Maya

G_Man

Maya is a South American Jaguar. He was born in captivity in 1998 and was part of an exchange of cats conducted to diversify the species at Cat Tales and the Grand Island Zoo in Nebraska. Maya weighs approximately 250 pounds and has a captive lifespan of 18-22 years. Jaguars in the wild may live to an age of 10 years. Jaguars are the only New World member of the Panthera Family and the largest of the American cats. The Jaguar..™s big bones, heavy chest and well-muscled forelegs make this cat heavier and more powerful than the Puma or Old World Leopard, which look somewhat similar. A male Jaguar may reach over 6 feet in length plus a long tail, and may weigh up to 400 pounds. The coat of rather bristly fur ranges from yellow to tawny with whitish underparts. It is spotted with rosettes sometimes merging to form a solid line along the spine and making rings on the tail. Melanistic coats (black-coated like these) can occur in the same litter as spotted cubs. Melanistic jaguars have the same spot pattern, it is just harder to see. The jaguar is usually a solitary hunter and almost exclusively nocturnal. It..™s prey includes deer, tapirs and pig-like peccaries. Jaguars are good swimmers and find an easy prey in capybara and they also fish. They climb well and take monkeys and other tree-living animals, though their weight prevents their climbing to higher branches where monkeys and sloths flee to keep out of reach. At the beginning of this century Jaguars ranged from southern California and Arizona to as far south as the Rio Negro in Argentina. It has now been exterminated in the United States, through most of Mexico, much of Central America and at the other end of its range from Uruguay and all but the far north of Argentina. Because of the demand for its fur, over 15,000 jaguars were killed each year during the 1960..™s. It is now considered endangered.