What is the difference between a jaguar and a leopard?
As guides we often get asked what the difference is between a leopard and a jaguar. At first glance one could easily make the mistake of confusing the two, so I’ve decided to put together a comparison for you. This comparison goes beyond the looks, diving more deeply into the design, make up and behaviour of these magnificent predators with images to help illustrate the points.
A female leopard photographed at Londolozi.
Female Jaguar at the Caiman Ecological Refuge
Distribution
The jaguar is found in the Americas. Historically they occurred as far north as California, however the United States population is largely extinct. It extends south through Central America and into Argentina and is known as a New World Cat.
Leopard populations are found from China and India to the Middle East and down into Africa. It is referred to as an Old World Cat.
Size
Female Leopard: 20 – 60 kg
Female Jaguar: 85 – 90 kg
Male Leopard: 40 – 80kg
Male Jaguar: 110 -120 kg
Take a look at this video which showcases the various sizes of leopards found at Londolozi Game Reserve, bordering the Kruger National Park in South Africa:
The jaguar is the 3rd largest cat in the world.
1. Tiger
2. Lion
3. Jaguar
4. Leopard
Rosettes
Jaguars tend to have larger rosettes with spots in the middle; the leopard has plain rosettes with no central spot in the middle.
A photograph of a leopard’s coat
A jaguar’s coat, which has a spot in the middle of the rosette.
Independence
Jaguars, in the Pantanal at least, go independent at a very young age. From data collected at Projeto Onçafari, they believe that female jaguars leave their mother at around 14-15 months. A female leopard may reach anything between 18-24 months before leaving it mother. A male jaguar starts to show signs of heading off around 18 – 20 months and its leopard counterpart may think about it closer to 24 months. The jaguar thus ‘grows up’ very quickly.
Sexual Maturity
With jaguars sexual maturity occurs in females around two to three years; males mature between three and four years. Leopards develop slightly later than this. Most female leopards fall pregnant for the first time at around three and a half years.
The Mashaba female is currently Londolozi’s best known leopard. Her relaxed nature means she is comfortable around the camps and vehicles.
Follow the link above to see one of the currently most successful mother leopards on Londolozi.
Life expectancy
Leopards: 12- 15 in the wild, although there are a number of cases of females reaching over 17.
Jaguars: uncertain in the wild, but thought to be around 13- 15
Strength
The jaguar steals the show here. Pound for pound this cat is phenomenally strong. With the ability to deliver up to 2000 pounds of force, this makes jaguars the most powerful of the great cats – even more so than lions and tigers.
List of the top 10 most powerful bites in the animal kingdom:
10. lion
9. tiger
8. spotted hyena
7. grizzly bear
6. gorilla
5. hippopotamus
4. jaguar (most powerful mammal)
3. american alligator
2. saltwater crocodile
1. nile crocodile
The Head
The shape and size of the head is very different between the two cats. Due to the different styles of killing (see below) the jaguar has a much broader forehead and wider jaw.
The much smaller, daintier shape of a female leopard’s head.
Female Jaguar.
The stockier and more thick set head of a male leopard.
The even larger and more significantly stocky head of a male jaguar.
The Body
Jaguars have a large barrel like abdomen. It almost always looks as if they are pregnant or well fed. Leopards, on the other hand, often have a very slight build. Jaguars also have a shorter, stockier build than leopards.
The slender build of a female leopard.
A female jaguar photographed side on.
A male leopard photographed side on.
Male jaguar photographed side on
Tree climbing
Most people also believe that jaguars do not really climb trees. They are cats and thus more than capable of doing so but most of the literature suggests that they only climb trees when under pressure and when they were confronted by people or dogs. However at Projeto Onçafari they have been able to observe jaguars in a number of trees and have thus debunked this myth. The researchers have camera traps positioned in various trees and have been able to locate at least ten trees in the research area, of various species, that show clear evidence of tree climbing.
Jaguars are not as agile in trees as leopards and they certainly do not spend as much time in the trees, but they are fully capable of doing so. From a design point of view it is interesting to look at the tail length. The leopard is very arboreal and has a long tail to aid in balance. The jaguar has a much shorter tail, an indicator that tree climbing is less important in its life. The reason: lack of predators. Leopards have to hoist their kills to avoid other predators such as lion, hyena and wild dog. Jaguars are the apex predator of the Americas and so have no reason to need to carry kills into trees. They simply outcompete everything else on the ground!
A male leopard high in the branches of a Marula tree.
A young male jaguar in a tree.
Water
Leopards do not like water! They will do everything in their power to avoid having to go through it. Whereas the jaguar, like the tiger, seems to be content with spending lengthy periods of time in the water. Jaguars in the Pantanal do not have a choice as they live in a wetland. AtProjeto Onçafari they recently tracked a jaguar with her three month old cub and watched both her and the cub swim across 100m of open water.
