Wild jaguar near Tucson, Arizona

Wow I didnt know Jaguars came that far north until you posted this. Thats amazing you live in an area with a wild Jaugar! Best I can muster is the fantom panther local twits keep reporting now and then or the imaginary caiman someone had supposedly let loose in a lake. But I can show you black bears and bald eagles who frequent our dump... lacks that exotic feel doesnt it? Thanks for teaching me something new about jaguars though.
 
The Southwest United States is the extreme northern fringe of the jaguar's range. There were a very small number of jaguars in Arizona into the early 20th century, before they were hunted out. Last known one (before recent return) was shot in 1960's I think.

In 1996 there were two separate sightings by mountain lion trackers with hounds. One was on the Arizona - New Mexico border and one was in the mountains between Tucson and Mexico. This second one initiated a camera trap study that originally used film cameras and in the end (when technology advanced) switched to digital cameras. I work at the main photo lab in Tucson and the slide film from the original cameras was processed at my lab. I was there when the tracker picked up one of the rolls with one of the earliest jaguar photos. He looked at the roll on the light table, then called me over to take a look - so I was only the second person ever (right after him) to see the photo.

The pictures of this survey (which is now over), were published in a very good book: Ambushed on the Jaguar Trail: Jack L. Childs, Anna Mary Childs: 9781933855097: Amazon.com: Books
 
Thats so cool that you were the second person to see the photo! You have amazing luck.
 
yea Docent it right, Jaguar probably ranged throughout the Southern half of the United States until as recently as the Columbian interchange. Lots of pre fossil (aka under 500 years old) Jaguar fossils are found stretching from Florida to California and as far north as Kentucky.

Also Docent you seem to be the resident Big Cat expert. How would you rank the 6 big cat species (Lion Tiger Leopard Jaguar Snow Leopard and Clouded Leopard) in accordance with their genetic/ancestral relationships with one another?

Clouded Leopard being the basal member of course but where would go after that?

From basal to most derived. My best guess would be Clouded Leopard, Snow Leopard, Leopard, Lion, Tiger, Jaguar in order of splitting from the common ancestor.
 
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tschandler71 said:
From basal to most derived. My best guess would be Clouded Leopard, Snow Leopard, Leopard, Lion, Tiger, Jaguar in order of splitting from the common ancestor.
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As I understand it, your assumption that each taxon represents a successive outgroup from the main line is incorrect - rather the genus Panthera represents two equally ranked clades. The first clade contains P.tigris and P.uncia. The second clade contains P.onca and a P.pardus/P.leo clade.

|
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|{ Tiger, Snow Leopard
|
|{ Jaguar ( Leopard, Lion)
 
DavidBrown said:
What are you talking about?

Update: Oh. Yes, this is horrible. IG Report: Last U.S. Jaguar Captured, Killed Intentionally
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He was euthanized due to renal failure, as I recall - as that article clearly states. The two most relevant points are:

"In February 2009, the jaguar was captured in a leg-hold snare meant for mountain lions and black bears. The jaguar was identified as Macho B, fixed with a GPS tracking device, and set free. Within days after being released, the GPS collar indicated Macho B was not moving, so researchers decided to search for him. Once located, veterinarians determined that Macho B was suffering from renal (kidney) failure and euthanized him."
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and

The Phoenix Zoo's necropsy summary report, dated March 2, 2009, and tissue samples from Macho B were sent to Dr. Gregory Bradley, a doctor of veterinary medicine of the University of Arizona for examination.

Four days later, Dr. Bradley issued a report, stating, "The histologic sections of the kidneys do not indicate significant renal disease."

The Inspector General states, "With the exception of Dr. Bradley, all of the other animal experts agreed with Dr. Rice of the Phoenix Zoo that Macho B had died of renal failure." But this too is incorrect, because the animal was euthanized and did not die of kidney failure.
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I believe the final sentence in the latter quote demonstrates some degree of bias in the report - if a dog had terminal liver cancer and was put down, you would say it died of cancer and not a drug overdose :p the controversy is not in the euthanisation of the jaguar, but in the capture of the jaguar to do so after it became clear from radio-tracking that he was failing to move.
 
I don't remember anything about renal failure or anything. Sounds to me like that's just bs they made up afterward to keep themselves out of legal trouble for killing endangered species. I remember it was caught, released, then caught again days later and killed.
 
Quicksand said:
I remember it was caught, released, then caught again days later and killed.
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Why would they track it for several years, catch it and radio tag it, if their real aim as you imply was to kill it eventually? :p It wasn't discovered days before being recaptured and euthanised, that individual had been known for some time.
 
