I wanted to share this with as many people as possible. If I recall correctly, the last wild Jaguar legally hunted in the U.S. was killed in 1967. Most people don't even know they exist. Well here's proof.



http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/rare-wild-jaguar-seen-and...IsIpEldniyXhA0sDW7oF

Beautiful photograph. There have been sightings and some photos here in southern Arizona in the last few years. The last one killed here was by a quail hunter near Nogales quite a few years ago. About 10 years ago my wife and I were camped near Hank & Yank springs in southern Arizona when we found fresh tracks of a mother and one kitten. We later saw pictures taken by a Fish & Game trail camera in the same area. Fantastic animals. I personally think they are more impressive than Leopards. The Desert Museum here in Tucson had a very nice male and female on exhibit.

"If I recall correctly, the last wild Jaguar legally hunted in the U.S. was killed in 1967. Most people don't even know they exist. Well here's proof. "

You recall correctly. One of my wife's distant relatives killed the last legally taken jaguar in Arizona in 1967 while hunting javelinas near Patagonia. It prompted the state to officially close the season on jaguars soon after that.

It was a huge male cat. I photographed him with it that year but haven't been able to find the photo for a couple of years. He donated the skin and skull to the University of Arizona.

There have been maybe three or four jaguars killed illegally in Arizona since then, including one by two young duck hunters very near some property I own on the Mexican border, and another by an outlaw hunting guide who was busted after a multi-year investigation by two undercover agents on loan from the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

Interestingly, the feds could not prosecute the guide under the Endangered Species Act because it did not include jaguars in the U.S. at the time because they were thought to be extinct up here. (After this case, the act was expanded to include jaguars found anywhere.) They charged him under the Lacey Act after convincing the guide to take the mounted jaguar and an illegal ocelot across the state line into New Mexico to sell them to the agents.

When it was learned that the agents shot a desert sheep, a javelina and a couple of bears out of season while building a case against the guide the judge dismissed the case, saying what they had done was similar to shooting a human to get inside the Mafia.

Recently, several jaguars (including a female with a cub) have been photographed with trail cameras by wildlife researchers in and around the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge southwest of Tucson.

Jaguars have been present off and on in Arizona for hundreds of years, and have been killed as far north as the Grand Canyon. Most people believed they merely wandered up from Mexico, but finding females with young gives hope that they are establishing a breeding population here.

Incidentally, the photo on 450/400's post shows the second jaguar that Werner Glen photographed in recent years. The first was in southeastern Arizona. He published a small book featuring photos of the first one.

I'm convinced I saw a jaguar while I was a boy in about 1949 or 50. We were hunting geese at a place called Gadsden Lake south of Yuma when I saw a big, dark-colored cat swim across the Colorado River and climb out on a sand bank and move into a jungle of arroweeds about 200 yards away. I didn't see spots, but it was too big and dark to be a mountain lion, which were rare there, too.

Bill Quimby

Bill, thanks for the "rest of the story." I thought the photo was extraordinary and worth sharing.

I'd like to see them make a comeback in the States but I'm assuming that would reopen wounds left by the reintroduction of Wolves
That is a project that was bound to backfire and my allegiance must lie with those that have to live (and deal) with the Wolves destruction of livestock and wildlife. I've seen this caper unfold with my own eyes. Thanks 450/400 for posting, it is a beautiful cat.
LDK

EXCELLENT pictute and thread!

They really are beautiful...even more so than leopards, which is saying something.

Warner Glenn took that picture in 1996. Interesting link here...
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/10/science/10jaguar.html?fta=y

DL

I read somewhere that jaguars were native as far east as the Florida panhandle and southern Alabama and southeastern Georgia back in the old days.

quote:

jaguars were native as far east as the Florida panhandle and southern Alabama and southeastern Georgia back in the old days.

That'd be the extreme fringes of where the may have dispersed to, but I don't think there were breeding populations.

The issue right now is that the AZ/NM jaguars are pretty much doomed since they dispersed from Mexico into the U.S. Only males identified so far, no evidence of a breeding population.

And a border fence is supposed to be built that will block the corridors through which jags were entering the U.S.

Here's a good journal article on this,

Evidence of Resident Jaguars (Panthera onca) in the Southwestern United States and the Implications for Conservation

Awesome picture. What a fantastic animal, it is sad to hear we probably won't see them much anymore if the fence is built. Thanks for sharing.

quote:

Originally posted by StormsGSP:
Awesome picture. What a fantastic animal, it is sad to hear we probably won't see them much anymore if the fence is built. Thanks for sharing.

On the other hand, if it keeps them out it would also keep them in.

I think that a Jaguars mortality rate would be better in the US than in Mexico. I hunt a ranch in the high sierras in Sonora for Coues and a neighboring ranch killed a Jaguar 7 or 8 yrs ago. It was getting into some livestock so they killed it.

If you read the article to the link I posted the Jaguar that Warner Glenn took the picture of was killed by a Federal Police Officer in Mexico a short time later.

DL

I have hunted Mountain Lion and Coues Deer with Warner Glenn. The Glenns are fine folks.

I think it would take a mighty fence to keep a Jaguar out.

Warner Glenn who hunts the SE corner of Arizona said that he will never run out of mountain lions to hunt with the factory just south(Mexico)of him. I doubt a fence will keep them out of cattle rich ranching country in SE Arizona.

I think they are the most beautiful cat (even including tigers).

Here is one of my favourite jaguar pictures:

About the sightings being only males maybe the answer is similar to what happends with cougars in my country.

From time to time I hear reports of cougars seen in Uruguay, after talking to one of the most serious game researcher of my country he told me that most cougars seen were young males and that this was because they were run away from their original habitat by more dominant males and that they walk big distances to find new territories for their own.

Maybe this explain that there are no breeding populations, just young males looking for their new territory.

Who knows...

L

Thanks for posting the picts beautiful animal.

On a side note, the concensous seems to be that the fence won't stop the migration of jaguars--so I assume that it will also not stop the migration of humans. More money down the toilet.

quote:

Originally posted by billrquimby:

When it was learned that the agents shot a desert sheep, a javelina and a couple of bears out of season while building a case against the guide the judge dismissed the case, saying what they had done was similar to shooting a human to get inside the Mafia.

Bill Quimby

What a shame, on all counts.

Shame the agents killed a Sheep, shame that the guide killed the Cat, now everyone walks free.