Some good news for the day. An apparently healthy male jaguar has been documented in southern Arizona. This is good news after the Macho B incident where another male jaguar, the only one known to live in the entire US, was trapped and later died due to trapping stress. We wrote about that incident in 2010.
Arizona Game and Fish confirms report of jaguar in southern Arizona.
Arizona Game and Fish
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Ken Cole
Ken Cole is a 5th generation Idahoan, an avid fly fisherman, wildlife enthusiast, and photographer. He was formerly the Idaho Director for Western Watersheds Project and former Executive Director for Buffalo Field Campaign.
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Great news! Perhaps a friendly female will also slip across the border.
Huh, I always picture jaguar with jungles, not Arizona! Interesting!
They’d better hurry up and get a collar on it before the lose track of it.
A proactive USFWS would release a female up in that area and try to augment a starting population…
A jaguar or two does not make a viable population. It would take the introduction of quite a few animals to get a genetically viable population started.
but it would be a start and hopefully would pressure USFWS to do what you suggest (more animals for a viable pop).
I am sure that IDFG would consider this single jaguar to be a viable and robust population. 🙂
I hope you are not serious about the collaring.
you didn’t notice the dripping sarcasm?
The way AZ handles its wildlife doesn’t bode well for this animal. I hope it survives to healthily live its natural life-span in its own habitat… unmolested and unadulterated by humans. And I hope it is able to reproduce more of its kind to do the same.
Great News! Now personally have always had the opinion that there are more of these animals out there on our borders in the southwest then we might know about. Hope the animal is not collared and it continues to roam free of any interferance of us Human Two Leggeds.
The closest breeding population of jaguars is 50 miles or so South of the border. The key to recovering jaguars in the U.S. would be the creation of habitat corridors from there to here.
Texas residents plead guilty to trafficking in jaguar pelts:
http://www.justice.gov/usao/fls/PressReleases/111122-02.html
Photo of skins:
http://www.justice.gov/usao/fls/PressReleases/Attachments/111122-02.JaguarsSkin.jpg
Its amazing with all the illegal human traffic from Mexico, up and down the border, trying to come across, that these animals make it into the US at all.
http://www.northernjaguarproject.org/who-we-are/faq
Thanks to the hunter for doing what Arizona Game and Fish ask for in a situation like this.
this great news and Kudo’s to the hunter for doing the right thing