anytime one darts or sedates a wild animal you risk having a reaction to the drugs. That MAY of been the case here or may not of been. Bad ending at any rate.

troy

The necropsy -- and not possible erroneous assumptions -- will be the tell-all of the actual cause of the kidney failure. Obviously, the first thing they will consider is the sedative and its effects, i.e. does it even affect kidney function in any dosage.

My thought: this was just an unfortunate and COINCIDENTAL happenstance resulting from the jag's age and not anything it endured during the capture/collaring.

We posted many of the deer that died after the sedation and found that kidney failure was the most common cause of death. It could be any number of complications that I have seen from nephrosis to cystic kidneys. The kidney, in fuction, is to remove waste and that is what the meds are, waste, to the animals body. This jaguar with age asumably wasn't able to rid the waste or the kidneys had to work at a tragic rate.

ddj

Magnificent beasties! Sad end to the story.

I think I watched a melanistic cat in February of 2008 near Dilly, Texas. Wish to heck I'd had the presence of mind to push the record button on the digital video camera that was mounted on the tripod in the blind next to me. Was so started by seeing the cat that I completely forgot the camera.

This sort of sighting makes me think what I saw may have been what I thought it was!

Biologists and veterinarians expect lab tests to provide
more medical clues on collared Arizona jaguar

PHOENIX -- Biologists and veterinarians expect to learn more about the medical conditions that led to the demise of a collared jaguar that was euthanized this week due to kidney failure.

Veterinarians from the Phoenix Zoo conducted a necropsy immediately following the death of the cat on Monday, but did not find anything unexpected for an older jaguar. Veterinarians Dr. Dean Rice and Dr. Julie Swenson from the zoo performed the necropsy.

Multiple tissue and organ samples, including from the kidneys, liver, adrenal glands and heart, were submitted for histopathology study to an outside laboratory. Histopathology is the study of microscopic anatomical changes in diseased tissue.

"During the necropsy, we didn't find anything out of the ordinary for a cat of Macho B's advanced age," said Dr. Rice, a veterinarian and executive vice president at the Phoenix Zoo. "But, given the extremely small size of his bladder despite aggressive intravenous fluid therapy, it was apparent that his kidneys were shutting down. I expect the histopathology reports to show that this animal had been experiencing kidney failure for awhile. Kidney failure is more a matter of weeks or months, not days."

The histopathology report may also reveal if the jaguar had any other medical conditions that were not evident during the physical necropsy. Results are expected in several weeks.

Veterinarians indicated that Macho B showed no physical signs of illness that could have been detected by the biologists that originally collared him after he was unintentionally captured during a mountain lion and bear study. Diagnosis of kidney failure 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 Monday 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.

Kidney failure is a common ailment in older cats.

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.

The decision to euthanize the jaguar was made based on the results of the zoo's blood work. The decision was made jointly between Game and Fish, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Phoenix Zoo.

The jaguar was recaptured on Monday after data monitoring revealed a decreased level of activity over the weekend. The cat was brought immediately to the Phoenix Zoo for further medical assessment.

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's initial capture was guided by protocols developed in case a jaguar was inadvertently captured in the course of other wildlife management activities. The plan, which was created in consultation with leading jaguar experts, includes a protocol for capture, sedation and handling.

Like I said, we filled him with sedatives, but it's REALLY not our faults, and the first blood sample, well, it's just not good enough.

Still makes me say Hmmmmm.

quote:

Originally posted by larrys:
Like I said, we filled him with sedatives, but it's REALLY not our faults, and the first blood sample, well, it's just not good enough.

Still makes me say Hmmmmm.

No doubt if you had been present, you might have been able to suggest a way to release the cat from the snare without sedation or any other stressful manuever.

quote:

a way to release the cat from the snare without sedation or any other stressful manuever.

Can't do it. Jaguars are aggressive and do not respond well to capture, to release from a leg snare or leghold trap they'd need to be sedated.