A leopard and her two cubs drink from the Sand River but would never choose to cross through a body of water like this. They would far rather find rocks that they could hop across on.
Territories
This is one of the least known aspects of a jaguars lifestyle. There is quite a difference with regards to territory that we know of though. Leopards are very territorial and will actively patrol, demarcate and fight for land. They will not permit other leopards moving into their area. Jaguars are less territorial and utilize more of a relaxed ‘home-range’. There is large overlap between jaguar’s home ranges and these are not nearly as actively managed and patrolled. Recent studies from Brazil have shown male jaguars to not show strong aggression or territorial defence against other jaguars. A jaguar will have a ‘core’ area in which he/she may be the only cat, but this area is small relative to the land used by that individual.
In the Pantanal a male jaguar may use as much as 170km2 and a female closer on 70km2. Male leopards at Londolozi Game Reserve (Kruger National Park) could have a territory of roughly 40km2 and a female of approximately 15km2. Although there can be huge variation in these numbers, the averages serve the purpose of illustrating how Jaguars utilize an incredibly large area.
Follow the links below to our website dedicated to the Leopards of Londolozi. There you’ll be able to compare the territory sizes of the various leopards in the area.
The Nanga female was born to the Nyelethi 4:4 female in 2009 as part of a litter of three.
Directly descended from the original mother leopard and therefore part of the royal lineage of Londolozi.
Killing Style
Leopards kill using a suffocating bite. This bite will usually be around the throat, or may in fact be around the mouth. The jaguar prefers to use one of two methods: 1) killing by canines piercing through prey’s skull (only large cat to use this technique) and 2) By severing the spinal column/backbone with a powerful bite and breaking the neck. Both species of cat prefer to hunt by stalking and ambush rather then lengthy chases.
A leopard hunts a herd of impala by means of ambush.
A leopard kills a waterbuck with a killing bite to the throat.
Diet
Leopards are the cat with the most varied diet. They eat just about anything. The current dietary list for a leopard sits at just under 100 species. Jaguars are not far behind on 85. Both these cats show signs that they are able to adapt to feeding on whatever is in the area. In the Pantanal, jaguars eat a large number of big animals like cattle. It is said that the jaguar is the only big cat, which shows a particular liking to reptiles (turtles, tortoises, caimans and snakes).
Moving Kills
Both species show a tendency to move a kill once it has been made. However, due to the nature of the prey, a jaguar will usually drag its prize whilst walking backwards. A leopard, on the other hand, will pull it forwards. Jaguars do not attempt to hide their kills using leaves or sand, a practice often seen with leopards.
To learn more about any of the organisations involved in this project click on the links below:
Projeto Oncafari
Caiman Ecological Refuge
Tracker Academy
Londolozi Game Reserve
If you are interested in finding out more about the individual free-ranging leopards which are seen at Londolozi Game Reserve, visit the website dedicated to the Leopards of Londolozi, which provides incredible photographs, stories and family trees of one of the first habituated leopard populations in the world.
Or download the Leopards of Londolozi interactive iBook, designed and available exclusively for your iPad. Simply click on the link and follow the instructions to do so:
The Leopards of Londolozi
Brilliant. Answers many questions we’ve been pondering for years.
It’s only my impression or a mature male leopard have more impressive neck head ratio, larger neck in proportion to the head than Jaguar that nave a larger head at all.
Adam, thank you so much for the insight into the differences of the Jaguar and Leopard. The physical were somewhat obvious, however, I had no idea how powerful the jaw of the Jaguar was or how much they weighed. They are both such magnificent cats.
How educational! I did not realize that Jaguars are/were in N. America…I have come across Mountain Lions (Puma) in Marin County and Yosemite and can just imagine I would have leapt out of my skin at the sight of a Jaguar — so fierce and beautiful! Thank you.
I, too, am surprised about some of the facts I’ve learned here. I knew about the difference between the two designs of rosettes, but I could never remember which cat had which spots! Also, the difference in tail length and the reason for it was extremely interesting.I had no idea that jaguars backed up when moving pray. Anyway, I could go on and on about all of the fantastic information.
IToday, I was watching a live web can from the Djuma water hole on the Greater Kruger National Park web site. Kruger is located in Africa. As far as I can tell, they have five web cams set up, each at a different water hole. This was the first time I watched during their day, just before dusk. The other time was at night. There were interesting looking birds, a huge Water Buffalo, with one of those little pecking birds on it (they showed a close-up), and, ta da!, two magnificent Leopards!! They hung out for quite a while. That sighting is what lead me to this site, in search of the Leopard/Jaguar difference information.
