http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...izona-mountains.html

Let's all leave him alone !

Isn't this article years old?
If I recall so called "conservationists" killed this cat with a drug overdose while trying to capture and study him.....
Then there was a cover up.

quote:

Originally posted by Snellstrom:
Isn't this article years old?
If I recall so called "conservationists" killed this cat with a drug overdose while trying to capture and study him.....
Then there was a cover up.

That was Macho B. The new one above is known as El Jefe (The Boss). Here's a series of articles I wrote from July '09 thru March '12. The latest references El Jefe.


JULY 2009
Jaguar in Arizona

Jaguars once ranged from southern South America through Central America and Mexico and into the southern United States, especially in the Southwest. In Arizona, they roamed as far north as the Grand Canyon and were legally hunted. An old Arizona Wildlife Trophies book lists nine legal kills during the early and mid-1900s, with four of them taking place in the 1960s.

The Arizona Game & Fish Department (AGFD) finally placed them under state protection in 1969. After the ban, two more were illegally killed in southern Arizona. Sightings and encounters then ended, and by the late 1900s, biologists thought the big cats were gone from the U.S. landscape. That all changed in 1996, however, when two independent sightings confirmed that jaguars still used Arizona and New Mexico as part of the northern most extent of its range.

The first person to see one of the majestic cats that year was lion hunter Warner Glenn. In March 1996, his hounds chased and treed a jaguar in southwestern New Mexico, and Glenn provided photographic proof of the encounter. In August 1996, Jack Childs, another lion hunter, chased a different jaguar in Arizona.

Those sightings led to the formation of the Jaguar Conservation Team (JCT) in 1997 to protect and conserve the species in Arizona and New Mexico. The JCT began working with Mexico two years later, recognizing that the presence of jaguars in the United States depends on the conservation of the species in Mexico. As part of the conservation effort, the Borderlands Jaguar Detection Project, a group that works in cooperation with the JCT, set about to monitor the big cats with trail cameras. As a result, the cameras have produced a few dozen jaguar photos over the last 13 years or so. One particular jaguar, eventually name Macho B, showed up in photos several times.

Then last February, the AGFD accidentally caught a healthy, 118-pound male jaguar in a snare the agency had set during a routine bear and lion research project in an area southwest of Tucson.

"We issued a permit under the Endangered Species Act to radio collar a jaguar if the opportunity presented itself," said Steve Spangle, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Arizona field supervisor. "Gathering habitat use information and learning whether and how the cat is moving in and out of the United States may be essential to jaguar conservation at the northern edge of their range."

The jaguar plan, which was created in consultation with other leading jaguar experts, includes a protocol for capture, sedation and handling in the event a cat was captured.

Thinking this was an ideal opportunity for further research on the big cats, biologists tranquilized and placed a satellite tracking collar on the jaguar before releasing it to the wild. The collar provided location points every three hours, and the early tracking effort indicated the cat was doing well and had already traveled more than three miles from the capture site.

While individual jaguars have been photographed sporadically in the borderland area of the state over the past years, the place where this animal was captured was outside of the area where the last known jaguar photograph was taken in January 2009. Yet biologists, using the cat’s spot pattern, identified it as Macho B, the oldest jaguar in the wild at 15-16 years old.

A day or two later optimism was high.

“Every indication is that Macho B is doing well and has recovered from his capture and collaring,” said Terry Johnson, endangered species coordinator for the Arizona Game and Fish Department. “With so little known about how jaguars move throughout our state, every little piece of data helps us understand more about the population segment that uses southern Arizona and New Mexico as the northern part of its range. Until now, all we’ve had is a photo here and a photo there, but nothing that shed light on what the species does while moving within or between habitats.”

"While we didn't set out to collar a jaguar as part of the mountain lion and bear research project, we took advantage of an important opportunity," says Terry Johnson, endangered species coordinator for the AGFD. "More than 10 years ago, Game and Fish attempted to collar a jaguar with no success. Since then, we've established handling protocols in case we inadvertently captured a jaguar in the course of one of our other wildlife management activities."

