Jaguar Hams It Up for Camera

A big cat on the catwalk: this male jaguar posed for 35 pictures at a remote "camera trap" in Kaa-Iya National Park in Bolivia.  During the five-and-a-half hour photo shoot, he alternatively sat, laid on his back with his feet in the air, rolled over, slept or simply stared back at the lens.

Two days before, the photogenic cat was caught on film 19 times at this same spot, where biologists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have placed one of the cameras they are using to take a census in the park. 

The cameras, which are triggered when wildlife cross an infrared beam, usually only record a brief "cameo," so researchers were surprised to have so many photos of one animal.  No one is quite sure why the jaguar is so fond of the camera. 

"Perhaps he's just a big ham," speculated WCS field biologist Erika Cuéllar.

Kaa-Iya National Park is believed to have more jaguars than any other protected area in Latin America. 

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-- LiveScience Staff

Credit: WCS