By Jason K. Anderson

The Jaguarundi likes lowland brush areas close to a water source or dense tropical areas.

Jaguarundis eat fish that they catch form rivers and streams, small mammals such as rabbits and rodents, reptiles, and birds. Since the Jaguarundi is at the top of the food chain, there are no major predators. Being able to climb trees and swim decently make it easier to get to their prey.

The Jaguarundi has many things similar to his domestic relatives, but unfortunately this includes disease as well. The Jaguarundi is susceptible to tapeworms.

The Jaguarundi is an endangered species because of the sad fact that there habitats are diminishing. If the Jaguarundi becomes extinct the things it eats (see slide 3) will grow to an unreasonable size and the things they eat will diminish until there is no food for what the Jaguarundi eats leading them to die and throwing off the whole food chain in those ecosystems. There is a fine for hunting the Jaguarundi but I fear it is not enough. I believe to truly protect this animal, we need to proctect the land around this animal and let its species flourish. In this way we can allow the species to come back to its once great numbers but until then I believe the fine needs to be greatly increased.

The Jaguarundi struck my interest as soon as I saw it on the endangered species list. I believe, as others do, the Wild Cats of the world should be saved and preserved from the poachers and hunters that want their fur. Though the Jaguarundi is not killed for its fur, the fact that I had never heard of it worried me. I want the Jaguarundi and all of the other endangered species of the world to live for another day so that the next generation of people to walk the earth can see its precious animals and preserve them as we should today.