jaguar

jaguar (JAG-wahr, JAG-yoo-ahr, JAG-yoo-er) - n., a powerful large cat (Panthera onca) chiefly of Central and South America with (usually) a brownish yellow coat with black rosette spots.



Thanks, WikiMedia!

The only big cat (i.e., member of genus Panthera) in the New World, and the third largest feline (after tigers and lions). I say "usually" of its coloration, because it does come in a melanistic black morph, in which form it is sometimes called panther, though that's also used for melanistic leopards and for the Florida subspecies of cougars. Their traditional range throughout was South and Central America up to just north of the U.S.-Mexico border (trail cams in the hills south of here still catch sight of one every five years or so), though they are now restricted to only wilder country with the largest population in the Amazon rain forest. The name is (via Portuguese) from Old Tupi îagûara/jaguara/yawara, with in addition to jaguars also meant in general any large carnivore, and which in Late Tupi came to also mean dog.


Bonus word: jaguarundi (jah-gwuh-RUHN-dee) - n., slender, long-tailed medium-sized wildcat (Felis yagouaroundi) of Central and South America with a gray or reddish coat. The name is either from Old Tupi yawaundí/jawarundɨ via Portuguese or Guarani jaguarundy/yaguarundi, where for both the -undi part means dark/shadowed, referring to the grey morph as a shadow-jaguar.


Thanks, WikiMedia!

---L.