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What's for dinner? Diet Clues Scat Trail Weigh the Prey Favorite Foods

Weigh the Prey
Some studies have shown that jaguars eat about 35 to 40 kg of meat each week (between 77-88 lbs). That's 308 ¼ pound hamburgers a week!

Intake varies with prey availability and the individual. A mother with cubs will obviously need to hunt more often.


If we take what we know about a jaguar's diet from the previous exercise and the average weight of prey species, we can use this number, 35-40 kg, to figure out how many of each prey species a jaguar eats in a week or in a year, and even how much all of the jaguars in Cockscomb eat in a year.

How do you do that?


Find out how many kilograms of each prey species a jaguar eats in a week. Do this and fill in the first blank column on the table below. Need help?
Find out how many of that prey species is represented by the weight you just calculated. Need help?





After you have figured out how much one jaguar eats in a week, its time to think big.

How many of each species does a jaguar eat in a year? Fill in the third blank column in the table with your findings. Round to nearest whole number for the yearly calculations. Need help?
How about all the jaguars in Cockscomb Basin? Studies of the Cockscomb Basin suggest that the reserve is home to about 40 adult jaguars. Put all this together to calculate how many members of each species-how many armadillos, pacas, collared anteaters and so forth-- are consumed annually by Cockscomb jaguars. Fill in the fourth blank column on the table. Round to nearest whole number for the yearly calculations.


  Look at the number of each prey species that 1 jaguar and 40 jaguars consume in a year. What do these numbers tell you if you are working to conserve the jaguar?

  




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QUESTION
What is carrying capacity?

© 2006 Wildlife Conservation Society.