A Jaguar in Brazil Makes the Longest Recorded Swim by the Species, Traversing at Least 0.79 Miles Through Water [View all]

Last edited Mon Sep 29, 2025, 11:22 AM - Edit history (1)

A jaguar, not the one documented in the new study, swims in the Pantanal in Brazil. Sergio Pitamitz / VWPics / Universal Images Group via Getty Images

A camera trap documented an adult jaguar that seems to have made a record-breaking swim—paddling at least 0.79 miles to reach an island in the reservoir area of the Serra da Mesa hydroelectric dam in Brazil.

The jaguar was first spotted on the mainland in 2020. Four years later, cameras caught the same animal—identified by the patterns on its coat—on a forested island more than a mile away.

Researchers believe the wild cat made this trip one of two ways: Either the jaguar swam 0.66 miles, made a pit stop on an islet, and then swam another 0.79 miles, or it might have swam the total 1.45 miles nonstop.

“We are being conservative by assuming that this cat did use a small island on the way as a stepping stone,” says Leandro Silveira, a biologist at the Jaguar Conservation Fund in Brazil, to Michael Le Page at New Scientist. “It could in fact have swum the 2.3-kilometer [1.45-mile] straight line.”

More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-jaguar-in-brazil-makes-the-longest-recorded-swim-by-the-species-traversing-at-least-079-miles-through-water-180987384/




More jaguars in Brazil's Pantanal

















The narrator of this very short film overlooked Brazil, where a lot of jaguars live. Shame on him!