Panthera onca vs. Panthera pardus

Right now, an art competition for depicting endangered animals in the US is about to begin. (If you want to check it out, here's their website.) I love felines, and I decided to do an acrylic painting of a jaguar. Actually, first, I wanted to paint a leopard. But, I didn't know it had to be an endangered species in America. So––I decided a jaguar was similar enough to paint.

But scientifically, they have differences, and I always wondered how exactly they are different. So, I decided to do a blog post on it.

The jaguar is often confused with the leopard. Their pelts look especially similar and the shapes of their feline bodies are quite similar. However, the leopard is the fourth greatest cat in the world, while the jaguar is the third greatest cat in the world. Above them, the tiger and the lion lead for the size champion.

Now about the prints on their fur––a jaguar has a rosette with small spots inside the rosette, if you look closely. It is also usually larger than a leopard's rosette, which are plain in the middle with no spots.

This is a jaguar's pelt:



On the contrary, this is a leopard's fur:



Images from http://blog.londolozi.com/2013/10/the-difference-between-leopard-and-jaguar/

A jaguar has a different style than the leopard––-for killing prey! Therefore, the head's shape and size is different. Leopards kill their prey by giving them a bite that will suffocate them, given to the throat or the mouth. If a jaguar has an advantage in size, they might kill their prey by piercing the skull, or jaguars will snap the neck of their prey by tackling their backbones. Unlike other cats like cheetahs, these cats hunt sneakily, stalking their prey unhidden.

Both jaguars and leopards can climb trees, though leopards are more swift in the high branches and jaguars do not like climbing trees as much.

Information from http://blog.londolozi.com/2013/10/the-difference-between-leopard-and-jaguar/