Ousado the Collared Male
After missing his chance at a capybara Ousado got his chance with a caiman. We did not see the actual hunt, but we did see him eat just a few feet in front of us. We felt privileged that he let us get so close to his meal, and it yielded some intimate photos of him eating.
Jaguars have one of the strongest bites in the cat family, and use their long canine teeth and powerful jaws to puncture a caiman skull and render it helpless
Ousado spent most of his time stalking where the caiman tended to hide
When we caught up with him he had already killed a caiman and was eating it deep in the vegetation
He was partially obscured by the vegetation from our boat’s vantage point
This was a good time to get an eyeball shot while he ate
He pinned the caiman to give leverage to pull of chunks of meat
We could hear the crunching sounds as he pulled away
He pulled off pieces of bone and meat
Even though it was dead, the caiman had some involuntary muscle twitches that Ousado took to mean it was still alive, so he would pounce on it and move it a little
This repositioning of the caiman gave a better angle for photography for a few seconds, depending on the wind and the movement of the boat
He let us get very close as we silently watched him eat
Like all cats he used his carnassial teeth to gnaw away
He kept a wary eye on us at all times
Another look at those teeth
Our next jaguar has a different hunting style than Ousada as you will see from the next post.