A 1.3 -kilometer swimming course by a Jaguar is the longest ever confirmed, but the feline’s reasons for making this trip are not clear. What seems clear is that not all cats hate water.
Photographic cameras mounted by scientists show that an adult male jaguar swim At least 1.3 km From the bank to an island in the Serra da Mesa Dam reservoir, in downtown Brazil.
This is by far the greatest distance to swim registered for one of these felines, but in fact it is possible that the Jaguar has almost double this distance.
Arriving on the island would have required or a 1 km swimming to a smaller island, followed by a second course of 1.3 km, or a direct route of 2.3 km to swim nonstop from the bank to the island.
“We are being conservative assuming that this feline used a small island on the way as a trampoline, ”says Leandro Silveirafrom the Jaguar Conservation Fund in Brazil, quoted by. “In fact, it may have swam the 2.3 kilometers straight.”
Silveira says that, as much as he knows, this is the longest way to swim from Any great felinewhich has been confirmed by direct evidence.
Jaguars are known to be excellent swimmersthat even hunt Camens in the water. However, so far, there were no reports of swimming more than 200 meters at a time, Refers Silveira.
By 2020, his team installed several photographic traps around the Serra da Mesa dam. In May of this year, an adult male was photographed on the continent. Four years later, in August 2024, the same felineidentified by the distinctive pattern of your hair, was registered by a chamber on the island.
In 2023, a puma swam 1.1 km from the Washington state coast to Squaxin Island. Some sights suggest that the jumps in the region swim up to 2 km for some islands, but there is no direct confirmation so far.
Last year, Two male lions were also filmed to swim through a waterway in Uganda, in a estimated distance between 1 and 1.5 km. In this case, it was thought that the motivation was reach females they were calling on the other side.
The reason that led the jaguar to do such a long journey It’s not clear. “The island is relatively small,” says Silveira. “As much as we know, there are no abundant prey on the island that constitute a great attraction.”
There you had your reasons …
