Felis onca have long been an outlier in the feline world . It is unusual for a big khat to have a thickset body , well - developed heading muscularity , and significant dogtooth . And while Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and lions prefer to snap up the bottom of their prey ’s neck and crush their trachea until they suffocate , Panthera onca alternatively bite the nape of the cervix , break down the spinal column and cranium . Clearly , these magnanimous computed axial tomography do thing a picayune other than .
antecedently , researchers had suggest that these adaptations had evolve for the predators to more efficiently take down reptiles – a demeanour technically bonk as saurophagy – which would tally nicely with the watching that panther are the only cognise giving cat to regularly raven on reptile . But this does n’t coverthe fact that the cats only tend to prey on the inhuman - full-blood creatures when live in environment where the animals are commonly find , such as wetlands . In other stead , they go for dissimilar large - bodied prey .
The research worker of the latest study , publish in theJournal of Natural story , fence that the adaption seen in the morphology of jaguars is indicatory of a piranha that primarily Hunt armoured and dangerous quarry , something known as durophagy , rather than being purely adapted to pop reptilian . They point to the justificative strategies of the jaguars ' quarry , from musk hog to elephantine Orycteropus afer , and the fact that reptiles only mold the main ground of their dieting in region where such prey know in gamy act .
They propose that the muscular jaws , thick canines , well - developed head muscles , and fatal bite lead at the braincase are a way for the computed axial tomography to rapidly and expeditiously communique of the dangerous , armored prey . For object lesson , where peccaries ( large slovenly person - like creatures ) are common , the jaguars run to favorthese above all others , even if there are other easier meals to come by .
peccary are known to be highly aggressive and to defend themselves ruthlessly against predator , meaning that if a jaguar were to employ the same hunt technique as a lion , it would be put in harm ’s elbow room from the quietus of the herd . or else , by apace send off of the prey using a bite to the nape , it can back out from the carcass if chased by the herd , and then come back to take its spoil when the danger is go . So while these gravid hombre might do affair other than , it is still effective .
