A fearless uncle confronted a jaguar attacking his two teenage nephews while they were on a camping trip in Brazil.
While on a morning walk by the Jureana river in central Brazil, Erivaldo Moriman returned to his family’s campsite only to discover the predator attacking his 15 and 18-year-old nephews in Salto do Augusto on August 13th.
Moriman yelled and swung his arms around to distract the jaguar from mauling the teen boys.
The ploy worked, and the big cat swiftly shifted its focus to the shouting man, charging at him and latching its claws onto his body, forcefully bringing him down.
In a desperate bid to survive, Moriman clung onto the jaguar’s leg while enduring a bite to his head, which left him with a deep wound and blood streaming down his face.
Remarkably, through sheer will to live, Moriman managed to fight off the jaguar using only his bare hands and was taken to a hospital.
The trip wasn’t quick, first he had to travel two hours by boat to a private lodge, where he was treated by a guest who happened to be a doctor.
From there, Moriman was transported to Albert Sabin Regional Hospital in Alta Floresta, which was another three hour trip.
When he finally arrived at the hospital, doctors determined that the everyday hero had sustained severe scalp injuries from the jaguar’s sharp fangs, which required around 150 stitches.
Moriman said that when he made a spectacle to distract the Jaguar, she let his nephews go and charged at him.
“I foolishly tried to run, and as I tried to run, she attacked again, and that’s when she got me,” he recalled about the attack. “She didn’t just scratch me; she actually bit me on the head.”
Astonishingly, he was released from the hospital the following day, but said that surviving such an attack is so rare that “Nobody believes it, but it was true.”
Moriman and his nephews were lucky to survive, a 10-year-old Brazilian boy was killed by a jaguar in 2022, when he went fishing in a local forest.
When the boy didn’t return home later that day, his family and neighbors went searching and found his body so completely savaged by the big cat, that his face had been ripped off by the animal’s claws and teeth.
What Is The Bite Force Of A Jaguar?
Jaguars, the strongest big cats in proportion to their body size, possess remarkable physical abilities.
With a bite force measuring 1,500 PSI and a paw swipe force close to 500 pounds, these majestic creatures exhibit unparalleled strength.
In fact, jaguars are approximately nine times stronger than humans, boasting a bite force around three times stronger than that of a lion and one and a half times stronger than a tiger.
What Is A Jaguar’s Speed?
According to World Animal Protection, the Jaguar is the second fastest big cat in the world, with their top speed clocking in at 50MPH, only twenty miles per hour slower than the world’s quickest animal, the cheetah.
Do Jaguars Attack Humans?
Jaguars typically prefer to avoid humans rather than initiate attacks. However, occasional attacks do occur, especially when provoked. Unfortunately, Jaguar attacks often lead to horrific consequences like severe injuries and instant death.
Of particular concern is the fact that when jaguar attacks happen, children are frequently targeted due to their smaller size and weight, resembling the jaguar’s typical prey.
How to Survive a Jaguar Attack
According to WikiHow, surviving a jaguar attack involves a lot of common sense. First, if you’re walking in the forest, make sure to be aware of your surroundings, so you can spot a jaguar lounging in a tree before it gets the chance to pounce on you.
If you see a jaguar and it doesn’t see you, it’s best to avoid disturbing the animal. If you are spotted, back away slowly and avoid eye contact.
Never run away, because the animal will view you as prey, and will easily gain on you, as they are insanely fast.
When a jaguar attacks, hold your ground and make yourself seem bigger and more dangerous by yelling and waving your arms.
Playing dead isn’t an option, make sure to fight back to save your own life, jabbing the cat in an eye, or punching it in the nose can potentially cause the animal to back off.
If you’re not able to stop the attack, protect the back of your head, as the unusual predator prefers to break through their prey’s skull with their powerful bite, rather than going for the neck.
