Jaguar (Panthera onca)

After waiting a long while for George, the name assigned him from those protecting and keeping score of the population here, to move out of the thickets, the weather changed. One thunderstorm that seemed far away, was quickly joined by several others, that soon joined and became one major storm.

This was the cue for George to move out of the shadows and out in the open. Jaguars are not bothered by rain, and seemingly not so much by the thunderbolts either. That is if they are at a certain distance.

As the thunder closed in on our location, the cat seemed more alert to the increasing volume of the thunderbolts, and you can see this here by the ears positioned backwards.

Later on a thunderbolt struck so close that it was just a flash and an extremely loud bang. The cat’s reaction was that of house cat that is scared beyond reason – it jumps straight up and runs away as fast as it can. To watch a huge cat like a Jaguar perform such a jump was incredible, hilarious and frustrating. Frustrating as I was not in a position to take as shot, hilarious because it was so unusual and something I did not expect after seeing it just move ears backwards in response to thunderbolts.

After this image the the clouds released a downpour that lasted well into the night, so I’ve gotten some unusual images of jaguars in the rain.

Recently updated on 5 January 2015