Category: Mammals
The jaguar is the largest wild feline in the Americas and ranges from the southwestern United States all the way down to northern Argentina. For habitat, it prefers dense rainforest but will tolerate a variety of forested and open environments. Their stocky, powerful limb structure allows them to be adept at swimming, climbing, and crawling. Its exceptionally powerful bite contributes to its versatility as a predator – it is able to puncture the armor of reptiles as well as kill prey by biting through the skull.
Bats: The Only True-Flying Mammal
Bats, the only mammal capable of true flight, are not blind - their eyes are just fine, thank you very much. But instead of eyes, most bats rely on an incredibly fine-tuned sense of hearing when they fly and hunt. Using a technique called echolocation, they emit high-pitched calls (usually above the range of human hearing), using the echos that are reflected back to them as a means of navigation and locating objects. The ears, auditory cortex, and (in a few cases) even noses of some bats are extraordinarily specialized for echolocation; there are even bats that have adapted the frequency of their calls to frequencies above or below what their favorite prey can hear!
Learn more >>
Discover Animals is a web-based educational resource offered by the NAIA