I didn't say there wasn't. I just said that their taking NO responsibility at all is simple horseshit. If you caused the problem, at least man up and say so. How about, "the sedation we had to use to free the endangered cat may have hastened the aging defects of this particular animal, but was necessary for release." But like others, getting defense and denial is better.

quote:

Originally posted by larrys:
How about, "the sedation we had to use to free the endangered cat may have hastened the aging defects of this particular animal, but was necessary for release." But like others, getting defense and denial is better.

Why say something like that unless they know it to be true? Or is the opinion of an armchair "vet" that THINKS that was the case enough to make it so?

I am speaking from experience.

It isn't a certainty that the sedation caused detrimental damage to this jaguars kidneys but it is probable. The fact that the cat had a hypptrophic bladders show that this had become a chronic problem. The sedation may have been the last straw.

I do think the risk was justified.

ddj

quote:

Originally posted by trouthunterdj:
I am speaking from experience.

It isn't a certainty that the sedation caused detrimental damage to this jaguars kidneys but it is probable. The fact that the cat had a hypptrophic bladders show that this had become a chronic problem. The sedation may have been the last straw.

ddj

I have no doubt if the findings show what you say to be true, they will state that -- WHEN it is known to be fact. Otherwise, it's nothing more than specualtion.

But again, both the initial and subsequent sedations were NECESSARY. So regardless of what occurred after the first one, i.e. collaring, etc., the sedation had to take place just to release it.

And of course, if they later knew there was something amiss, they could have also left the jag alone to wander off, suffer and die on its own rather than sedating it again. But then dead is dead, no? So they did the more humane thing and put it down.

Lastly, when they concluded the cat was distressed before the 2nd seadtion, we can also speculate and say maybe what ailed it was treatable. Thus the 2nd sedation could have saved its life.

Tony,

I don't place blame on anyone in this process. As I stated, I think the risk was justiified. To gain information on elusive species is to good to pass up. But, it is probable that the process did harm this individual jaguar. The next procedure most likely have a different outcome.

ddj

quote:

Originally posted by trouthunterdj:
Tony,

I don't place blame on anyone in this process. As I stated, I think the risk was justiified. To gain information on elusive species is to good to pass up. But, it is probable that the process did harm this individual jaguar. The next procedure most likely have a different outcome.

ddj

And I don't disagreed that it might have occurred. I just withhold making inane comments, including placing blame, until I have factual information.

And as I stated above, the risk was not only justified but necessary, given the accidental capture and desire to release that jag unharmed.

Tony, no need to get defensive and start playing the liberal attack game. We can civily agree to disagree. I just have a larger degree of skepticism than you about any government agency, and I believe that they would NEVER admit they had ANY bearing on the health of this beautiful animal, regardless of what the necropsy said. One armchair VET to another.

quote:

Originally posted by Outdoor Writer:

quote:

Originally posted by trouthunterdj:
Tony,

I don't place blame on anyone in this process. As I stated, I think the risk was justiified. To gain information on elusive species is to good to pass up. But, it is probable that the process did harm this individual jaguar. The next procedure most likely have a different outcome.

ddj

And I don't disagreed that it might have occurred. I just withhold making inane comments, including placing blame, until I have factual information.

And as I stated above, the risk was not only justified but necessary, given the accidental capture and desire to release that jag unharmed.

Tony, like I said, I have experience here. The Jaguar could have been relesed without sedation. It has been done with cougars thousands of times. I can send you my US Fish and Game protocol for release.

That being said, I think the capture and colaring had to be done for scientific data.

ddj

quote:

I have experience here. The Jaguar could have been relesed without sedation. It has been done with cougars thousands of times.

You can't apply to jaguars what you know of mountain lions, they behave differently in a trap. Lions are fairly docile, jaguars are not.

If they are like leopards and they are for every one you see, there is 3 you don't see.
Good story sad ending for this cat.

larrys,
I agree with you completely.

