down, disables, and kills game with a blow of his massive forearm. At
the same time, Wood, Humboldt, and Holder write as if death always
ensued from dislocation of the neck. When a horse or some other large
quadruped is seized, says the former, his assailant “leaps from an
elevated spot upon the shoulders ... places one paw on the back of
the head and another on the muzzle, and then with a single tremendous
wrench breaks the neck.” So far as the act described is assumed to
be of invariable occurrence many equally reliable accounts differ
entirely, and the author knows from personal experience that jaguars
will attack in front, make their assault on level ground, and in some
instances do not attempt to kill either man or beast by forcing back
the head.
Independently of other facts and considerations which bear upon this
brute in its relation to man, the name by which it is known among
the natives is more conclusive with regard to character than a host
of witnesses. According to Burton the word _jaguar_ is composed of
the Indian (_Tupi_) _ja_ we or us, and _guara_, an eater or devourer;
and it may be assumed that when tribes of savages conferred such a
designation as this, they had very good reason for doing so. It may be
said, however, that other etymologies of the word have been given.
In the olden days of exploration, both Gonzalo Pizarro and Orellana
spoke of the loss of human life from the depredations of jaguars;
but, strange to relate, their successors, the accomplished missionary
priests, Artiega and Acuna, have nothing to say about them in their
sketch of the natural history of Northern Brazil.
Like tigers, lions, and panthers, the jaguar, no doubt, finds it easier
to kill a man than almost any other animal that will afford him a full
meal, and under favorable conditions he acts accordingly. Hence along
the Brazilian frontier of Guiana where these beasts are very numerous,
E. F. im Thurn relates that he found the forest tribes sleeping in
hammocks swung high enough above the ground to be out of reach of a
spring. J. W. Wells and the distinguished Waterton describe the way in
which their tents were beset by jaguars. Humboldt tells how his mastiff
was carried off from within his camp on the Rio Negro. Darwin mentions
that “many woodcutters are killed by them on the Paraná,” and that they
“have even entered vessels at night,” and Von Tschudi recounts how one
broke into an Englishman’s hut, seized his boy, and bore him off into
the forest.
When we examine the records of the first European travellers in those
provinces infested by jaguars, their testimony with regard to its
character is quite unanimous.
In the Adelantado Pascual de Andagoya’s narrative of Pedrarias
Davila’s expedition he says, “there are lions and tigers”--by which
all the Spanish and Portuguese writers meant pumas and jaguars--“on
the Isthmus of Panama, that do much harm to the people, so that on
their account the houses are built very close to one another, and are
secured at night.” Father José de Acosta (“Historia natural y moral
de las Indias”) explains, however, that these beasts are not equally
dangerous. “The tigers are fiercer and more cruel than the lions.”
Likewise it is more perilous to come in their way “because they leap
forth and assail men treasonably.”
Pedro Cieza de Leon, of whom Prescott remarks that “his testimony is
always good,” gives an account of the state of affairs on the road
between Cali and the port of Buenaventura. Here are “many great tigers,
that kill numbers of Indians and Spaniards as they go to and fro every
day.” Likewise in the mountainous portions of the district, these
animals were so destructive that the Indian houses, which are “rather
small, and roofed with palm leaves, ... are surrounded by stout and
very long palisades, so as to form a wall; and this is put up as a
defence against the tigers.” So far as the author’s acquaintance with
the Spanish and Portuguese relations goes, all authorities of this
class agree in giving these beasts the traits that those theoretical
and practical considerations mentioned respecting the temper and
habits of the large carnivora would lead us to look for.
The writer never saw a full-grown animal of this kind which had been
domesticated to the extent of being harmless if left at large, and
never succeeded in taming one completely himself. E. George Squier
(“Adventures on the Mosquito Shore”) mentions an incident in which
such was the case. He was summoned to an interview with “The Mother
of the Tigers,” who, under this ominous title, proved to be a modest
young Indian girl, and the high priestess of one of those secret
semi-religious societies that gave Alvarado so much trouble in the
days of the Spanish invasion. Her retreat lay in the darkest recesses
of one of those gloomy forests where there is always twilight, even at
the tropical noonday. He found that Sukia was only attended by one old
woman, and guarded by an immense jaguar. This beast did not like the
stranger’s appearance, but made no attack, and at once passed into the
house and lay down when commanded to do so.
