Jaguar Habitat and distribution throughout the Americas

A late fifteenth century, the area of distribution of P. onca was much greater than at present, its northern boundary was located much further north in North America, found in parts of California, Texas and New Mexico, in the current United States and its southern boundary was around 40 º S, in Chubut, Argentina. From then until now, the jaguar has been exterminated by man out of the jungle or inaccessible areas. 

The jaguar lives in an area of land currently estimated at 8.75 million km ², and it is estimated that in the long term have a chance to stay in more than 6 million km ² (Sanderson et al., 2002). Yet we must not drop our guard, because it is threatened by the continuing loss of habitat and persecution by his well-shaped body and beautiful skin. Along with these habitat fragmentation are major threats for which is considered close to the threat, hoping it would not skip the threshold. And is that if the threats continue, it is expected to become globally vulnerable in the near future. 

Its habitat consists of a variety of ecosystems: rainforests of the Amazon basin, deciduous forest, moist forest, scrub, grassy plains and riparian zones, wetlands and savannas dry thorn scrub. Apparently tolerates a wide range of environmental conditions, but is mainly characterized by its close association with wetland habitats near streams and dense vegetation cover, as well as those with abundant prey, so it is more abundant in tropical rainforests Central America and Brazil, and its presence decreases in the mountains, where it is replaced by the puma. 

The jaguar and the puma (Puma concolor) their ranges overlap, but divide the territory, so it is assumed that the two species differ ecologically and thus can coexist stably. The Puma also uses dry areas and takes smaller prey than the jaguar where their ranges overlap. 

The range of the species has suffered a series of changes due to agricultural and livestock expansion, conversion of land for crops and livestock has reduced their habitat and their prey considerably. (Romero et al. 2004). 

In the Colombian Orinoco region, both the Bita river as Tuparro Volume and still have 85-95% of intact ecosystems (Romero et al. 2004). 

America is currently distributed from the southwestern United States and southern Mexico to southern Brazil and northern Argentina (provinces of Salta, Jujuy, Formosa, Misiones, Chaco and Santiago del Estero). You can find up to 3,300 meters. 

Most jaguars live in the temperate parts of South America, along the great rivers Parana, Paraguay and Uruguay. The largest population is in the Amazon basin, where a jaguar adult per 15 km2.