News conference videotape about collared jaguar available online

March 10, 2009

The Arizona Game and Fish Department has posted on its Web site a videotaped copy of a news conference held on Thursday, March 5 in Tucson with its partners to provide more information and answer questions on the recently collared jaguar in southern Arizona. The news conference is available in its entirety by visiting Press Conference.

Participants in the news conference included: Bill Van Pelt, jaguar conservation biologist with the Game and Fish Department; Steve Spangle, Arizona Field Office Supervisor with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Dr. Dean Rice, the veterinarian from the Phoenix Zoo that performed the blood test and necropsy; and Arizona Game and Fish Commission Chairman Bob Hernbrode.

The jaguar was incidentally captured Feb. 18 in an area southwest of Tucson during a research study aimed at monitoring habitat connectivity for mountain lions and black bears. The cat was fitted with a satellite tracking collar and then released. It was hoped that the collar would provide biologists with a better understanding of how jaguars use the borderland habitats.

Initial location data indicated the jaguar was doing well and had moved more than three miles from the original capture site, but data monitoring more than a week later revealed a decreased level of activity. A response team was activated to assess the animal’s condition in the field. Due to weight loss, on March 2 the cat was brought immediately to the Phoenix Zoo for further medical assessment. It was determined then through blood tests that the jaguar was in severe and unrecoverable kidney failure, and the decision was made to euthanize the animal.

For more information about jaguar conservation in Arizona, visit Jaguar Management.

Report: Jaguar wasn't caught 'inadvertently'
Apr. 2, 2009 04:49 PM
Associated Press .

TUCSON - A newspaper report shows that an Arizona Game and Fish employee and a biologist with a jaguar detection group apparently planned to trap one of the rare cats and that a volunteer spread scent to attract it to a snare.

Game and Fish has repeatedly characterized the capture as "inadvertent." The male cat was euthanized less than two weeks after its Feb. 18 capture and subsequent release with a tracking collar fitted, and the case is now being investigated by the Arizona Attorney General's Office.

The Arizona Daily Star in Tucson interviewed a volunteer who worked with the state worker and the biologist. She acknowledged spreading the scent that the Borderlands Jaguar Detection Project obtained from the Phoenix and Tucson zoos.

E-mails obtained by the paper from Game and Fish and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service show that the biologist with the Borderlands group also obtained a tracking collar for the cat before it was captured, consulted with veterinarians on tranquilizer dosages for jaguars and included the Game and Fish employee in her communications.

Borderlands volunteer Janay Brun told the Star that she put the female jaguar scent at the site of the trap two weeks before the cat known as Macho B was snared. The cat was released, but later tracking showed it was showing signs of poor health and he was recaptured and then euthanized.

Brun, 37, of Arivaca, said she spoke to the Star because she thinks she helped cause the death of Macho B. "That jaguar meant a lot to me, and the fact that I mindlessly participated in this - it's a regret I'll have for the rest of my life."

She said she put the scent out in the presence of a state Game and Fish employee and Emil McCain, a biologist for the project. Brun alleges that McCain told her to place the scat at the site.

McCain denied having told Brun to place jaguar scat at the snare site and said he didn't know that she had done it.

"I'm extremely shocked that she would have said that or put scat in that snare," McCain said. "That snare was obviously for mountain lion and bear purposes, not for jaguar research."

But in a series of e-mail obtained by the Star, McCain and the Game and Fish employee received advice on how to tranquilize a jaguar, McCain thanks a collar company for sending the jaguar tracking device, and McCain wrote to the Game and Fish employee and a collar company worker about plans for keeping the device turned on.

"At this point I think that for the week long trapping periods in the area where we may capture a jag, I think we should leave that collar (turned) on," McCain wrote on Feb. 13. "Especailly (sic) given the remmoteness (sic) of the area, the lack of internet or phone access and the once in a lifetime change (sic) to collar a AZ jag, I think it is prudent to be 100 (percent) sure the collar is on."

The Star didn't identify the state employee because he couldn't be reached for comment.

An Arizona Game and Fish spokesman didn't immediately return a call seeking comment on Thursday.

