Jaguar did not dare to fight the giant anteater

The leopard spotted himself lying still, waiting until the giant anteater had finished drinking and dared to stand up.

Luke Massey, a photographer who specializes in large cats in the world, witnessed the clash between giant ants and large male jaguar on the edge of the lake between a cattle farm in Pantanal , Brazil, in September 2017, according to National Geographic. According to Massey, this is one of the strangest encounters in the natural world that he has witnessed.

Jaguar dared not attack giant anteater.(Video: National Geographic).

Giant anteater crawls out from dense trees to drink water in the lake. Not long after that, leopard spotted coming, quietly striding toward the anteater and pulling himself forward. With a muscular neck and claws larger than a boxing glove, the leopard seemed ready to rush, but something stopped it.

"When I saw the jaguar leisurely walking behind the completely unconscious and vulnerable target of being a giant anteater, I kept wondering if I would witness a murder or a battle of battle. I don't think jaguars will lie down and watch, " Massey said.

Jaguar deals with giant marsupials in Gurupi.(Video: YouTube).

But Fernando Rodrigo Tortato, the Pantanal Jaguar Project researcher of the big cat conservation organization Panthera, is not surprised."Giant anteater is sometimes in the jaguar diet, but in the Pantanal, it is not a regular prey, accounting for less than 5% of the food source ," Tortato said.

Conservationist Charles Munn, executive director of the wildlife tourism company, offers another explanation for this clash."The only reason why jaguars don't attack giant anteater is their claws , " Munn said. This oddly shaped mammal possesses a secret weapon that is a sharp claw that is more than 10cm long, often used by ant nests, but can also inflict fatal damage to the attacker.

Jaguar waiting for the giant anteater to drink water and dare to stand up.

In September 2016, motion-activated cameras in Brazil's Gurupi biological conservation area recorded the battle between jaguars and giant anteater. The jaguar goes straight to the potential prey, but the anteater only stands straight, spreading its claws and swinging towards the enemy.

"I am sure the scene is another part of this story. If the jaguar attacks the lake marsupial, the marsupial will use sharp and strong claws to defend itself, causing the leopard to be badly injured even wounded, " Munn said.