A 1.3-kilometre swim by a jaguar is the longest ever confirmed, but the cat’s motives for making the journey are unclear
By Michael Le Page
12 September 2025
Jaguars are known to be strong swimmers
Matthias Graben/imageBROKER RF/Getty Images
Camera traps show that an adult male jaguar swam at least 1.3 kilometres to an island in the reservoir of the Serra da Mesa dam in central Brazil – by far the longest recorded swim by one of these animals.
In fact, it’s possible the jaguar swam nearly twice as far. Reaching the island would have required either a 1-km swim to a smaller island, followed by the 1.3-km swim, or a 2.3-km direct swim from the mainland with no stop.
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“We are being conservative by assuming that this cat did use a small island on the way as a stepping stone,” says Leandro Silveira at the Jaguar Conservation Fund in Brazil. “It could in fact have swum the 2.3-kilometre straight line.”
The jaguar was snapped by a camera trap Leandro Silveira/Jaguar Conservation Fund, Brazil
Silveira says that, as far as he knows, this is the longest swim by any big cat that has been confirmed by direct evidence. Jaguars are known to be excellent swimmers that will even hunt caimans in water. However, until now, there were no reports of them swimming more than 200 metres at a time, says Silveira.