Within days, however, optimism turned to sadness. Macho B’s activities and movements indicated something was amiss. Biologists immediately went in search of the jaguar, recaptured it and transported it to the Phoenix Zoo’s veterinary center. There, veterinarians determined the jaguar was dying of acute kidney failure. As a result, they euthanized Macho B.

Zoo veterinarians Dr. Dean Rice and Dr. Julie Swenson immediately performed a necropsy.

“During the necropsy, we didn’t find anything out of the ordinary for a cat of Macho B’s advanced age,” said Dr. Rice. “But, given the extremely small size of his bladder despite aggressive intravenous fluid therapy, it was apparent that his kidneys were shutting down. Kidney failure is more a matter of weeks or months, not days.”

Veterinarians indicated that Macho B showed no physical signs of illness that could have been detected by the biologists who originally collared him after he was unintentionally captured.

Kidney failure is a common ailment in older cats however. The diagnosis depends on running blood tests to analyze the blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine levels, which are the two most important indicators of kidney function. Blood tests run upon arrival at the zoo showed Macho B’s BUN was greater than 180, but an exact level could not be determined because the maximum reading on the diagnostic equipment was 180. The upper limit of a normal BUN level is 30. The cat’s creatinine level was 15.2 with the normal range being .3 to 2.1.

Arizona Game and Fish Department biologists had hoped to learn more from blood samples taken at the original capture, but the samples were deemed to be inadequate for testing. The blood samples were collected for use in DNA analysis in accordance with the capture protocol developed by leading jaguar experts. They were not intended to determine the health or condition of the animal at the time of the collaring, which would have required a different blood handling process.

Macho B was believed to be the oldest known jaguar in the wild at 15-16 years old, but biologists hope to better determine the animal’s age from studying one of his teeth using cementum annuli tooth aging, a common technique used to assess an animal’s age.

The jaguar has been protected outside of the United States under the Endangered Species Act since 1973. That protection was extended to jaguars within the U.S. in 1997, the year after their presence in the Arizona and New Mexico borderlands was confirmed.

Jaguars -- the only cat in North America that roars -- prey on a variety of mammals, fish, birds and reptiles. Individuals in the northern population weigh between 80-120 pounds. Females breed year-round and have litters of one to four cubs that stay with their mother for nearly two years.

The jaguar conservation effort in Arizona is funded in part by the Heritage Fund and Indian gaming revenue. In 1990, Arizona voters approved the Heritage Fund to further conservation efforts in the state including protecting endangered species, educating our children about wildlife, helping urban residents to better coexist with wildlife and creating new opportunities for outdoor recreation. Heritage Fund revenues come from Arizona Lottery ticket sales.

*****************

JULY 2010

GAME DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEE DISMISSED
After more than a year of investigation, which is still ongoing, the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD) fired one of its biologists who was involved with last year’s capture of the 118-pound male jaguar known as Macho B.

The fired employee, Thornton W. Smith, had been a wildlife technician for the department for 12 years. He was one of the field biologists involved in the placement and monitoring of traps used in a black bear and mountain lion research project that resulted in the initial capture of Macho B in Feb. 2009.

The department dismissed Smith based on the employee’s statements made during an interview in an AGFD internal investigation. The statements concerned Smith’s conduct that occurred several weeks after the capture, recapture and euthanization of the spotted cat.

Smith’s statements and further investigation showed he did not comply with verbal and written directions issued by supervisors and he admitted to knowingly misleading federal investigators regarding facts surrounding the original capture of Macho B.

Smith admitted his failure to comply with the direction from supervisors not to communicate with anyone other than investigators regarding the original capture of the jaguar because a federal law enforcement investigation had already begun.

