What Do Jaguars Eat? Jaguar Diet From Caimans to Capybaras

The jaguar’s main prey

A review of 53 studies of jaguar diets found that prey ranged from about 1 kg to 130 kg (2–287 lb). The animals jaguars select most strongly, compared with how common they are, are the capybara and the giant anteater. Other important prey include:

• Peccaries, especially collared and white-lipped peccaries, wild pig-like animals that live in groups.
• Deer, including white-tailed deer in Mexico and Central America, brocket deer in forests and marsh deer in wetlands.
• Large rodents such as capybaras, pacas and agoutis.
• Armadillos and tamanduas, along with giant anteaters.
• Tapirs, occasionally, mainly young or medium-sized animals.

Jaguars also take smaller animals such as coatis, opossums, monkeys, birds and rodents when large prey is scarce. They are opportunists rather than specialists: if something is common and can be caught, a jaguar will probably eat it.

Caimans, turtles and fish: hunting in the water

Unlike most cats, jaguars are powerful swimmers, and much of their hunting happens at the water’s edge. In flooded forests and wetlands they catch:

• Caimans, especially the yacare caiman in the Pantanal and spectacled and black caimans farther north.
• River turtles and tortoises, whose shells they can bite through.
• Green anacondas and other snakes, occasionally.
• Fish, including catfish, pacu and red-bellied piranhas.

In parts of the Brazilian Pantanal, aquatic reptiles and fish make up the bulk of what jaguars eat. Jaguars there patrol riverbanks, wade through shallow lagoons and sometimes leap into the water to grab a resting caiman. They are strong enough to carry heavy prey while swimming. For more on how they deal with armored prey, see how strong is a jaguar bite?

Jaguars and capybaras

The capybara, the world’s largest rodent at about 35–66 kg (77–146 lb), sits right in the jaguar’s preferred prey size and lives in groups along rivers and marshes, exactly where jaguars hunt. In the Llanos of Venezuela and the Pantanal, capybaras are among the most important foods.

A jaguar typically kills a capybara with a bite through the side of the skull. Capybaras, in turn, keep watch in groups, bark an alarm when they spot a predator and dash into the water. Since jaguars swim well, water is not always a safe refuge. Capybaras themselves are grazers that eat grasses and water plants; see what do capybaras eat?

How do jaguars hunt?

The jaguar is a stalk-and-ambush hunter. It walks slowly along forest trails, riverbanks and game paths, listening and watching, then creeps as close as it can under cover before rushing or pouncing from the prey’s blind spot. It does not chase prey for long distances.

Its killing technique varies with the prey:

• Skull bite. With many mammals, the jaguar bites straight through the skull, between or behind the ears.
• Neck or throat bite. Deer and cattle are often killed with a bite to the neck or throat.
• Back of the head. Caimans and other reptiles are usually seized from above and bitten at the back of the neck or skull.

After a kill, the jaguar drags the carcass to dense cover. It normally starts feeding at the neck and chest, then eats the heart, lungs and shoulders. It may return to the same carcass over several days.

How often do jaguars eat?

Kill rates depend on the size of the prey and the season. In one study in the southern Pantanal, jaguars killed prey every 1–7 days during the dry season and every 1–16 days during the wet season, when prey is more spread out.

A jaguar can eat a large meal of meat at once and then fast for days. In zoos, a small jaguar of about 34 kg (75 lb) was estimated to need about 1.4 kg (3 lb) of meat a day, and larger wild jaguars need more.

Regional differences in diet

Because jaguars live in so many habitats, their diet changes from place to place:

In central Mexico, white-tailed deer made up about half of the jaguar’s diet in one study. Where jaguars share forests with cougars, the jaguar generally takes larger prey and the cougar smaller animals, which reduces competition between the two cats.

Jaguars and livestock

Where forests have been cleared for ranches and wild prey has been hunted out, some jaguars kill cattle, calves, horses or pigs. This is one of the main reasons ranchers kill jaguars, and conflict over livestock is a leading threat to the species. Better herd management, such as keeping calves near ranch houses and protecting wild prey on and around ranches, can reduce these losses.

Jaguars are top predators that share their wetlands with other large hunters. The green anaconda competes with them for capybaras and caimans; see what do anacondas eat?