An observation refers to the experience of a person observing a jaguar. Observations happen at a given place, at a given time, and vary in kind. Kinds of observations include mortalities (when a person kills a jaguar), sightings (when a person observes a jaguar), observations of sign attributed to a jaguar (such as scat or tracks), or no observations (when a qualified person looks for a jaguar but does not see one). Observations result in a memory on behalf of the observer(s) and may also result in physical evidence (like a skull, skin or photograph). Observations are also commonly recorded, resulting in a record. A record is a written, graphical, or verbal account of a jaguar observation. Written records occur in newspapers, books, scientific journals, and other sources, and ideally are publicly available and can be cited. Graphical records include photographs, paintings, or other human-created representations of a jaguar (like a figurine of a jaguar). Verbal records are accounts of the observation, either by someone with firsthand experience, or someone who heard the story from someone else.
In the observation-record database, each record is described according to a standard set of fields, and then assigned to an observation. The same observation can have multiple records; for example, a book and a newspaper article may describe the same observation, but with slightly different versions depending on who records the observation and how they record it. In this database, an observation is summarized using the most precise, publicly-available location, date, identity, and evidence associated with that observation, unless the observation is considered sensitive (such as with an ongoing study, the results of which may be affected if exact locations are known). In these cases, the observation will still appear, but the location (and possibly other information) may not be as precise.
The types of observation currently in the database are below.
| Observation type | Description | Examples |
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