Researchers stunned as trail cameras capture footage of unbelievable animal behavior: 'Evidence like this is very rare'

Biologists in Brazil were pleasantly surprised after camera traps confirmed a stunning feat of endurance by an apex predator.

Mongabay reported that a male jaguar has absolutely shattered an old record for the longest confirmed swim. The previous record from 1932 was a respectable 200m (660ft), but the new record of 1.4 miles blew that out of the water in the waters of an artificial reservoir in the Cerrado savanna.

The researchers first spotted this feline Michael Phelps back in May 2020 and picked him up again in August 2024 on an island within the reservoir. Jaguars are easily identifiable as they all have uniquely patterned rosettes, which is also how you can tell them apart from leopards, whose rosettes don't have inner spots.

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It's well known that jaguars are excellent swimmers; they often take to the water in pursuit of prey and are known to hunt caimans and other crocodilian species thanks to their powerful jaws. As Panthera notes, they have the strongest bite of any cat on a per-pound basis; even turtle shells are barely a challenge for jaguars' mighty chompers.

It was always suspected that jaguars were capable of long swims; it was thanks to trail cameras that the researchers finally had confirmation. Camera traps are an excellent tool in conservation research in that they can provide valuable insights, like a jaguar's true swimming capabilities, in a non-invasive way. It's also beneficial for researchers, as cameras track what the human eye can easily miss. Trail cameras are used worldwide to track the most elusive species and help form effective local measures to protect species, raise awareness, and mitigate potential sources of human-animal conflict.

"Evidence like this is very rare," Panthera's Fernando Tortato said in an interview with Mongabay. "We now know that crossing may be difficult, but possible, that [the body of water] doesn't constitute an absolute barrier. With this you can better understand how jaguars might move through a landscape."