Florida mammals

Jaguar in Florida

Panthera onca

Native to Florida

Not listed as nonindigenous in Florida by USGS NAS; treated as native to its mapped Florida range.

IUCN Red List status

  1. LC
  2. NT
  3. VU
  4. EN
  5. CR
  6. EW
  7. EX

NT – Near Threatened

Close to qualifying as threatened in the near future.

Jaguar standing in dense green coverJaguar walking through dense riverside vegetationJaguar walking along a muddy riverbankJaguar half-submerged beside tangled riverbank roots
Photo: Mark Bolnik · CC-BYJaguar standing in dense green coverPhoto: Nicolas Olejnik · CC-BYJaguar walking through dense riverside vegetationPhoto: Fabrício Mil Homens Riella · CC-BYJaguar walking along a muddy riverbankPhoto: Luciano Massa · CC-BYJaguar half-submerged beside tangled riverbank roots

Jaguar in Florida, by the numbers

Common in Florida 29th most recorded of 116 mammals logged in Florida

355 occurrence records

Records from 2000–2026.

355 total records count every Florida occurrence from GBIF and iNaturalist; the map plots a georeferenced sample of 300; the monthly chart covers the 239 records with a full observation date.

When to look for the Jaguar in Florida

Most sightings fall in August.

239 Florida occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) by month of year, 2000–2026. Shows when the species is recorded, not a guarantee of presence.

Monthly Florida records (table)
MonthRecords
January12
February12
March17
April12
May16
June14
July13
August99
September25
October10
November4
December5

Monthly jaguar occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) in Florida, 2000–2026.

Seasonality

Year-round in Florida, with recorded sightings peaking in August.

Occurrence map

Where Jaguar has been recorded in Florida

300 records mapped · zoom and drag to explore

300 Florida records mapped

Notable places to look

Park, forest, or monumentiNaturalist records
Ichetucknee Springs State Park 2
Ocala National Forest 1
Charlotte Harbor Preserve State Park 1
Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park 1

Protected places with the most jaguar sightings, from the USGS Protected Areas Database plus named mountain ranges, good spots to look, not a full breakdown, so they don't sum to the total.

Where it's recorded in Florida

CountyRecords
Sumter County 89
Miami-Dade County 73
Marion County 51
Alachua County 36
Levy County 21
Gilchrist County 16
Hendry County 14
Sarasota County 11
Charlotte County 8
Hardee County 5
Citrus County 5
DeSoto County 4
11 other counties 22

The complete county distribution, spread across 23 Florida counties. Every occurrence record falls in one county, so these sum to the total. Counties from GBIF and US Census boundaries.

Florida has no confirmed resident jaguar population within recorded memory, and the numbers back that up: all 355 Florida-tagged GBIF records are database entries, with zero coming from iNaturalist’s community-verified sightings. That split points to older or archival records rather than a recent encounter.

One month stands out sharply: August, which accounts for roughly 4 in 10 of the year’s logged reports. Given the total absence of citizen-observed sightings, that spike more likely reflects when specimen records were catalogued than any real seasonal pattern in a species with no established Florida range.

Jaguar standing in dense green cover
Full species profile Jaguar Panthera onca Size 1.1–1.9 m3.7–6.1 ft Weight 30–100 kg66.1–220.5 lb Lifespan Up to 28 yr View the full profile

More mammals in Florida in the atlas

Data & sources

The data and visualizations on this page draw on these open sources:

  • GBIFCC-BY 4.0occurrence records behind the range map, elevation, and record counts
  • iNaturalistCC0 / CC-BY / CC-BY-SAobservations, photos, and audio recordings
  • IUCN Red Listattributed factthe global conservation status
  • USGS NASpublic domainnative / introduced status
  • Natural Earthpublic domainthe relief basemap
  • USGS Protected Areas Databasepublic domainthe named parks, forests, and refuges behind "notable places to look"