In his statements, Smith said he had talked about the capture with Emil McCain, a biologist with the Borderlands Jaguar Detection Project. McCain had assisted Smith in selecting bear and mountain lion trap site locations for the research project.

According to Smith, McCain admitted he placed jaguar scat at two camera sites in the vicinity of where Macho B was captured. Smith also alleged during his discussions with McCain, the two of them concocted a false story about the capture for federal investigators. Supposedly McCain later went to the area and removed all traces of jaguar scat so that the capture scene matched their story.

Smith then knowingly misled federal investigators from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when he told them the story he and McCain had made up denying that jaguar scat had been placed at the capture site.

In his interview with department investigators, Smith claimed McCain “went in and removed whatever scat he left, whatever it was. You know, I don’t know what got eaten. Because by the time we actually caught, you know, the jaguar, the scat by the camera had been kicked over and knocked. I don’t know what was left. He went in and cleaned it up, made it look like our story.”

When asked by department investigators if he had knowingly misled the federal investigators, Smith said, “Yeah. Yeah. We (McCain and Smith) came up with a story, and I just, it’s been eating on me and I just couldn’t live with it.”

“We made a different story to protect the department, to protect Emil, to protect my association with Emil, about, you know, not leaving jaguar scat, but (tape recording inaudible). There was no scat at all placed anywhere. The one scat I did find he pointed out was an old one, which it was, but you know, I can’t live with that. You know, I did it,” Smith stated.

Although Smith submitted his intent to resign his position, the department refused to accept and issued a letter of dismissal instead.
The AGFD’s will hold its internal investigation open until it receives and reviews whatever findings may come out of an ongoing federal investigation being conducted by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.


*******
SEPT. 2010

GUILTY PLEA IN JAGUAR CASE
Emil McCain, 31, of Patagonia, an individual involved in last year’s trapping of the jaguar known as Macho B, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court, where he was charged with unlawfully taking a jaguar, an endangered species, in violation of the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

U. S. Magistrate Judge Bernardo P. Velasco sentenced McCain to five years of supervised probation with the condition that he is not permitted to be employed or any way involved in any large cat or large carnivore project or study in the United States during his probationary term. McCain was also fined $1,000 for the Class A misdemeanor conviction.

Court documents provide the following facts describing McCain’s connection to the conduct for which he pleaded guilty:
“On February 4, 2009, at or near Ruby, in the District of Arizona, Emil McCain placed jaguar scat or directed a female person to place jaguar scat at three (3) snare sites in an attempt to capture and trap an endangered species, to wit, a jaguar (Panthera onca). McCain knew that there had been recent evidence of a jaguar in the area of the snares. The snares had been set solely for the purpose of capturing and placing tracking collars on mountain lions and bears; there was no authorization to intentionally capture a jaguar. A jaguar known as Macho B was caught at one of those snare sites on February 18, 2009.”

Some media reports and other accounts about McCain’s guilty plea had incorrectly identified McCain as an Arizona Game and Fish Department employee or state official. As the AGFD had previously stated, McCain has never been a department employee of, and by February 2009, when Macho B was initially captured, McCain was acting independently; he was neither a contractor, subcontractor or a formal volunteer to the Department.

McCain’s admission of guilt conclusively establishes his true involvement in this matter and supports the AGFD’s long-standing assertion that there was no authorization from the Department for the intentional capture of a jaguar.


**********

JAGUAR SUIT DISMISSED
The Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD) and the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) agreed to dismiss a federal court suit filed by CBD in 2009 regarding Game and Fish’s endangered species permit.

U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Marshall reviewed a stipulation for dismissal and issued an order dismissing the lawsuit without prejudice with each party to bear its own costs.

“The Arizona Game and Fish Department has played a prominent role in the conservation of threatened and endangered species in Arizona and has allocated significant resources over the years to the conservation and recovery of federally-listed species,” said Gary Hovatter, deputy director for Game and Fish. “The dismissal of this case will allow us to again focus on those efforts rather than on litigation designed to hinder them.”

