Scrape marks, urine, and faeces are used to mark territory. Male ranges cover roughly twice as much area, varying in size with the availability of game and space, and do not overlap. Female territories, from 25 to 40 square kilometers in size, may overlap, but the animals generally avoid one another. Adults generally meet only to court and mate (though limited non-courting socialization has been observed anecdotally) and carve out large territories for themselves. Like most cats, the jaguar is solitary outside mother-cub groups. Its broader prey niche, including its ability to take smaller prey, may give it an advantage over the jaguar in human-altered landscapes while both are classified as near-threatened species, the cougar has a significantly larger current distribution. This situation may be advantageous to the cougar. The jaguar tends to take larger prey and the cougar smaller, reducing the latter’s size. Where sympatric with the jaguar, the cougar is smaller than normal and is smaller than the local jaguars. The jaguar and the cougar, the next largest feline of the Americas, are often sympatric (related species sharing overlapping territory) and have often been studied in conjunction. The jaguar also has an effect on other predators. Conservation organizations may thus focus on providing viable, connected habitat for the jaguar, with the knowledge that other species will also benefit. Umbrella species serve as “mobile links” at the landscape scale, in the jaguar’s case through predation. The jaguar is generally defined as an umbrella species – a species whose home range and habitat requirements are sufficiently broad that, if protected, numerous other species of smaller range will also be protected. Current conservation efforts often focus on educating ranch owners and promoting ecotourism. The species has no legal protection in Ecuador or Guyana. Hunting of jaguars is restricted to “problem animals” in Brazil, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru, while trophy hunting is still permitted in Bolivia. All hunting of jaguars is prohibited in Argentina, Belize, Colombia, French Guiana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, the United States (where it is listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act), Uruguay and Venezuela. The jaguar is regulated as an Appendix I species under Cites: all international trade in jaguars or their parts is prohibited. This willingness to take livestock has induced ranch owners to hire full-time jaguar hunters, and the cat is often shot on sight. When adapted to the prey, the jaguar has been shown to take cattle as a large portion of its diet while land clearance for grazing is a problem for the species, the jaguar population may have increased when cattle were first introduced to South America as the animals took advantage of the new prey base. The major risks to the jaguar include deforestation across its habitat, increasing competition for food with human beings, poaching, hurricanes in northern parts of its range, and the behaviour of ranchers who will often kill the cat where it preys on livestock. The loss of parts of its range, including its virtual elimination from its historic northern areas and the increasing fragmentation of the remaining range, have contributed to this status. The animal is considered Near Threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, meaning it may be threatened with extinction in the near future. Jaguar populations are currently declining. Thus, the keystone predator hypothesis is not favoured by all scientists. However, field work has shown this may be natural variability and that the population increases may not be sustained. It is accepted that mid-sized prey species undergo population increases in the absence of the keystone predators and it has been hypothesized that this has cascading negative effects. However, accurately determining what effect species like the jaguar have on ecosystems is difficult, because data must be compared from regions where the species is absent as well as its current habitats, while controlling for the effects of human activity. The jaguar has also been termed a keystone species, as it is assumed, through controlling the population levels of prey such as herbivorous and granivorous mammals, apex felids maintain the structural integrity of forest systems. The adult jaguar is an apex predator, meaning that it exists at the top of its food chain and is not preyed on in the wild.
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