Abstract
Killing behavior and consumption rate are important components that determine the final predation rate. We studied the predatory behavior of a female jaguar with one offspring in Hato Piñero in Venezuelan Los Llanos. Seven carcasses of freshly killed calves were found over a period of 9 days. Automatic video recording was used to document the jaguar’s behavior. Our study revealed a detailed, repetitive sequence of female jaguar behavior while hunting for calves. The sequence started with the female killing a calf by biting through the skull or neck, then she dragged the carcass to concealment, eviscerated it and left it concealed; then, the next evening, the female returned with its cub, fed intermittently for a total time of about 90 min while in the meantime it hunted for new prey. All this sequence seems to have a highly adaptive significance for a female jaguar rearing cubs and utilizing large prey. During the short period of our observations, the estimated kill rate of the female jaguar with one offspring was from 0.67 to 1 calf per day. Proper cattle management is necessary to avoid high losses of calves from predation by jaguars.
Acknowledgments
Collecting data for this article was possible owing to financial support from the Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC), the Mammal Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (grant NN304336339), and Panthera Corporation (2010) Research and Conservation Grant and the Liz Claiborne Art Ortenberg Jaguar Research Grants 2011, 2012). The authors are grateful to Fundacion Branger – Hato Piñero and UPSAT Piñero for their permissions to work inside the ranch. We thank the former and present administrations of Hato Piñero, and especially Judith Perez Cooker, Armando Mosquera, Dr. Argenis Vidal, Dr. Blanca Nava, and Adolfo Gutierrez for all the help with logistics and for providing necessary data for this article. Special gratitude is expressed to all collaborators and field assistants who helped us in our work in Hato Piñero. Comments on the earlier version of the manuscript were kindly provided by Drs. Ernesto Boede and Rafael Hoogesteijn to whom we express our sincere gratitude. We thank Caoimhe O’Brien-Moran, Elizabeth Finch, and Tom Green who made linguistic corrections to the text.
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