# Painted Jaguar — Just So Stories character guide

> Painted Jaguar in Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Jaguar, the Jaguar

**First appearance:** 0006-the-beginning-of-the-armadillos

## Snapshot

A young jaguar on the turbid Amazon who trusts his mother's advice until a hedgehog and a tortoise rewrite the rules.

## Who they are

Painted Jaguar hunts everything he can catch and relies on his mother's tidy instructions for eating hedgehogs and tortoises. When Stickly-Prickly and Slow-Solid swap tricks and then swap shapes, his paw and his pride both take a beating. His baffled return to the same two animals, still nursing his hurt foot, drives the comedy of the armadillo origin.

## Relationships

### [Mother Jaguar](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters/mother_jaguar)

_family_

Mother Jaguar is the parent of Painted Jaguar, guiding and sometimes scolding her son in their jungle adventures.

### [Tortoise](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters/tortoise)

_rivalry_

Painted Jaguar and Tortoise are clever adversaries, with Tortoise often outwitting the jaguar in their encounters.

### [Slow-and-Solid](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters/slow_and_solid)

_rivalry_

Painted Jaguar tries to catch and eat Slow-and-Solid the tortoise, but is repeatedly outsmarted.

### [Mother Jaguar](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters/mother_jaguar)

_family_

Mother Jaguar is the parent of Painted Jaguar, guiding and sometimes scolding her son in their jungle adventures.

### [Tortoise](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters/tortoise)

_rivalry_

Painted Jaguar and Tortoise are clever adversaries, with Tortoise often outwitting the jaguar in their encounters.

### [Tortoise](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters/tortoise)

_rivalry_

Painted Jaguar and Tortoise are clever adversaries, with Tortoise often outwitting the jaguar in their encounters.

### [Slow-and-Solid](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters/slow_and_solid)

_rivalry_

Painted Jaguar tries to catch and eat Slow-and-Solid the tortoise, but is repeatedly outsmarted.

### [Mother Jaguar](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters/mother_jaguar)

_family_

Mother Jaguar is the parent of Painted Jaguar, guiding and sometimes scolding her son in their jungle adventures.

## In the story

### [The Beginning of the Armadillos](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/chapters/the-beginning-of-the-armadillos)

Tries to eat the Hedgehog and Tortoise but is outwitted. Gets pricked and confused, eventually reports to his mother.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters/painted_jaguar
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters