Jaguars may be among the most elusive animals in the world, but it turns out that they aren't a bit camera shy.
Marcella Kelly, assistant wildlife professor at Virginia Tech, has spent the last couple of years capturing photos of
Jaguars may be among the most elusive animals in the world, but it turns out that they aren't a bit camera shy.
Marcella Kelly, assistant wildlife professor at Virginia Tech, has spent the last couple of years capturing photos of these majestic cats in Central America and some of them apparently love hamming it up for the camera. The fact that the pictures are taken at night, with a flash mounted on an automated camera that lights up the forest, doesn't even seem to bother the jaguars.
"I get a number of photographs where the animal walks by the camera, and I get a picture of their side, and the next photograph is a picture of their face," she says. "So they've obviously come back to check it out."
Like all cats are supposed to be, they apparently are just curious.
Each jaguar has a very distinct pattern in its coat, so Kelly and her colleagues can tell instantly if the same cat keeps showing up.
"I photographed one of them about 40 times now," she says, and that's a bit surprising since these animals are normally so standoffish that they are rarely seen by humans. Kelly herself has only seen one in 