I live in the United States on the west coast. There have been black jaguar sittings in Texas. And yesterday I watched an interesting documentary about black Jaguars in a different part of the country (I forget which state. I’ll see if the Animal Planet site has the info.). If I find it, I’ll post it here. It is thought that they might be escaped “pets,” because they’ve never been seen there before. They are living in the proximity of homes and towns. They don’t bother the people, except for them having to keep a close eye on their dogs, so, there they will stay. 🙂
I believe it was in Alabama.
Thanks Adam – great to be able to see the differences in these two beautiful cats!
Adam–this is fantastic. After being in Londolozi in March & then in the Pantanal in August, I was able to see the differences in the cats first-hand. After 15 jaguar sightings in 5 days (all along the river bank from a small boat) I really love the Londolozi leopards–especially the C.P.M. I will return next year but will not return to the Pantanal–for a few reasons, but not the jaguars. Thanks for the pictures. They are awesome!
Fascinating blog and great to be able to reference the difference between these two impressive cats on one page. Thanks for putting this together Ad. rich
I’ve been in both places,saw both cats and love this explanation,it was very informative!
I hope i will be back soon to both places!!
By the way,could you please send our love to Talley Smith?
Thank you and congrats for your wonderful blog 🙂
Thank you very much.
Brilliant write up again thanks love reading about wild cats
Thank you Adam, great to see the 2 cats matched like this. Is it perhaps possible to order the Projecto Oncafari T-shirts?
Regards
Thank you Adam! it does clear up some questions regarding the leopard & jaguar.. Both are beautiful cats.. The leopard I think is a bit more elegant…
I would be so grateful if you would tell me which kinds of trees leopards seem to favour, and also which types of trees jaguars favour.
I hope your knowledge of trees is as good as that of your leopards.
Thank for such a lovely site you have shared with us.
Kind regards
Very informative. Are Black Panthers Leopards or Jaguars?
Jaguars.
Either one can be called a panther if black in color, and also the North American Cougar.
They can technically be either, mainly due to semantics. If a leopard is black (but upon a closeup look you can see the rosettes) then it may frequently called a black panther. However, there does not actually exist a large cat that is simply known as a panther. So this car should be technically called a black leopard. The exact same thing would be true for s jaguar, so it would be or should be called black jaguar. It’s just a double recessive color gene called mellanism. It even happens in tigers, if you were to look up “black tigers” you would see one, and also very faintly you’d see the stripes. But, taking all that into consideration, people still commonly refer to pumas/mountain lions as simply “panthers.”
I agree with many of the comments made by the previous readers. I am very appreciative of the information you gave us regarding your personal observations of the Leopard and the Jaguar. They are magnificant! Actually, all of the Big Cats and all Animals in general are just stunning. I am glad and happy that you can realize all this and how fortunate it is for you and the animals. Thank you for your work.
Great explanation, this was a great resource for my young daughter and I. She is fascinated by large cats and hope to work with them one day. Your explanations have educated so we now know the differences between the two. Maybe one day we can travel to assist with conservation. Both are beautiful animals and thank you for this great educational tool.
Awesome write up!
My god, now i am clear about these two wild cats….. Very happy and thanks..,.
Very well written and easy to follow and understand.
The pictures in your piece helped a lot.
Thanks
Thank you for this very informative post – I have been wondering about this for a while now…
They are such beautiful and majestic creatures – to be able to see them in the wild! Thank you for your work.
All the best, Karen
brilliant, have now been able to answer a question that my daughter asked me.
Great stuff Sam, your daughter might find our Cubs Den blog interesting as it answers numerous wildlife and nature related questions which children often ask – http://www.londolozi.com/cubsden/
This is a fantastic article. Thanks for sharing this and enabling enhancement of knowledge on the subject.
Thanks Sid, glad you found it useful. Feel free to share it. rich
nicely described with demonstrating photographs also,,, thanks a lot.
Very, very interesting! I have always wondered about the difference between the two cats. And to make the subject even more attractive to me was to recently learn from the ‘ol boob tube that they have actual documented proof of the jaguar being spotted as far north as mid Arizona!! Actually caught the animal on film! I suppose such an elusive animal is almost impossible to study or keep track of.
Thanks again for the info!!!
Hi Wes, thats absolutely fascinating. It never fails to suprise me how versatile and adaptable both the leopard and jaguar are to new habitats and territories. This is true for their ability to not only survive, but thrive in these seemingly far removed areas. Thanks for your comments, im glad you found the information useful.. rich
These really are fascinating animals, and you have done a wonderful job comparing the two. I appreciate how easy this was to read and understand. It seems most articles about wildlife are either far too long and wordy, or are written in a more scholarly form which can be a little difficult to understand. You have really peaked my interest in these beautifully powerful cats.
Piqued* not peaked
Great to hear Judson, we aim to provide entertaining yet educational content about these magnificent cats as well as other wildlife species which we have the privilege of viewing on a daily basis. Please feel free to ask any further questions and we will try our best to answer them. rich