Jaguars are the third largest cat in existence, second only to lions and tigers, it stands to reason that such a large cat is not comparable to small and medium-sized cat clouded leopards, but in fact adult jaguars are cats with a wide difference in size, and their smallest adult individuals are even only 36 kg, so that the largest clouded leopard has a battle with the smallest jaguar in size.
So, can the largest clouded leopard beat the smallest jaguar? Let's first take a brief look at the strength of the two animals.
The smallest jaguar
The jaguar is the largest cat in the Americas, and its ecological niche in the Americas is equivalent to that of tigers in Asia, so the jaguar is also called a jaguar. As the third largest cat, the average weight of the jaguar is about 75 kg, which is smaller than the lion tiger, but at least 15 kg larger than the leopard and snow leopard (average).
Jaguars widely inhabit forests and tropical rainforests in Central and South America, especially in a wide range, and the density of prey in different environments varies greatly, so this leads to a very large difference in size between jaguar individuals.
On the whole, the size of the jaguar is larger and larger the south, and vice versa, for example, the average weight of the jaguar in the forests of the Pacific coast of Mexico is only 50 kg, which is similar to the size of the leopard, but to the south to the Brazilian rainforest is different, the average male jaguar here weighs about 95 kg, the female average is 68 kg, and the largest individual reaches 158 kg, which is already similar to the weight of adult male lion tigers. And the female jaguars here have a minimum weight limit of 56 kg.
However, jaguars in the northern forests are different, except that their average weight is only 50 kilograms (average male and female) and the minimum weight of adult females is only 36 kilograms.
The largest clouded leopard
Clouded leopard is a collective name for two species of animals in the cat family Photoleopard, from a genetic point of view, the relationship between the clouded leopard genus and the leopard genus is closer than that of the cat genus, but its size is stretched thin if compared with the leopard genus.
The clouded leopard genus was originally thought to be only one animal, and the clouded leopard living in different regions is only a subspecies relationship, but in recent years, with the genetic analysis of clouded leopards in different regions, it was found that the Sunda clouded leopard, which was originally considered to be one of the clouded leopard subspecies, has evolved separately for more than 1 million years, so it is listed as a separate species, so far, the clouded leopard has two or three subspecies, of which the Sunda clouded leopard has no subspecies differentiation, and there is no genetic difference in Sumatra and Borneo. There are three subspecies of clouded leopards: nominal, Taiwanese, and Himalaya.
In cats, clouded leopards can be said to be the most mysterious, because they usually inhabit tropical and subtropical forests that are inaccessible to humans, and they are cautious by nature, and their hearing and smell ability are relatively strong, so it is more difficult for people to search for them, which has led to the current scientific community knowing little about the habits of clouded leopards, only knowing that they are nocturnal and may live alone, and they are the most favorite cats to stay in trees.
Clouded leopards' main prey comes from trees, including musk cats, macaques, gibbons and birds, etc., they have the longest canine teeth of felines in the same proportion, up to 7 cm, you must know that even the largest existing cats tigers and lions, canine teeth are only between 3-5 cm, so if you enlarge it, it should be the closest cat to the saber-toothed tiger.
In terms of body size, the average adult clouded leopard has a body length of about 90 cm (without a tail) and an average weight of about 32 kg, and the largest known clouded leopard weighs 38 kg.
Largest clouded leopard vs smallest jaguar
Through our simple understanding of the two animals above, we can see that the smallest jaguar is actually comparable in size to the largest clouded leopard (36:38, in kilograms), and the weight difference of 2 kilograms is negligible for animals of tens of kilograms, so in terms of strength, they should be five-five, and the rest is more than flexibility and weapons.
In terms of flexibility (close size), I think clouded leopards are stronger than jaguars, because although jaguars can also climb trees, they should be worse than clouded leopards whose prey basically comes from trees, and spend most of their lives in trees and can hunt flexible primates.
Flexibility determines the ability of two animals to dodge each other's attacks and counterattack when fighting, so clouded leopards are slightly stronger in this regard.
And in terms of weapons, the clouded leopard is stronger, why say so? Because the "big killer" of cats is their canine teeth, longer canine teeth cause more damage when biting each other, and in terms of canine tooth length, the longest length of the jaguar's canine teeth is only 5 cm, with an average of about 3.5 cm (the length of the exposed gums), and a female jaguar canine weighing only 36 kg is obviously not so long, which is about 3 cm.
The clouded leopard 38 kg is already the largest individual, they have up to 7 cm of canine teeth, in the case of little difference in body size, the bite force difference between the two is not much, obviously the teeth are longer and more deadly.
Write at the end
The extreme size of the clouded leopard is actually slightly larger than the smallest jaguar, and under the same adult health, the clouded leopard has longer flexibility and canine tooth length, so if they fight, I think the clouded leopard will have a better chance of winning.
Of course, from the distribution of jaguars, their base camp is in South America, so small jaguars are relatively few, mainly concentrated in the forests of the eastern coast of Mexico, so except for the small individual jaguars in the area, other jaguars are not clouded leopards can defeat.