Jaguars are stockier and more muscular than the leopard, with a shorter body, shorter legs and a broader chest. But let’s be real, if you spot one in the wild you probably won’t be trying to figure out if the creature you see before you weighs in more like 190 or 170. When it comes to looks, jaguars are bigger and bulkier than leopards, weighing up to 250 pounds compared with the 175-pound leopard. And if you see a spotted big cat in Africa, Asia, the Middle East or Russia, it will be a leopard (cheetahs have spotted coats but a significantly slighter build and don’t count as a “big” cat). If the spotted cat happens to be in Latin America, it’s definitely a jaguar. They live on completely different continents. The easiest and quickest way to figure out if you are looking at a jaguar or a leopard is by location. Let’s take a minute to learn a bit more about what sets a jaguar, leopard and black panther apart. And while a black panther is easy to identify because of its, well, very obvious black color, most people mistakenly think that it is its own species. the leopard-these two magnificent spotted big cats are both members of the Panthera genus, are muscular ambush predators and are so similar in coat appearance that even the savviest animal lover can have a tricky time telling them apart in photos.
