Big Cats: Photos Reveal Elusive Jaguars

Two Jaguar Cubs

A jaguar mother with her two cubs in a Colombian oil palm plantation.

(Image credit: Panthera)

A jaguar mother with her two cubs in a Colombian oil palm plantation.

Rare Jaguar Image

A jaguar cub inspects a camera trap, set up by the cat conservation group Panthera, in a Colombian oil plantation while its sibling looks on.

(Image credit: Panthera)

A jaguar cub inspects a camera trap, set up by the cat conservation group Panthera, in a Colombian oil plantation while its sibling looks on.

Cat Cub

A jaguar cub caught in a camera-trap image in Colombia.

(Image credit: Panthera)

A jaguar cub grooms itself in a Colombian oil palm plantation.

On the Prowl

An adult jaguar in Colombia looks as if it's on the prowl in this image taken by Panthera hidden cameras.

(Image credit: Panthera)

A male jaguar walking through a Colombian oil palm plantation. Until now, scientists did not have photographic evidence that jaguars were using oil palm plantations as passageways in the region.

Big Boy

A male jaguar walks past Panthera’s camera trap in a Colombian oil palm plantation.

(Image credit: Panthera)

A male jaguar walks past Panthera’s camera trap in a Colombian oil palm plantation.

Male Jaguar

The same male jaguar walking past Panthera’s camera trap in a Colombian oil palm plantation.

(Image credit: Panthera)

The same male jaguar walking past Panthera’s camera trap in a Colombian oil palm plantation.

Jaguar Spots

A male jaguar walks through an oil palm plantation in Colombia’s Magdalena river valley.

(Image credit: Panthera)

A male jaguar walks through an oil palm plantation in Colombia's Magdalena river valley. Like this one, jaguars usually sport a yellowish coat with a pattern of black spots called rosettes; scientists can identify individual jaguars by their unique pattern of spots.

Hidden Camera

Distant camera trap photo of a male jaguar in an oil palm plantation, Colombia.

(Image credit: Panthera)

Distant camera trap photo of a male jaguar in an oil palm plantation, Colombia.

Jeanna Bryner
Live Science Editor-in-Chief

Jeanna served as editor-in-chief of Live Science. Previously, she was an assistant editor at Scholastic's Science World magazine. Jeanna has an English degree from Salisbury University, a master's degree in biogeochemistry and environmental sciences from the University of Maryland, and a graduate science journalism degree from New York University. She has worked as a biologist in Florida, where she monitored wetlands and did field surveys for endangered species. She also received an ocean sciences journalism fellowship from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.