Perhaps it is unnecessary to bring, as might readily be done, proof
of what might be assumed beforehand; namely, that an animal like the
jaguar is certain to attack men wherever their possession of firearms
has not in the course of time taught the sagacious beast that the
contest is an unequal one. It happens, however, that the explorer C.
Barrington Brown (“Canoe and Camp Life in British Guiana”) has given
some quite explicit information concerning a point which has been
rarely touched upon, that is to say the behavior of a wild beast that
very probably never saw a man before, and certainly not a white man.
Brown was in a country infested by jaguars, but while remaining in
the peopled regions he does not say much about them. Once, however,
he records the fact that he encountered an Indian whose neck was much
distorted by a bite received from this animal. The man was accompanied
by a friend armed with a gun when the jaguar sprang upon him, and was
shot dead by his friend. Most of Brown’s explorations were made in
boats, by the waterways of the Essequibo, Corentyne, and other rivers
and their affluents. He penetrated into parts which were, so far as
human beings are concerned, nearly or entirely uninhabited.
“On one occasion,” says this author, “when we had landed and were
pursuing a herd of bush-hogs,”--peccaries, he means,--“two men were
left in charge of the boat. We had not been away in the forest more
than two or three minutes, when these men heard a heavy footfall on the
bank above them, and looking up saw a large jaguar gazing down upon
them from the very spot up which we had clambered.” In other words,
neither the sense of smell, nor actual sight, taught him anything about
those enemies whom he, in common with all other wild beasts, is so
generally represented to fear instinctively. “They immediately pushed
the boat off shore, fearing an attack from the tiger.” Afterwards his
men told Brown “that this animal was one of those the Indians call
‘Masters of the herd,’ that it followed herds of swine wherever they
went; and that whenever it was hungry, and found a pig at a little
distance from the rest, pounced upon it, killing it with one blow of
its huge paw. The squeak of the stricken one always brought down its
companions to the spot, whereupon the jaguar climbed a tree for safety
till the storm it had brewed was over, and the pigs left the spot; then
it descended from its perch to feed on the flesh of its victim....
“In ascending that portion of the Corentyne below Tehmeri rocks, we
saw a large jaguar standing on a granite rock close to the river bank,
which immediately bolted into the forest as we paddled to the spot.
Glancing up at the place where it had disappeared, I saw it sitting
down and gazing intently at us, without showing the least sign of fear.
I took aim behind the shoulder and fired a charge of large shot, which
caused it to bound forward, fall and roll over. But at once regaining
its feet it made off into the forest.” Although they followed the
bloody trail, the animal was not seen again.
Brown had four other shots at jaguars--all of them close--and he
wounded two, but never succeeded in bagging a single one. In every case
observed by him there was an entire absence of that behavior which is
said to be natural and instinctive. The animals he saw expressed only
wonder at the sight and scent of man, as well as at the sound of his
voice.
Father Acosta declares that the jaguar attacks “treasonably,” that is
to say, being treacherous like all cats, and one of the laziest of
animals besides, he springs upon his prey, as a rule, from an ambush,
which may be above the creature seized or on a level with it, according
to circumstances.
Like all large beasts of prey, these brutes kill in a variety of ways
as existing conditions and the size and structure of the creature
assaulted suggest,--they break its neck, tear open the blood-vessels
in its throat, strike it dead with a blow from their powerful and
massive forearms, crush its life out in their spring, drown it, and
tear it to pieces while alive. This last is the way in which such vast
numbers of the great river turtles are destroyed: they are turned upon
their backs, the claws inserted beneath the breast plate, and these
unfortunates are then torn asunder.
