According to the British "Daily Mail" reported on May 28, recently, on the beach of Costa Rica's Turtle National Park, a photographer named Manuelcampbell took a terrible picture of a jaguar devouring a huge leatherback turtle.
The video shows jaguars chewing on the head of a leatherback turtle, which is motionless and just wagging its tail. It is unclear whether the jaguar killed the leatherback turtle or whether the leatherback turtle died before swallowing it.
The leatherback turtle is the largest of the turtles in the world, and this docile animal has soft leather rather than a hard shell like a turtle. Leatherback turtles only hunt some of the larger sharks and killer whales in the ocean, whereas on land they travel slowly and need to nest on the beach, which makes them vulnerable to land predators.
According to scientists, jaguar populations have risen dramatically in the northern Caribbean slopes as it is home to one of the most important endangered sea turtle nesting beaches in the world. From May to October, about 15,000 to 20,000 endangered marine life nest here.
Crews at Turtle National Park say they never saw jaguars on their beaches 10 years ago. Now, staff say they have spotted 16 jaguars in the park and estimate that they kill about 1 percent of the turtles each year. Stephannyarroyo, who studies wildlife conservation at the National University of Costa Rica, said: "I am convinced that leatherback turtles mean something special to certain animals. ”