The largest cats native to the Western hemisphere live primarily in Mexico and South America. But they're known to roam in southern Arizona and New Mexico, and the February capture was the first in Arizona.

Earlier this week, a federal judge in Tucson ruled that a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision not to designate critical habitat and develop a recovery plan for the endangered jaguar was based on incorrect criteria.

Due to our office firewall I can't copy and paste from the internet.

The link below is to an article explaining that the feds are now investigating this case.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/...90403machob0403.html

Hmmm, imagine that.

Larry - "Hmmm, imagine that." Man do I second that!!!!!!

Looks like crow is on the menu for some.

This is a horrible end to a great animal. Arizona should kill all the mtn lions and replace them with jags.

Reports indicate that Brun got the scat/bait from McCain, who got it from, guess who, the aforementioned zoo vet. And that they had used the same scat to "bait" the cat to camera sites in the past. Hmmmm....

such tangled webs we weave.....

gonna be some heads roll on this one.

There are two important keys to this incodent that we need to know.

1. What did they use as a sedative and what dosage was given.

2. This other person involved who supposedly spread scent and scat at the trap site, what are her motivations? I suspect that she made this up folowing the cat's death. How does she apply this to the trap site without anyone seeing this happen?

Too many biologists are just environmental extremists, anti-hunting granolas with one primary objective. This case smells of such to me.

don't think so Bear...we posted at the same time.

I have darted a lot of game in my job and the main concern in sedatives is kidney damage...

Bear it is actually obvious what her motives were
They capture a jaguar and call it an accident
Yet then they start to raise awareness about jaguars in Az
Build a media buzz around it
Then ask for funding

No matter. The federal government is coming in on it's white horse and shining armor to right the wrongs done by the state of Arizona.
naturally they will find Arizona was guilty of wrondoing regardless of the truth.
Paul B.

So. Ariz. man pleads guilty in jaguar's death

quote:

PHOENIX – A southern Arizona biologist pleaded guilty on Friday to a misdemeanor federal charge for his role in the 2009 trapping and subsequent death of a rare jaguar known as "Macho B."

Emil McCain, 31, of Patagonia, entered his plea to illegally "taking" an endangered species in U.S. District Court in Tucson and was immediately sentenced to five years probation. McCain was also barred from being employed or involved in any project or job involving large wild cats, according to his plea agreement.

It should be noted that McCain is NOT or ever has been employed by the AZ G&F Department.

Interviews with both he and the fired game dept. employee, Thorry Smith, revealed that McCain and another female volunteer, Janay Brun, had intentionally baited several snare sites with scat from a female in heat that they had obtained from a zoo because they thought it would be neat to catch a jaguar. They were both members of the Borderlands Jaguar Detection Project -- an independent group that voluntraily monitored jaguar activity.

It wasn't until after the fact, that the fired G&F guy found out about it. Unfortunately, he lied about what he knew when first interviewed by dept. officials. He later told them the truth, and that's why he was terminated.

The interviews with Smith are long but interesting. You can read it here:

Thorry Smith Interview Transcripts - Posted April 16, 2010 [PDF 5.5mb]

There are also two other interview transcripts on the Jaguar Page.


AGFD Mar 19, 2010 press release:
PHOENIX – The Arizona Game and Fish Department today dismissed one of its employees as a result of the department’s ongoing internal administrative investigation into the events surrounding last year’s capture of the jaguar known as Macho B.

Dismissed was Thornton W. Smith, 40, a wildlife technician for 12 years with the department and 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.

The department dismissed Smith based on the employee’s own interview statements made during the course of the internal investigation. The statements related to Smith’s conduct that occurred several weeks after the capture, recapture and euthanizing of Macho B.

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

The department’s official letter that documents the grounds for dismissal was delivered to Smith earlier today.

Smith admitted that he failed to comply with verbal and written direction from supervisors not to communicate with anyone (other than investigators) regarding the original capture of the jaguar due to the fact that a federal law enforcement investigation had begun.

