National Geographic
Published September 25, 2013
Dramatic still images of a jaguar ambushing an unwary caiman
in Brazil's Pantanal wetlands went viral on the web this month.
National Geographic has exclusive video of the attack that reveals what
the pictures only hint at.
With one bite, the
big cat likely delivered an immediate blow to the caiman's central
nervous system, leaving the animal unable to fight or flee, according to
Luke Dollar, a conservation scientist who helps manage National Geographic’s Big Cats Initiative.
"This
guy knew his business," said Dollar. Suffocating an animal with a bite
to the neck is a classic big-cat maneuver, but caimans don’t have a discernible neck. So the jaguar—which has the strongest bite of any
cat—went right for the skull.
"This guy got
right in the thickest part of the brain case and sunk those teeth in,"
he said. "And that's pretty amazing when you consider a caiman’s brain
is probably the size of a walnut."
Kedar
Hippalgaonkar, of Berkeley, California, shot the footage while
vacationing in Brazil with his wife, Parul Jain. The couple were hoping
to spot some jaguars on an eight-hour boat tour of the Pantanal with
ecotourism operator SouthWild.
And did they. The
jaguar in the video—known to locals as Mick Jaguar—was the third they’d
seen that day. When the jaguar went ashore, Hippalgaonkar said it
became obvious that Mick was on the prowl.
"He's just crawling first, and then you can see him sort of in hunt mode," he said. "You know he’s definitely going for something. Which is why we decided to wait there, before all the other boats came."
His footage reveals a predator picking its way along the riverbank in search of potential prey.
"He makes no noise whatsoever, even when he's swimming," he said.
The
tour's boatman, who had logged thousands of hours watching jaguars,
told Hippalgaonkar he’d never seen anything to rival Mick Jaguar’s
stealthy strike.
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