amazon Basin and the wider neotropics

The largest cat in the Americas and the apex terrestrial predator of the basin, notable among big cats for killing by biting through the skull rather than the throat - a technique that follows from an unusually powerful bite for its size. For this Journey it is a measure rather than a subject: jaguars need very large, connected home ranges, so their persistence indexes forest continuity rather than forest area. A landscape can retain most of its tree cover and lose its jaguars if roads, pasture and rivers of clearance cut it into pieces smaller than a viable territory. Its historical range has contracted substantially across the Americas, and the Amazon now holds the largest remaining contiguous population - which makes the basin the species' stronghold and also concentrates its risk in one place. It is listed by the IUCN as Near Threatened with a declining population trend.