The film offers an intimate glimpse into the lives of a jaguar family in life-and-death struggles with a caiman, a peccary, a pirarucu, and an anaconda.

[4] Howard Thompson of The New York Times wrote: "As written and directed by James Algar, this is one of Mr. Disney's best—intimate, tasteful, strong and matter-of-fact".

[3] Variety stated: "Somewhat less astonishing, considerably less amusing, but equally as meticulous and painstakingly filmed as Walt Disney's previous true-life adventure pieces, 'Jungle Cat' pokes around in the lush rain forests of Brazil and comes up with some splendidly photographed shots of wildlife in its best survival-of-the-fittest form".

[5] Frank Mulcahy of the Los Angeles Times called the film "a fascinating study of 'the greatest hunter of all cats', the jaguar ... Like all films in this particular Disney series, it is beautifully photographed in Technicolor and shows every evidence of the painstaking work required to produce such remarkable footage".

But one still deplores the over-joviality of a commentary which noisily relishes the prospect of animals killing and eating one another—as when a jaguar, disappointed in some victim, casts around for another just as a wild pig trots into sight.