The Brazilian Jaguar has been recorded for record-breaking swimming up to 1.54 miles (2.48 kilometers). The distance is well beyond the Jaguar’s verified record of approximately 650 feet (200 meters), according to the study authors.
Jaguars (Panseraonka) are skilled swimmers, often living in rainforest areas surrounded by rivers that are frequently overflowing with banks. They do not hesitate to jump into waters in central and South American ranges, but these dips are usually shortened and embarked on catching prey such as caimans, fish, and turtles.
However, in a paper that appeared on the unpeer-reviewed Preprint Server Biorxiv on September 10, scientists recorded the jaguars swimming at much further distance.
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Researchers reported that the male jaguar, first recorded in a camera trap photo near the Ceradamesa hydroelectric dam in Brazil’s Goias province in May 2020, had swam at least 0.79 miles (1.27 km) to arrive on a small island in an artificial lake created by the dam.
Related: “It’s pretty incredible, the man has three legs”: Seeing a lion making a record-breaking swim across a dangerous river filled with Crocs and hippos
The camera trap stationed on the island captured the same man in August 2024 four years later. The spot pattern on that court was used to ensure that it was the same individual. Analysis of the distance between the mainland and the island of the reservoir showed that there are two possible ways for the jaguar to reach the island.
First, you can swim 0.66 miles (1.07 km) to the small island before re-entering the water and then swim for the remaining 0.79 miles. If the Jaguars swam directly from the mainland without stopping, they would have covered 1.54 miles at a time, researchers said.
Even if the swimming took place on two trips, this represents a record distance for the Jaguar, the author writes.
It is unknown why the Jaguar swam. “The area’s prey appears to be fairly evenly distributed. Leandro Silveira, a biologist at the Jaguar Conservation Fund, told Live Science. I think he decided to explore a new area – more likely to be related to women and territorial exploration than food shortages.
“We generally expect animals to choose narrower, less dangerous intersections in search of the best cost-benefit options for movement,” he added. “That’s why this record was so amazing.”
However, Fernando Tortato, the project coordinator for Panthera, a major protective organisation that was not involved in paper or observation, points out that long swimming is probably not unusual for Jaguars.
“Most of the Jaguar population is in the Amazon Basin,” he told Live Science. “The main river there is located far larger than 1.6km. Some places are over 10km. We know that Jaguars don’t consider the river as a barrier.”
Tortato suspects that the jaguars were searching for a new place to hunt capybaras (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris). “It’s very common to see capybara along these artificial lakes,” he said. “That’s my bet.”
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