With reference to the act of overwhelming an animal, crushing it to
death, or killing it by shock, Emmanuel Liais (“Climats, Géologie,
Faune, du Brésil”), who gives a somewhat different etymology for the
word _jaguar_ from that before mentioned, remarks that this term may
be translated in a way that refers directly to its method of taking
life. “_Le nom de Jaguâra peut alors se traduire en français par la
périphrase: Carnassier qui écrase sa proie d’un seul bond._” This plan
is, however, inapplicable to large game.
When a jaguar catches fish, either by waiting till they rise, or by
attracting fruit-eating species by tapping with his tail so they think
food is falling from the trees, he simply tosses them on shore, and
they suffocate in the air; but with the lemantin of the Amazon, upon
which he constantly preys, that would be impossible. Paul Marcoy saw
the act of capture and describes it in these terms: “At the distance
of twenty paces, on a bank facing us, and but a few feet in height, a
jaguar of the larger species,--_Yahuaraté pacoa sororoca_,--with pale
red fur, and its body beautifully marked, was crouching with fierce
aspect, on its fore-paws, its ears straight, its body immovable....
The animal’s eyes, like two disks of pure gold, followed with
inexorable greed the motions of a poor lemantin which was occupied in
crunching the stalks of false maize and water-plantains that grew on
the spot. Suddenly, as the lemantin raised its ill-shaped head above
the water, the jaguar sprang on it, and burying the claws of his left
paw in the neck, weighed down the muzzle with those of the right, and
held it under water to prevent its breathing. The lemantin, finding
itself nearly choked, made a desperate effort to break loose from its
adversary, but he had no baby to deal with. The tiger was now pulled
under and now lifted out of the water, according to the direction
of the violent somersaults of his victim, yet still retained his
deadly hold. This unequal struggle lasted some minutes, and then the
convulsive movements of the lemantin began to relax, and finally ceased
altogether--the poor creature was dead. Then the jaguar left the water
backwards, and resting on his hind quarters, with one fore-paw for a
prop, he succeeded in dragging the enormous animal up the bank with the
other paw. The muzzle and neck of the lemantin were torn with gaping
wounds. Our attention was so fixed and close--I say _our_ advisedly,
for my men admitted that they had never seen a similar spectacle--that
the jaguar, which had just given a peculiar cry, as if calling his
mate or his cubs, would shortly have disappeared with his capture,
had not one of the rowers broken the charm by bending his bow and
sending an arrow after the cat, which, however, missed its mark and
planted itself in a neighboring tree. Surprised at this aggression, the
animal bounded on one side, and cast a savage glance from his round
eyes--which from yellow had now become red--at the curtain of willows
that concealed us. Another arrow, which also missed its object, the
shouts of the oarsmen, and the epithet ‘_sua--sua_,’ double thief,
which Julio cried at the top of his voice, at length caused it to move
away.”
It is not from the jungle only, or the fringing reeds of streams,
from dense woodlands, or the undergrowth and high grasses of those
_restingas_ (open spaces amid overgrown and often submerged country),
where Bates says they may be most successfully hunted with beaters,
that the jaguar bounds upon his prey. He is by no means exclusively
a denizen of the forest, and Romain d’Aurignac (“Trois Ans chez les
Argentins”) merely expresses a commonly known fact when, speaking of
the pampas, he remarks that “_les jaguars ... abondent également dans
ces parages_.” On these great plains the jaguar subsists upon cattle,
horses, and mules, that are to be found there in immense numbers, as
well as upon those wild animals whose habits of life confine them to
open places.
C. B. Brown, speaking of the causes, whatever these may be, which
prevent the increase of jaguars, remarks that “they have no enemies.”
