Jaguars are hard to count because they hide, roam over large areas and are few in number. Scientists photograph them with camera traps and tell each animal apart by its spot pattern.

In 2004 a team described the first systematic camera-trap method for estimating jaguar numbers. They set a grid of cameras for 2 months, told each animal apart by its coat pattern, and used statistics. The study covered five places in Belize and Bolivia. It found 2.4 to 8.8 adult jaguars per 100 square kilometers, from 7 to 11 animals seen at each place.

Camera-trap researchers in Colombia placed cameras in pairs, so that both flanks of each passing jaguar were photographed. Each jaguar was then told apart from its spot and rosette patterns. In two farmland landscapes there, cameras ran for more than 2,000 nights at each place. Density estimates were 2.52 to 3.15 adult jaguars per 100 km2 in the Magdalena valley and 1.12 to 2.19 in the llanos, depending on the analysis.

As of November 2026, a jaguar-identification project with Panthera and its partners in the Brazilian Pantanal has identified more than 300 jaguars. Panthera has monitored jaguars in the Cockscomb Basin of Belize since the early 2000s. It describes this as one of the longest-term jaguar databases in the world.

A jaguar fact sheet says camera trapping has great potential for adding more accurate population data. It says presence or absence along the edges of the old range is of particular interest. Since 1996, Arizona has had photos and tracks of four adult males and possibly a fifth.

Jaguars once lived from the southwestern United States down to Argentina, and today they live in fewer places. As of November 2026, jaguars have been found in 19 countries; long ago they lived in 21.

Words to know

• flanks: body sides
• density: number per area
• statistics: number methods
• Panthera: wild cat group