Feds Allege Crime In Wild Jaguar Death

Investigators say a contractor and possibly an Arizona Game and Fish Department employee acted criminally in the death of what was believed to be the last living wild jaguar in Arizona.

The allegation is in a federal report obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

The state says the male jaguar known as "Macho B" was unexpectedly caught in February in a snare trap. Officials attached a tracking collar and released him.

Two weeks later, researchers tracking the cat found he was acting abnormally and recaptured him. Veterinarians found that Macho B was in renal failure, determined the condition was irreversible and euthanized him.

The report says there is evidence the first capture was probably intentional and violated the Endangered Species Act. The Game and Fish Department said Thursday it didn't direct any employee or contractor to capture a jaguar. It says it's cooperating with the investigation and conducting an internal probe.

[erb0087]

A good Jaguar website, by a New Mexico author, Richard Mahler:

"Jaguar: The Western Hemisphere's Top Cat

"...The jaguars -- variously referred to as el tigre, onca, and black panther -- may be the most widely revered carnivore endemic to the Americas, yet scientists have only a basic understanding of the charismatic cat, our hemisphere's biggest.

...Despite such high honor and distinguished patronage, this highly secretive animal is unnecessarily feared and widely misunderstood. Many assume, for instance, that all jaguars are black. (Only about six percent are; typical coloration is a reddish buff, adorned with inky dots and rosettes.) A jaguar is not a panther. (The term refers to its cousin, otherwise known as mountain lion, cougar, or puma.)

Unlike panthers, jaguars almost never kill people. (Only a handful of attacks on humans are documented, most involving zoo animals.) Surprising to many, jaguars are U.S. natives whose history entwines with many North American tribes and who, like our indigenous people, were decimated by extermination policies that extended well into the 20th century.

As recently as the 1800s, jaguars roamed the Southwest freely from California to Louisiana, far north of the jungles where they have always been more common. In Arizona and New Mexico, where at least four individual jaguars have been photographed since 1996, images of the cat occur in murals and rock art left by the Pueblo and Mogollon cultures. Along New Mexico's Río Puerco, the Pottery Mound site contains a spectacular painting of a jaguar while a similar animal is rendered in a smoke-blackened cave near Los Alamos..."

http://www.planeta.com/planeta/08/0802jaguars.html

[erb0087]

"...were decimated by extermination policies that extended well into the 20th century..."

The author is misusing the word "decimate."

It means "reduce by 10%", not "almost wipe out."

The word comes from the practice of Roman Emperors, of disciplining the army by lining up the troops and killing every 10th man in line.

[Cyber998]

It is a real shame to see the extinction of animals. Surely everyone agrees that a world where the only animals around are humans, pests and farmed livestock is a far poorer one.

[dragon8me]

I didn't know there were any in AZ but I did see a jaguarundi one time down by Pina Blanca lake.

[erb0087]

Species Spotlight:

The Mighty Jaguar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuMmS4NBE9s

[erb0087]

"The Jaguar (Panthera onca) is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus, and is the only Panthera species found in the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and the largest and most powerful feline in the Western Hemisphere. The jaguar's present range extends from Mexico across much of Central America and south to Paraguay and northern Argentina. Apart from a known and possibly breeding population in Arizona (southeast of Tucson), the cat has largely been extirpated from the United States since the early 1900s.

This spotted cat most closely resembles the leopard physically, although it is usually larger and of sturdier build and its behavioral and habitat characteristics are closer to those of the tiger. While dense rainforest is its preferred habitat, the jaguar will range across a variety of forested and open terrain. It is strongly associated with the presence of water and is notable, along with the tiger, as a feline that enjoys swimming. The jaguar is a largely solitary, stalk-and-ambush predator, and is opportunistic in prey selection. It is also an apex and keystone predator, playing an important role in stabilizing ecosystems and regulating the populations of prey species. The jaguar has an exceptionally powerful bite, even relative to the other big cats. This allows it to pierce the shells of armoured reptiles and to employ an unusual killing method: it bites directly through the skull of prey between the ears to deliver a fatal bite to the brain."

Wikipedia

[erb0087]

I had no idea there were any wild jaguars in the United States. I thought they were strictly a South American species.

Jaguars are tough cats. They are the only big cats willing to take on crocodiles in their own environment.

In her excellent book "The Cats of Shambala", Tippi Hedren, the former actress who maintains a sanctuary for big cats, calls jaguars the toughest of the felines. She writes that she'd rather face an angry lion or tiger than an angry jaguar.

[nbenn514]

perhaps they suspect someone because a trap had been set and renal failure is most often the cause of death in poisonings. They weren't clear in the article but I can imagine several reasons why a contractor would want a big cat out of the way. greed at the expense of the jaguar. sad.

[tmittelstaed]

How can a capture and release cause renal failure? Are people so dumb now that they think the two items are connected? The Jaguar was probably sick when he was captured the first time, they just didn't recognize it, and why should they? Renal failure isn't exactly something that's obvious just by looking.

[CigarSmoker]

"The report says there is evidence the first capture was probably intentional and violated the Endangered Species Act." Where in this article does it say, or imply, the first capture caused renal failure?

[michigander62]

Can you read or just bluster???? Check Cigar Smoker way to polite comment about your reading skills.... ha ha