This is true in so far as there is no single creature except man in
those provinces through which they range that willingly comes into
collision with them. No doubt the jaguar frequently meets with a
violent death, however, which is not inflicted by human agency. In one
case that is certain; the great ant-eater, or ant-bear, has been known
to kill him. Wallace and others vouch for the truth of this, and there
is nothing intrinsically improbable in the statement that an animal so
large, so powerful, and so formidably armed with claws which are more
effective than those of the jaguar in every way, might be able to cling
to its enemy long enough to inflict mortal wounds. When attacked by a
tiger, the ant-bear turns upon his back and uses his talons with deadly
effect. It is said that both parties in such an engagement are apt to
perish. The jaguar cannot disengage himself, and the ant-eater dies
under the fangs of his adversary.
Those qualities which this creature exhibits in procuring food--the
varied styles of attack and modes of destruction it makes use
of--entitle the American tiger to be considered as among the first of
the whole group of beasts of prey. But there is little doubt that some
things are attributed to him through that admiration and reverence he
excites in the aborigines, which are without foundation. It is said,
for instance, that jaguars mimic the cries of many animals, and thus
beguile them within their reach. Of those creatures upon which jaguars
prey most constantly, however, a number only call at certain seasons,
others are practically voiceless, and some, as monkeys in general, are
not to be deluded in this manner.
Priests, naturalists, and geographers, whose special pursuits occupied
them fully, have chiefly written of the jaguar’s provinces; so that
the strong light which is cast upon the character and habits of wild
beasts by narratives of the chase, is almost entirely wanting. J. W.
Wells (“Three Thousand Miles through Brazil”) says, speaking of hunting
jaguars with dogs, what the author knows to be true; namely, that
animals employed in this way, and in fact the whole canine family in
those latitudes where these animals are found, stand in mortal fear of
them. He admits, however, that the ordinary Indian dog will not keep
upon a tiger’s trail without constant encouragement, and that they
never close with them. After having been barked at, one can hardly say
chased, for a certain distance, this lazy, short-winded brute gets
into some large tree and tries to conceal himself, while the curs yelp
around it until their noise brings the huntsmen to the spot. That is
the _theory_ of this proceeding, but practically it does not work, and
few jaguars are killed in this manner. Following up a tiger with dogs
just in front--for they will not, as a rule, keep upon the trail by
themselves--does well enough to talk about; but when the place where
this is to be done is a tropical forest, it will be found impossible
to put in practice. If the beast were not disposed to come to bay, it
might easily get through mazes impenetrable to men, and go its way
along paths by which its pursuers could not follow. There is a breed
called “tiger dogs” in Mexico and Central America, but the author
has never seen them at work, and also knows that the _tigreros_, or
professional tiger-hunters of those parts, kill most of their game
without such aid.
Jaguars are constantly seen abroad by day in remote regions; but
from the reports of native hunters, and on the ground of personal
observation, the author is inclined to believe that their roar is
seldom heard except at night. Waterton speaks of it as an “awfully
fine” sound, and says that “it echoed among the hills like distant
thunder.” Some travellers describe it as a deep, hoarse, rapid
repetition of the syllables _pa-pa_; and Brown, referring to the calls
of two jaguars he heard on the Berbice River, thought their “low, deep
tones,” which “made the air quiver and vibrate, ... had a grand sound,
with a true, noble ring in it.” The writer never detected anything like
a “ring” in it; on the contrary, the ordinary intonation is markedly
flat, like that of the panther’s and tiger’s ordinary cry. A jaguar can
roar, however, and often does so with violence: under all modulations
his tones convey the impression of great power.
The question how far jaguars hunt by scent, and how far by sight, could
not probably be answered, both senses being constantly employed. T. P.
Bigg-Withers relates that one of them trailed him “all day waiting for
a favorable opportunity” to attack, and that a Botocudo Indian was
finally seized, but escaped with some comparatively trifling injuries.
