When I visited an AG&F worker who took me out recording a few years
ago he mentioned to me that they had been spotting jaguars in AZ for
years. The ability of the jaguar to cross into AZ was one of the
worries they had about constructing a tall border fence.
BTW, this is not off topic in my mind. Rather, I find discussion
about our natural creatures that we record much more interesting than
discussions about the gismos we use to record them. I appreciate the
tech info but the biologic info sparks the fire in my heart. Keep it
coming.
Thanks,
Kevin
On Feb 20, 2009, at 6:29 PM, George Paul wrote:
> Given our mutual love of biological diversity I thought I would post
> this:
>
> "Arizona Game and Fish Department officials captured, collared and
> released the first
> jaguar found in Arizona borders Wednesday.
>
> The 118-pound male cat was found in a lug hold snare set out by
> department officials and
> fitted with a satellite-tracking collar and released.
>
> Terry Johnson, Endangered Species Specialist at the Arizona Game and
> Fish Department,
> said the jaguar was confirmed by his spotted pattern to be Macho B,
> a jaguar that has
> been photographed by trail cameras for about 13 years.
>
> Macho B was first photographed at about two to three years old,
> which makes him
> currently near 16 years old, Johnson said. Macho B is the oldest
> documented wild jaguar in
> the world.
>
> Despite his age, Johnson said Macho B "looks in darn fine condition"
> and is nearly at the
> average weight of male jaguars with good muscular tone.
>
> Since 1971, only six jaguars have been documented in the U.S. In the
> past 120 years, less
> than 70 of these animals have been documented.
>
> The department unsuccessfully attempted to collar a jaguar ten years
> ago, and since then
> have developed rules for collaring captured jaguars.
>
> The rules call for sedation of the animal while in captivity,
> observation for a minimum of
> six hours, and then release back into the wild.
>
> Since jaguar presence became known in border states, the Endangered
> Species Act
> extended protection to U.S. jaguars in 1997.
>
> It is unknown whether the jaguar is native to Arizona or Mexico, but
> Johnson said the
> collar has a special alert signal if Macho B crosses the border.
>
> The one pound and 12 ounce collar, which was donated by North Star
> Science and
> Technologies, will provide location points every three hours for the
> incredibly rare feline,
> according to Johnson.
>
> "We have absolutely no firm information on how jaguars use land in
> the U.S.," he said.
> "The collar will help verify or refute all speculations on the
> jaguar's habits."
>
> Bill Van Pelt, Program Manager at the Arizona Game and Fish
> Department, said, compared
> to a mountain lions, jaguars are more robust, "kind of like a
> wrestler."
>
> According to Van Pelt, a loose translation of the name jaguar from
> Native American
> dialects is "the predator that kills in one jump."
>
> Historically, jaguar territory extended as far north as the Grand
> Canyon, Van Pelt said.
> They currently live predominantly in Mexico and South and Central
> America.
>
> Jaguars are the third largest feline in the world, after lions and
> tigers, and the only feline
> on the Western Hemisphere that roars."
>
>
>
|