The guides' ten year old daughter was disappointed that she didn't get to kill a mountain lion? Nice way to raise your kids.
If the (unverified) helicopter report is true, that would be really exciting because the Santa Rita Mountains are just south of Tucson. I actually met someone through my zoo who lives near a wash in north Tucson and swears she saw a jaguar about a week before the hunting guide reported his. Of course this is extremely unlikely, because jaguars are shy and would probably not venture into a suburban area like that. But I suppose anything is possible...
Here is a short article / opinion piece about jaguar recovery in Arizona and New Mexico. It includes some interesting photos. Jaguar habitat rediscovered in Arizona and New Mexico (oryxthejournal.org). The head shots at the top (two) and bottom (one) are captive jaguars, presumably at one of the New York City zoos (since photographer credit is their parent organization WCS).
The next set of three black and white newspaper clippings are historical photos. The one on the right, the guy with a jaguar and German shepherd on a leash, I have a personal copy of because I met a relative of the guy in the photo who was making copies of it at the photo lab I used to work at and she let me make a copy for myself. The jaguar was caught as a cub in Northern Mexico (presumably its mother was shot) and given to this man by an official there as a gift. This photo was taken by a Los Angeles newspaper when he traveled there from Arizona with the jaguar and dog in his car.
The next set of three color photos are recent trail camera photos of wild jaguars in southern Arizona. There were two different trail cam studies done and I am friends with the people who started both of them (though I lost touch with the first group whose study ended badly; story in this book: Cloak & Jaguar: Following a Cat from Desert to Courtroom: Brun, Janay: 9781720812296: Amazon.com: Books). The second group was a government funded study headed by University of Arizona under permit from US Fish and Wildlife. I believe the photos in this article are from this study.