The suit filed by the CBD alleged that the AGFD did not have a permit to carry out activities that might lead to “take” of a jaguar under the Endangered Species Act.

The AGFD’s has claimed all along that it operated at all times under a permit issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that authorized the “take” of threatened and endangered species, including jaguars, for purposes consistent with wildlife conservation objectives.

The Fish and Wildlife Service affirmed Game and Fish’s position when it reissued its endangered species permit on June 14, 2010 and took steps to further clarify the department’s authority to manage threatened and endangered species as authorized by the Endangered Species Act.
AGFD remains under a self-imposed moratorium of any activities that might result in the capture of a jaguar until a more than 15-month-long ongoing federal investigation into the death of the jaguar Macho B is concluded.

A central figure in the Macho B incident, Emil McCain of Patagonia, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in May 2010 for unlawfully taking a jaguar in violation of the Endangered Species Act. McCain’s plea agreement detailed how he placed jaguar scat or directed another person to place jaguar scat at snare sites to intentionally capture a jaguar. Macho B was caught in one of those snare sites on Feb. 18, 2009.
McCain was not employed by the AGFD and had no contractual or volunteer relationship with the AGFD.


********

MARCH 2012

ANOTHER JAGUAR SIGHTED
The Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD) has confirmed the presence of another jaguar in an area southeast of Tucson after a lion hunter reported that he had treed the big cat.

The sighting of the endangered feline occurred more than two years after the demise of the country's only known wild jaguar known as Macho B.
Donnie Fenn, the owner of Chasin’ Tail Outfitters, was mountain lion hunting with his 10-year-old daughter and a friend when the guide’s hound dogs put the jaguar up a mesquite tree. The cat then took off again. With the dogs close behind, the jaguar again treed.

At that point, Fenn removed the dogs, took several dozen pictures of the spotted cat and left the area. He immediately called state officials to report the sighting.

AGFD biologists later combed the scene for claw marks and hair, which they removed for testing. Based on Fenn’s photos, biologists believe the jaguar is an adult male that appeared in good, healthy condition and weighed approximately 200 pounds. They will compare the photos and video to images of other jaguars photographed throughout Arizona in the past. They will try to use comparisons between a jaguar’s unique spots, or “rosettes,” to determine if the animal has been identified previously.

Four of the last five confirmed jaguar sightings in Arizona have been reported by hunters, who all took responsible action to document the animal, report it to the AGFD, and remove their dogs from the area once the animal was identified as a jaguar. These hunters have provided biologists with critical information that may not otherwise be known, information that will help increase the understanding of the species’ existence in along the border with Mexico.

The controversial capture of Macho B prompted a long investigation by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the AGFD. That male had been trapped, fitted with a radio collar and released in February 2009. A month later, he was captured again and euthanized due to health problems, enraging wildlife advocates.

As a result, Emil McCain, a volunteer biologist working for the independent Borderlands Jaguar Detection Project, pleaded guilty to intentionally trapping the jaguar by baiting a trap site meant for mountain lions with female jaguar scat he had obtained from a zoo.

There is a thread in africahunting.com titled "Jaguar in Texas" in which a landowner and his neighbors are convinced they have a jaguar leaving tracks and eating javelinas. The poster says other jaguars have been sighted in Texas recently, too.

If this is true, knowing the way the Texas landowners I know feel about their property rights and the federal government, I'll be interested to see what happens when the USFWS and the Center for Biological Diversity decide a huge part of their state needs to be declared "critical jaguar habitat," as they did in Arizona.

Bill Quimby

Hey Tony,

I am very excited to see a Jaguar back in the USA!

You seem to be following this issue pretty closely so what is the general consensuses regarding a breeding population in the USA?

I follow Leopards pretty closely and usually a lone male is a young male looking to establish his own territory.

What do you think?