In his statements to department investigators, Smith stated that he talked about the capture with Emil McCain, a biologist with the Borderlands Jaguar Detection Project, even though Smith had previously been instructed not to communicate with anyone regarding the subject of the ongoing investigation. According to Smith, McCain had assisted Smith in selecting bear and mountain lion trap site locations for the research project. Smith alleged that McCain disclosed to him after the capture had occurred that McCain had placed jaguar scat at two camera sites in the vicinity of where Macho B was captured. Smith also alleged that during his discussions with McCain, the two of them concocted a false story about the capture for federal investigators, and that McCain later allegedly went to the area where Macho B was captured and removed all traces of jaguar scat so that the capture scene matched the story.

Smith also admitted to Game and Fish investigators that he had knowingly misled federal investigators from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when he told them the story he and McCain had allegedly made up denying that jaguar scat had been placed in the vicinity of the Macho B capture site.

Yet in his interview with department investigators, Smith alleged that 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, “Yah. Yah. 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.”

Upon further questioning by department investigators, Smith went on to allege, “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.”

The Department has concluded that the employee’s conduct is cause for dismissal as allowed by Arizona Revised Statutes 41-770 and includes violations of the standards of conduct for state employees found in Arizona Administrative Code R2-5-501.

Smith has been restricted from working on field activities since July 16, 2009, and the department placed him on paid administrative leave on March 8 pending a determination on what final administrative action would be taken. On March 15, the department issued Smith an official notice of charges of misconduct letter. Today, Smith submitted to the department his intent to resign his position. The department refused to accept Smith’s resignation as allowed by Arizona Administrative Code R2-5-901 and issued a letter of dismissal to him.

Department officials added that the Game and Fish internal investigation cannot be considered completed until the department has an opportunity to review whatever findings may come out of an ongoing federal investigation being conducted by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. However, department officials noted that as the one year anniversary of the initiation of the federal investigation approaches, the department had reached a point in its own investigation where it could no longer delay taking appropriate action.

The department has determined that no agency personnel directed any person to capture a jaguar, and that the department’s actions related to the capture were lawful.

Arizona Daily Star, April 2, 2009

I baited jaguar trap, research worker says

By Tony Davis and Tim Steller

A trap the state says inadvertently snared the last known wild jaguar in the United States actually was baited with female jaguar scat, a member of the Borderlands Jaguar Detection Project says.

Janay Brun told the Star that on Feb. 4 she put the scat at the site of the trap that two weeks later snared the male jaguar, known as Macho B. He was released but recaptured 12 days later, on March 2, because he showed signs of poor health. He was euthanized that afternoon.

Brun, 37, said she spoke to the Star because she thinks she helped cause the death of Macho B. "That jaguar meant a lot to me, and the fact that I mindlessly participated in this — it's a regret I'll have for the rest of my life."

She said she put the scat out in the presence of a state Game and Fish employee and Emil McCain, a biologist for the project. Brun alleges that McCain told her to place the scat at the site.

In two interviews with the Star this week, McCain vehemently denied her allegations. On Tuesday, he said Brun was fired from the project within the last month and was "completely unreliable in the past and untrustworthy." On Wednesday, he said the project ran out of money to pay her and that he was waiting to meet with Brun to tell her that.

The Star is not naming the Game and Fish employee Brun says was present when the scat was placed because it has not been able to reach the person.

The state Attorney General's Office has taken over an investigation of the circumstances of the jaguar's capture from Arizona Game and Fish. The game department, which announced the investigation Tuesday night, would not elaborate.

Project workers have used female jaguar scat to attract jaguars, McCain and others said this week. In 2004, the project began placing scat at locations of motion-sensing cameras where they were attempting to photograph jaguars, two former volunteers said. Jaguars and other cats use scents as a way to communicate, and female jaguar feces may attract male jaguars.

The borderlands jaguar project obtained female jaguar scat from the Phoenix Zoo in November and December of last year and from the Reid Park Zoo on Feb. 18 of this year, officials of both zoos told the Star this week. They said they understood the scat would be used to attract jaguars to cameras, not snares.

