Jaguar breaks data by swimming at the least 1.3 kilometres

Camera traps present that an grownup male jaguar swam at the least 1.3 kilometres to an island within the reservoir of the Serra da Mesa dam in central Brazil – by far the longest recorded swim by one in all these animals.

In truth, it’s doable the jaguar swam almost twice as far. Reaching the island would have required both a 1-km swim to a smaller island, adopted by the 1.3-km swim, or a 2.3-km direct swim from the mainland with no cease.

“We are being conservative by assuming that this cat did use a small island on the way as a stepping stone,” says Leandro Silveira on the Jaguar Conservation Fund in Brazil. “It could in fact have swum the 2.3-kilometre straight line.”

Silveira says that, so far as he is aware of, that is the longest swim by any huge cat that has been confirmed by direct proof. Jaguars are identified to be wonderful swimmers that may even hunt caimans in water. However, till now, there have been no stories of them swimming greater than 200 metres at a time, says Silveira.

In 2020, his workforce arrange a number of digicam traps across the Serra da Mesa Dam. In May of that yr, an grownup male was photographed on the mainland. Four years later, in August 2024, the identical cat – recognized by its distinct coat sample – was recorded by a digicam on the island.

This comes after a collared cougar made a 1.1-km swim to Squaxin Island off the coast of Washington state, and sightings recommend cougars within the space swim as much as 2 km to some islands. Two male lions had been additionally filmed swimming throughout a waterway in Uganda final yr, with the gap estimated to be between 1 and 1.5 kilometres. In that case, the motivation was considered reaching females that had been calling on the opposite aspect.

Why the jaguar made such an extended swim isn’t clear. “The island is relatively small,” says Silveira. “As far as we know, there is no abundant prey on the island that would be a large attraction.”

Jaguars can in all probability swim so much additional. There is a inhabitants on the Maracá–Jipioca islands greater than 5 km off the coast of Brazil that’s thought to have interbred with mainland jaguars.