Shadow of the Rainforest

Part of my fascination with the jaguar, the largest wild cat of the Americas, stems from my interest in big predators. But like many large carnivores that live at the peak of their particular food pyramid, the jaguar also stands as a symbol of the disappearing tropical forest. Its varied diet alone demonstrates the diversity of the habitat it requires, preying as it does on at least sixty different species, including the razor-tusked rainforest pig called the peccary, and the capybara, which as the largest living rodent weighs as much as 132 pounds. I’ve never seen a jaguar in the wild – only jaguar footprints in the jungle of Belize. But that somehow seems appropriate for this swift and solitary hunter. The jaguar once ranged from the southwestern United States to southern Argentina. Now, except in the still-vast rainforest of the Amazon basin, jaguars are very rare, their numbers having been drastically reduced by big-game hunters and the vanishing habitat. – RB