On Dec. 10 of last year, in an e-mail exchange forwarded by Brun, McCain sent her an e-mail saying he "just got a package of female … jag scat. Am thinking about placing it under a certain tree. You concur?"

"Si," Brun replied in an e-mail nearly an hour later.

Brun, of Arivaca, is out of state taking care of a family matter. But she said by phone and e-mail that she is speaking up because of the guilt she feels over the death of Macho B, whom she had been studying since she accidentally saw him in 1999.

"I felt guilty as all hell that I never questioned Emil enough, that I didn't go back and set the snares off or do something to get them out of there," said Brun, who has been a paid, part-time field technician for the jaguar detection project.

McCain denied having told Brun to place jaguar scat at the snare site and said he didn't know that she had done it.

"I'm extremely shocked that she would have said that or put scat in that snare," McCain said. "That snare was obviously for mountain lion and bear purposes, not for jaguar research."

More........


Preparing for capture

E-mails obtained through public-records requests to Arizona Game and Fish and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service make clear that in the two weeks before Macho B was captured, McCain and others were preparing to capture a jaguar, even though subsequently officials emphasized the capture was inadvertent.

On Feb. 3, the Game and Fish employee and McCain received e-mails from veterinarians Roberto Aguilar and Sharon Deem suggesting what dosages of which drugs to use to sedate a jaguar.

McCain followed up on Feb. 5 with an e-mail to Deem and the unnamed Game and Fish employee clarifying that the employee "is not trying to catch a jaguar, but he is working on a mountain lion and black bear study in an area where he may inadvertently encounter a jaguar."

On Feb. 13, McCain wrote an e-mail to Blake Henke of North Star Science and Technology, who provided the radio collar that five days later was placed on Macho B.

"I wanted to thank you for getting the donated jaguar collar back to me so quickly," McCain wrote. "I also wanted you to know that we have again started trapping, and that there is fresh jaguar sign in the area."

On Feb. 16, McCain wrote to the Game and Fish employee and Henke: "At this point I think that for the week long trapping periods in the area where we may capture a jag, I think we should leave that collar (turned) on. Especailly (sic) given the remmoteness (sic) of the area, the lack of internet or phone access and the once in a lifetime change (sic) to collar a AZ jag, I think it is prudent to be 100% sure the collar is on."

Naive about traps

As Brun described the scent-baiting event, it occurred on a cold evening, after she, McCain and the Arizona Game and Fish employee had spent most of the day hiking in rugged hills northwest of Nogales, Ariz. The trio checked sites where the borderlands project had set camera traps to photograph passing jaguars and where Game and Fish had set snares for the mountain lion and bear project, Brun said.

"Emil said to me, 'Janay, put the scat over there,' " Brun recalled, referring to the area of the snare trap. "I was very naive about what the traps were. We'd used the scat before at the (camera) traps for two months in Macho B's territory last year and no jaguars had showed up. I didn't think he would be back in the area."

Photos of the jaguar taken on Jan. 21 had shown Macho B about 12 miles north of the eventual trap site, Brun and McCain said. A photo taken earlier that month had shown Macho B south of and much closer to the trap site.

On Feb. 21, three days after Macho B's capture, she said she went to the capture site and saw what she later described as a tree with jaguar claw and tooth marks running up and down it.

"They told the story of how he tried to climb the tree to pull the cable off his paw, only to be pulled down to the ground by the same cable," Brun wrote in an e-mail to the Star, describing the braided, metal cable that is used to snare an animal by a limb. "I found pieces of his claws, including a tip, embedded in the bark. The 'padding' on the cable was electrical tape. This is done to ensure that the cable does not slice through the animal's skin, bone, ligaments and joints as it fights to get free. The loop of the cable remained taut against his paw, cutting off circulation."

In his interview on Tuesday, McCain said Brun had "done a very dirty trick here to make this information public without talking about it first."