The individual - named Macho B - was estimated to be 16 years old. That is beyond the typical life expectancy of any wild cat living in the wild. In captivity, of course, they often live longer. The question - which there is no 100% way to prove - is did the stress of the initial capture cause him to die prematurely? A lot of people think it did and it certainly does look that way. Hindsight is 20/20 and of course if the people involved had known what would have happened, they would not have collared it. But the opportunity to get movement data on a wild jaguar in the United States was unprecedented and I think it was seen as too good an opportunity to pass up.

Capture and radio collar is always risky, which is why I think the current movement in field studies is towards camera traps and away from radio collaring.
 
Here's hoping that jaguars can eventually reestablish themselves in the Southwest.
 
elefante said:
Here's hoping that jaguars can eventually reestablish themselves in the Southwest.
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I wonder if the firearm maximalists in Arizona will cause as much hullabaloo as they did here in California over a single wolf.


Arizona Docent said:
Here is the most recent photo of the Sonoran jaguar that has been living in the Santa Rita mountains, which are next to my city of Tucson.
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Thanks for sharing this exciting news!

What's the mountain lion population like in that part of the state? Could a jaguar population effectively establish themselves in the region without decimating the food sources?
 
Buldeo said:
What's the mountain lion population like in that part of the state? Could a jaguar population effectively establish themselves in the region without decimating the food sources?
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they co-exist quite well in the rest of the Americas.....
 
It is interesting that there's no suggestion that the Jaguar ever ranged north into more temperate areas of the US.

It does seem that it can't handle cold in the same way that either Tiger or Leopard can. The Jaguar's range doesn't seem to have ever gone very far south into Patagonia, either.
 
Chlidonias said:
they co-exist quite well in the rest of the Americas.....
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This said, the mountain lion populations within the range of the jaguar tend to be significantly smaller than those in North America, and predation is primarily focused on smaller prey - therefore their size in the northern extents of the species range is something which I suspect will be an adaptation to take advantage of the niche which ordinarily would be filled by the jaguar.

Wikipedia said:
Its most important prey species are various deer species, particularly in North America; mule deer, white-tailed deer, and even bull elk are taken. Other species such as bighorn sheep, wild horses of Arizona, domestic horses, and domestic livestock such as cattle and sheep are also primary food bases in many areas.[53] A survey of North America research found 68% of prey items were ungulates, especially deer. Only the Florida Panther showed variation, often preferring feral hogs and armadillos.[4]


Cougars are ambush predators, feeding mostly on deer and other mammals.
Investigation in Yellowstone National Park showed that elk, followed by mule deer, were the cougar's primary targets; the prey base is shared with the park's gray wolves, with whom the cougar competes for resources.[54] Another study on winter kills (November–April) in Alberta showed that ungulates accounted for greater than 99% of the cougar diet. Learned, individual prey recognition was observed, as some cougars rarely killed bighorn sheep, while others relied heavily on the species.[55]

In the Central and South American cougar range, the ratio of deer in the diet declines. Small to mid-size mammals are preferred, including large rodents such as the capybara. Ungulates accounted for only 35% of prey items in one survey, approximately half that of North America. Competition with the larger jaguar has been suggested for the decline in the size of prey items.[4] Other listed prey species of the cougar include mice, porcupines, beavers, raccoons, hares.[56] Birds and small reptiles are sometimes preyed upon in the south, but this is rarely recorded in North America.[4] Not all of their prey is listed here due to their large range.
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IanRRobinson said:
It is interesting that there's no suggestion that the Jaguar ever ranged north into more temperate areas of the US.
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I wonder whether this is merely a relic of the time thousands of years ago when more temperate areas of the US *did* contain a competitor for the Jaguar whose presence would have precluded expansion of the latter species range; this species of course being the American Lion (Panthera atrox) which went extinct approximately 10,000 years ago.

In this case, the fact that the species failed to expand once P.atrox was gone could be due to the fact that the already-present Mountain Lion, which at that point in time may have filled the same predatory niche as the species does in South America (as I just posted above) was in place to expand into the niche before it was possible for the Jaguar to do so to any great extent.
 
Possible Dave, and all this seems to tie into the same reasons the Dire Wolf and American Lion ultimately went extinct but the Gray wolf and Mountain lion survived. The larger two species ultimately could not catch the swifter remaining pronghorn/deer after being adapted to hunting the giant bison, mammoths etc. And some people also say the "American Cheetah" was actually closer to the Mountain Lion and represented a plains hunter that could run down pronghorn. I wonder if Panthera Atrox is some kind of Lion/Jaguar intermediate anyway.
 
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