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2nd cat saw in the US.
PHOENIX – A second wild jaguar may have been spotted in the United States.

A photo taken Dec. 1 in a southern Arizona mountain range appears to show a new wild jaguar — an animal rarely seen in the country after its habitat was lost.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department says a preliminary analysis suggests the cat is new to the area and not "El Jefe," a jaguar that was captured on video in a nearby mountain range last year.

Until now, El Jefe was believed to be the only jaguar in the U.S., although he hasn't been seen in over a year.

The jaguar in question was seen on a camera belonging to Fort Huachuca, the Army installation about 75 miles southeast of Tucson. The military shared the photo with wildlife officials including Game and Fish and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Mark Hart, a spokesman for the Arizona Game and Fish Department, said jaguars migrate from Mexico to southern Arizona about every five to 10 years but that a female jaguar hasn't been spotted in the U.S. since the 1940s.

"So the quality of life isn't here for the jaguar," Hart said.

But Arizona, New Mexico and other parts of the Southwest were home to jaguars before habitat loss and predator control programs aimed at protecting livestock eliminated them over the last 150 years. A hunter shot and killed the last verified female jaguar in the U.S. in 1963 in northern Arizona.

"It's so exciting that in the last 30 years or so, five or six males have shown up in the U.S. and are starting to re-establish themselves in the historical range," said Rob Peters, a biologist with Defenders of Wildlife who is based in Tucson. Peters says that although there haven't been any female jaguars here, the fact that males are establishing habitats is a good sign that they could come in the future.

It could be days before experts determine whether the jaguar seen in a Dec. 1 photo is new.

Hart says analysts will study the jaguar's rosettes, or the spots within the spots on the cat's fur, to figure out if it's been seen before.

Peters says his organization is anxiously awaiting a report by the federal government that is expected to outline a jaguar recovery plan for the area.

"They were once found in Arizona as far north as the Grand Canyon. There were females and cubs in the Southwest," Peters said.

But protecting the big cats has been fraught with legal challenges.

In March 2014, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service set aside nearly 1,200 square miles along the U.S.-Mexico border as habitat essential for the conservation of the jaguar. The New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau, New Mexico Cattle Growers' Association and New Mexico Federal Lands Council filed a lawsuit nearly a year later, saying the decision was "unlawful, arbitrary and capricious" action by federal authorities. That lawsuit is ongoing.

Only El Jefe has made numerous appearances in the U.S. in several years. He first popped up in the Whetstone Mountains in 2011 when he was about 3 years old and showed up again in video in the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson around September 2015.

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2016...-captures-possible-2nd-jaguar-in-us.html

Gracie will eat it.

There is an old photo. I think Kaywoodie posted it here before, of a Jaguar that was killed in Goldwaitte TX around early 1900.
That's only about 10 miles from the big Hill Country Ranch on the Colorado River that I now manage.

I'm seeing some disparities.

Me thinks there are more big cats around than people realize or they will admit.

Agreed.....I have a signed copy of this book from 1996....there's some great photographs of a Juguar he caught with his hounds in AZ....

It's well worth the price of admission...

http://www.jaguarbook.com/

Now if they can keep the Fish and Game dept away from it ,it might have a chance. They killed the last one

Wonder if Coyotes are a threat to these things?

30 years back there were only 30 panthers left in South Floriduh, their known range. There have been that many run over by cars this year. We do not have a clue how many there really are.

There are panthers in my neighborhood here in north central Florida. There never was just 30 left, it was a silly proposition from the get go and there's probably more than a few jags in the US.

Bentlys are really scarce though.

Neal,

That was the "Tomkins Jaguar" reported to have been old with few teeth left.

Here's a pic of the one killed at Junction Tx 1910

http://texashighways.com/history/item/6265-cool-cats

Still having issues with photobucket.

Here is one killed in South Texas years ago.
http://www.valleymorningstar.com/news/article_9f969aea-ec9a-5c19-86ec-e154ede80987.html

A distant cousin of my wife killed the last legally taken jaguar, a big male, in southern Arizona's Patagonia Mountains in the late 1960s. (I wish I could find its photo.) Soon after that, Arizona officially closed hunting for them.

Later, after someone illegally killed another jaguar (and was busted later when he tried to sell the life-size mount to undercover agents), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added jaguars north of Mexico to its list of endangered species. It previously was believed they had been extirpated here.

Only three or four of the jaguars known to have been killed or photographed in Arizona over the past 100 years have been females, and many "experts" believe all had wandered north out of Mexico alone and there never was a breeding population here.

Bill Quimby

From the article:

"The cat was dead but not before it had killed 28 yearling calfs over a three-week period."

28 in 3 weeks? That's more than 1 a day.

I read a recent article about another,"Drug Lord" or his minions releasing his private "Zoo", over in N. Chihuahua.

Might be one of the former occupants?

Not saying it didn't wander North, either,....

When I was in Bolivia some years back, one could EASILY purchase a Jaguar cub,...I'm given to understand that there was a fairly healthy trade in em',....just like any of the other "Exotics".

I'll tell ya' what, boys and gals,....hearing one of those things cough on a pitch black night on his home range / waters is an experience I would not trade for love nor $$$.

Given the area he's purported to be ranging, he could easily turn up at my gate,...as long as he honors it, and the perimeter fence, we're cool. If he were to come in closer, this "protected" chit don't roll.

GTC