"This particular individual has been completely unreliable in the past and untrustworthy," McCain said.

Brun has worked as a volunteer and paid employee for the borderlands project since 2001. But McCain said the project fired Brun sometime in the past month.

Brun said she had no knowledge of having been fired. She provided the Star an e-mail exchange between McCain and her from March 19 and 20 in which he had asked her to go with him to Sonora for 10 days in April to set up to 20 cameras, presumably to photograph wildlife.

Brun was described as "an excellent tracker, putting in countless hours in the field each month," in the book "Ambushed on the Jaguar Trail," an account written by Jack Childs and his wife, Anna. He is co-founder and project coordinator for the Borderlands Jaguar Detection Project. He and Anna, also a co-founder of the group, have been photographing jaguars in Southern Arizona since first catching Macho B on camera in 1996.

Jack Childs, of Amado, said he knew nothing of Brun's allegations until being told of them by a reporter. He declined to comment on them.

In their book, the Childs also thanked biologist McCain, and said, "His bulldog tenacity, tracking ability and vast knowledge of the wild critters of the region elevate the status of the project far beyond our expectations."

Brun was also described as "reliable, totally honest and very trustworthy" by a federal biologist for whom she had worked as an unpaid intern at Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in 2001. Brun spent a year working for the refuge, surveying, releasing and tracking endangered masked bobwhite birds — "she was my right-hand person," recalled Mary Hunnicutt, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist.

For years, many jaguar researchers and other wildlife biologists had wanted to capture a jaguar to learn more about its movements and other behavior, particularly because of concerns that a planned fence along the U.S.-Mexican border would disrupt its movements.

McCain was among the leading advocates of capture. Some environmental groups such as the Sky Island Alliance and Center for Biological Diversity have questioned or opposed capture on the grounds that its risks to the rare animal outweighed the benefits.

But from the moment that Game and Fish officials announced the Macho B capture, they have stuck to their account that the capture was accidental. They have said repeatedly that that trap and others in the area were set to trap black bears and mountain lions to study their movement patterns and migration corridors.

"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," said Terry Johnson, endangered species coordinator for the Arizona Game and Fish Department on Feb. 19, the day the state announced the capture.

The Borderlands research project began using female jaguar scat obtained from the Reid Park Zoo in 2004, said two former volunteers for the group, Shiloh Walkosak and Sergio Avila.

Arizona is at the northern edge of the range of jaguars. In a paper published in the Journal of Mammalogy last year, Childs and McCain said the project "provides valuable new information" on the distribution, travel patterns, longevity and activity of jaguars in the borderlands.

Walkosak, a former Reid Park zookeeper and volunteer with the jaguar project, said she supplied McCain and the project with female jaguar scat that she collected when the zoo's jaguars were in their fertile periods.

"Using the scat was an ongoing part of the project up till when I left the zoo" in late 2006, she said. "We would give him (McCain) maybe the equivalent of one bowel movement for a large cat. He would use that for a very long period of time. He was literally putting a small smear on a rock in front of the camera."

Walkosak and Avila, who now researches jaguars for the Sky Island Alliance, said the project got more photos of jaguars when they began using female jaguar scat.

He and other project workers "used jaguar scat in 2004," Avila said. "That same year, as a result of this, we obtained four photographs of jaguars."

Said Walkosak: "Afterwards we consistently got photographs whenever that (scat) scent was used."

Reid Park Zoo administrator Susan Basford confirmed Walkosak's account, and Phoenix Zoo president Bert Castro acknowledged the zoo provided scat for photo sites last year.

Earlier this year, the zoo agreed to resume supplying jaguar scat to McCain and the project for use in attracting jaguars to the cameras, Basford said. McCain requested the scat to place at camera sites, not snares, she said.

March, 2010 follow-up by Tim Steller:


It was late Friday when Arizona Game and Fish sent out a press release that confirmed key details of the Macho B story and added quite a twist: That employee Thorry Smith and contractor Emil McCain had conspired to cover up aspects of the jaguar capture.

