Jaguars are the only true big cat native to the Americas, a world apart from the other three Panthera species: lions, tigers and leopards, all Old World cats. But while jaguars' spots help them hide from some zoo-goers, they haven't helped the species escape people in general — once widespread across North and South America, jaguars are now restricted to the latter, plus some Central American holdouts and possibly a few in Mexico. The last known U.S. jaguar died in 2009