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Jaguar (Panthera onca)
Credit: Lea Maimone

A Jaguar in a wildlife rescue & rehabilitation centre in Formosa Province, Argentina. August, 1998. The Jaguar is a largely solitary, stalk-and-ambush predator, and is opportunistic in prey selection. It is also an apex and keystone predator, playing an important role in stabilizing ecosystems and regulating the populations of prey species. The Jaguar has developed an exceptionally powerful bite, even relative to the other big cats. This allows it to pierce the shells of armoured reptiles and to employ an unusual killing method with mammals: it bites directly through the skull of prey between the ears to deliver a fatal blow to the brain.

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