The key detail that was confirmed was Janay Brun's contention, which we revealed in April last year (see sidebar) that she had put female jaguar scat at the site where Macho B was later captured. Brun said that Emil McCain, her supervisor, had asked her to put the scat -- taken from fertile females in zoos -- at a variety of spots during a day long hike through a wilderness area.

At the time, McCain denied it and made an allegation we didn't put in the paper -- that he had previously fired Brun for consorting with drug traffickers. McCain had no evidence of that, and Brun denied it, so we didn't publish it.

Now I see his allegation in a different light, because at the same time, McCain apparently agreed with Thorry Smith to go clean up the sites where Brun had put jaguar scat in order to make them conform to an agreed-upon story of what happened.

The new information casts a whole new light on the federal criminal investigation of Macho B's handling. The Interior Department Office of Inspector General's report suggested that someone -- McCain, it appeared -- could be prosecuted criminally. That seems to me more likely now that we see what Smith had to say.

The actions Smith describes certainly seem like they could interest federal prosecutors (not sure if they amount to a crime, though I suppose there could be an evidence-tampering charge), but he has an out, as my colleague Tony Davis reported. Because his employer required Smith to tell all, that material can't be used in a criminal investigation.

So.... is Smith vulnerable to a criminal charge or not? I can certainly imagine a scenario in which prosecutors ask Smith to cooperate in prosecuting McCain, and what they give Smith in return I'm not sure. Maybe they allow him to plead to a misdemeanor. Or maybe they grant him immunity altogether.

And that still leaves open the question of whether Smith and McCain were directed or encouraged by anyone higher up in their organizations or in the jaguar research world in general.

I did say heads were gonna roll on this one

troy

This type thing is pretty much the norm for the scientific and zoological communities.

To many big egos that continually clash on too many subjects and procedures.

Things happen, known mistakes are made and cover-ups carried out or attempted.

This is nothing new, look at all the BS concerning Global Warming, and to this day, people are still worried about it, even though much of the so-called "Evidence" that was gathered and presented has been proven to be either faulty or completely fraudulent.

Many of the "Scientic, Ology"(Biology/Archeology/Zoology/Climatology/Geology/Paleontology etc.) fields are the home grounds of very egotistical/aggressive and in many cases unscrupulous individuals whose own fame over shadows all else on projects they are involved in.

They will produce the results that match their own beliefs even if they have to manufacture it.

quote:

Originally posted by Crazyhorseconsulting:
They will produce the results that match their own beliefs even if they have to manufacture it.

Crazy Horse has it right on this one!

Regardless of whether or not the guilty parties WORKED for the game & fish dept or not, they were working together. They are all responsible!!

The Game & Fish employee originally lied about what he knew, WHAT A SHOCKER, A GAME & FISH EMPLOYEE LIED ABOUT SOMETHING!!!

I just got caught up on this thread. Thanks Tony and WOW! Sitting here in Montana and reflecting on the nuances of the Lewton sheep case here, you cannot help but see the similarities. It is just staggering. At least in this case, there has been some exposure/dicipline in the mix. Not so in the Lewton matter. Would it be fair to say that all these agencies seem to operate in some type of vacum until a terrible incident like this focuses some attention on our "civil servants"?

2nd person charged in death of jaguar in Arizona

AP - May 17

TUCSON - Federal prosecutors have filed charges against a second person accused of helping snare an endangered jaguar that later died in southern Arizona.

The U.S. attorney's office says a criminal complaint was filed Monday charging 38-year-old Janay Brun of Arivaca with violating the Endangered Species Act by causing the death of the jaguar known as Macho B.

A biologist working with state officials to monitor the rare cats was charged and pleaded guilty to illegally "taking" an endangered species on Friday. Emil McCain of Patagonia was immediately sentenced to five years probation.

Macho B was trapped in a snare near Arivaca intended to catch mountain lions or bears. McCain and Brun were accused of luring the jaguar with scent placed near the trap.

There is no phone listing for Brun.