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Jaguar versus leopard



The jaguar (Panthera onca) and leopard (Panthera pardus) are two physically similar big cats of the genus Panthera, between which comparisons have been made.

Coat


The jaguar coat is different from that of leopard, with large and dark rosettes, and the leopard with the smaller and more frequent rosettes.

The rosettes on a jaguar's coat are larger, fewer in number, usually darker, and have thicker lines and small spots in the middle that the leopard lacks.

The leopard's skin colour varies by climate and habitat from pale yellow to yellowish brown or golden. Leopards living in forests are darker than those in arid habitats. Spots fade toward the white underbelly and the insides and lower parts of the legs. Rosettes are most prominent on the back, flanks and hindquarters. The pattern of the rosettes is unique in each individual. Rosettes are circular in East African leopard populations, and tend to be squarish in Southern African and larger in Asian leopard populations.

Size
Jaguars are generally bigger in size compare to leopards, with males, weighing more than 96 kg, and larger males in South America have been recorded to weigh as much as 158 kg. The smallest South American females weigh about 36 kg. North American jaguars are rather small, with those in the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve on the Mexican Pacific coast weighing just about 50 kg. The leopard's weight average is between 82 to 198 lb, with large males weighing up to at least 96 kg.

Bite force


The jaguar is known for its bite strength, while the leopard has a smaller skull than jaguar, its bite strength is 'not compared' to that of the jaguar. A jaguar bite can break the turtle's shell with a bite, it has the biggest bite strength among the big cats and it compares with the tiger as the cats with the srongest bite force. The leopard bite strength can be deadly for the animals he hunts, but not as big as the jaguar. Also, when the jaguar fought with the leopard, he broke the leopard forhead skull with his bite.

Genetics
Together, the jaguar and leopard appear to be the closest living relatives of the lion (Panthera leo). Though the leopard is sympatric with the lion, in both Africa and Asia, it is not clear whether this or the jaguar  is closer to the lion, with different analyses giving different results. In addition, as of 2017, whereas the jaguar is regarded as a monotypic species, the leopard is recognised as being divided into different subspecies.

Distribution
The leopard inhabits European Russia, Asia and Africa. The jaguar inhabits North and South America.

At present, the jaguar's range extends from southwestern United States and Mexico through Central America to South America, including much of Amazonian Brazil. The countries included in this range are Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica (particularly on the Osa Peninsula), Ecuador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. It is now locally extinct in El Salvador and Uruguay.

The leopard has the largest distribution of all wild cats, occurring widely in Africa as well as eastern and southern Asia, although populations have shown a declining trend, and are fragmented outside of sub-Saharan Africa. Within sub-Saharan Africa, the species is still numerous and even thriving in marginal habitats where other large cats have disappeared, although there is considerable potential for human-leopard conflict due to leopards preying on livestock. Populations in North Africa may be extinct. Data on their distribution in Asia are not consistent.

Temperament
Both cats have fearsome reputations in their areas. Leopard has more predators compare to jaguar, and this might be one reason why leopard is small.
 * Like many cats, jaguars and leopards are solitary. Both can create coalitions or pairs during mating seasons.
 * As smaller, it is agreed that the leopard is faster than the jaguar.
 * Both jaguar and leopard tend to prey on humans.

Man-eating


Jaguar and leopards might prey on humans espacially when their prey is rare or their are old. Jaguars rarely or do not prey on humans. Leopards however attack humans especially in the India subcontinent and Africa where their favorite prey is selected by predators like tigers and lions. The leopard may be much smaller for humans, but much more dangerous compared to other big cats and it can be compared to the tiger with a high tendency to prey on humans.

Unlike leopards, jaguars very rarely attack humans. However, jaguar attacks appear to be on the rise with increased human encroachment on their habitat and a decrease in prey populations. Sometimes jaguars in captivity attack zookeepers. In addition, it appears that attacks on humans had been more common in the past, at least after conquistadors arrived in the Americas, to the extent that the jaguar had a fearsome reputation in the Americas, like that of the tigers and lion in the Old World. Nevertheless, even in those times, the jaguar's chief prey was the capybara, not humans, and Charles Darwin reported a saying of Native Americans that people would not have to fear the jaguar much, as long as capybaras were abundant.

Fights
As they occurs in different continents, jaguar and leopard never met or fight together in wilderness. The only fight between them was made in 20 century (1922) in captivity where the jaguar broke the forhead skull of leopard. 10 minutes later, the leopard died. Though in the captivity fights are filmed, there is not enough evidence to see which of them could have won over the other.