• The jaguar is the largest cat in the Americas and the only one that regularly kills prey by biting through the skull.

Jaguars inhabit elevations of up to 2 kilometers above sea level and are found in diverse biomes including desert scrub, which is very hot and dry with infrequent rainfall and cacti, flooded grasslands with abundant grass, tropical dry forests experiencing a dry season and leaf-dropping trees, tropical moist forests characterized by constant heat and humidity and large trees and vines, and tropical savannas with uneven rainfall and many grasses and trees; the species occupies terrestrial landscapes, including mainland forests and coastal tidal zones. The climate varies across these habitats, ranging from hot steppes with very hot, dry summers and abundant grass to extremely arid conditions with rare rainfall, and from winters with little precipitation and more rain in summer to hot conditions with few winter rains and plentiful summer rains, and even consistently hot and wet conditions with nearly daily rainfall year-round.