This pursuit was carried on no doubt chiefly by scent, although the
animal had been seen more than once. Major Leveson (“Sport in Many
Lands”) makes a statement in connection with shooting from machans
to the effect that elevated positions are favorable to the sportsman
because wild beasts “never look up.” He excepts leopards, it is true,
but the fact is that all _Felidæ_, leaving out lions and tigers, which
are too heavy and large to climb, use their eyes in every direction,
and in prowling for food through forests, scrutinize the trees where
their prey is often found, as closely as they do surrounding jungle and
open spaces. Those natives who live among tigers on this continent do
not at all events think themselves safe in trees, since E. F. im Thurn
and others explain that they not only swing their hammocks out of reach
among branches, but build fires around the stems to prevent them from
being ascended. In such a case the jaguar would probably act as he does
when a monkey gets out to the end of an isolated limb that will not
bear his weight--that is to say, spring upon the prey, and come to the
ground with it.
When a lion or tiger receives a shot, it is very often replied to by
a roar, and this whether the animal attacks in return or bounds away.
A jaguar, however, generally bears his wounds without any outcry,
and if he intends to fight, does so, like the panther, at once. The
writer has neither seen nor heard that these animals make use of those
stratagems that tigers constantly, and lions frequently, adopt for the
purpose of intimidating their assailants and causing them to retreat.
It would appear that jaguars do not commonly make feigned assaults,
but generally charge in earnest, with lightning-like rapidity, and
desperate determination. The writer, speaking from experience, is
inclined to think that these animals act in this way as constantly
as the panther. There may be, however, numerous exceptions to this
behavior; the opinion expressed is not offered as if it were final,
and the data upon which it is based are extremely imperfect. More than
that, it should be acknowledged with regard to any facts stated, that
they only represent this, or any other animal’s average behavior.
There can be no doubt that wild beasts will sometimes do anything and
everything which is not positively impossible.
Whether the current opinion that black jaguars are more ferocious than
those of the spotted variety be true, the author is not able to say.
Among _tigreros_ this is believed to be the case; but that kind of
animal is rarer than the others, attracts more attention, and being
undoubtedly dangerous, naturally gathers round it certain superstitions
with which the minds of this class of men become impregnated. Natives,
in general, do not appear to make any particular distinction between
the varieties, and such records as we possess place them very much upon
a par, with regard to the habits and characteristics that have been
spoken of.
The jaguar’s strength is very great. These beasts are well known to
“carry off,” as it is called, the bodies of horses, etc., that have
been killed. They swim broad rivers also, and are said, like the royal
tiger, to fight effectively while in the water. Wood quotes Dr. Holder
to the effect that on one occasion a jaguar destroyed a horse, dragged
it to the bank of a large stream, swam across with his prey, and
finally conveyed it into the forest. The writer in the “Encyclopædia
Britannica” refers to the same story, but besides these authorities,
this kind of an exploit has not been recorded by any one.
Darwin states that the jaguar prowling at night is much annoyed by
foxes, that attend his movements and keep up a constant barking.
It is well known that jackals follow or accompany lions under like
circumstances, and Darwin speaks of this parallel association as a
“curious coincidence.” But the fox is in this case an interloper like
the other, an unwelcome hanger-on in expectation of offal, that
betrays the jaguar’s presence when he, usually a noisy animal, has
cause to be quiet.
It is singular that a creature so noteworthy, and one so frequently
mentioned, should remain so imperfectly known in many important
particulars relating to its natural history, habits, and character.
Dr. Carpenter (“Zoölogy”) remarks that it “may be regarded as the
panther of America,” and many traits which favor this likeness have
been given. It remains to say, however, that while zoölogists express
themselves in guarded terms with respect to species of _Felis onca_,
and the natives discriminate half a dozen among the spotted kind
alone; while Liais describes “_le jaguar noir_” as “a third species,”
and Azara (“Descripcion y Historia del Paraguay”) writes of a
yellowish-white variety as a fourth specific form, the black jaguar, in
all probability, only adds another to the many resemblances that liken
this beast to the panther. Black or dark-brown cubs have not, as in the
case of _Felis pardus_, been found, so far as the writer knows, in one
litter with those marked with spots; but there is reason to believe
that they occur in this manner.