History of Jaguars in Arizona

"By the late 1960s, jaguars were thought to have been eliminated in the United States. A female was shot by a hunter in Arizona's White Mountains in 1963. Arizona outlawed jaguar hunting in 1969, but by then no females remained and over the next 25 years only two male jaguars were found (and killed) in Arizona. Then in 1996, Warner Glenn, a rancher and hunting guide from Douglas, Arizona, came across a jaguar in the Peloncillo Mountains and became a researcher on jaguars, placing webcams which recorded four more Arizona jaguars. No jaguars sighted in Arizona in the last 15 years had been seen since 2006. Then, in 2009, a male jaguar named Macho B died shortly after being radio-collared by Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD) officials in 2009. In the Macho B incident, a former ADGF subcontractor pleaded guilty to violating the endangered species act for trapping the cat and a Game and Fish employee was fired for lying to federal investigators. In 2011, a male jaguar weighing 200 lb (91 kg) was photographed near Cochise in southern Arizona by a hunter after being treed by his dogs (the animal left the scene unharmed). A second 2011 sighting of an Arizona jaguar was reported by a Homeland Security border pilot in June 2011, and conservation researchers sighted two jaguars within 30 mi (48 km) of the border between Mexico and the United States in 2010.

In September 2012, a jaguar was photographed in the Santa Rita Mountains of Arizona, the second such sighting in this region in two years. This jaguar has been photographed numerous times over the past nine months through June 2013. On 3 February 2016, the Center for Biological Diversity released a video of this jaguar – now named El Jefe (Spanish for "The Boss") – roaming the Santa Rita Mountains, about 25 mi (40 km) south of downtown Tucson. El Jefe is the fourth jaguar sighted in the Madrean Sky Islands in southern Arizona and New Mexico, over the last 20 years." - from Wikipedia

On 16 November 2016, a jaguar was spotted in the Dos Cabezas Mountains of Arizona, 60 mi (97 km) from the Mexican border, the farthest north one of these animals has been spotted in many decades. It is the seventh jaguar to be confirmed in the Southwest since 1996.[18] On 1 December 2016, another male jaguar was photographed on Fort Huachuca also in Arizona.[17] In February 2017, authorities revealed that a third jaguar had been photographed in November 2016, by the Bureau of Land Management in the Dos Cabezas Mountains, also in Arizona, some 100.0 km (62.1 miles) north of the border with Mexico.[18]

Let us remember the jaguar is only trying to regain the territory it used to cover long before humans arrived, and especially long before European settlers showed up. The long standing debate over the reintroduction of large predators to former territory rages on in this case as well, considering this is the largest predator cat in the western hemisphere we are talking about. It is well proven now that predators have a majorly beneficial effect on the ecology of the land by preventing herd animals from overgrazing the plant life, and helping improve genetics for prey species. There are solutions at the disposal of ranchers to prevent their own herds from falling victim to this beast’s natural predator drive. Just like with the Mexican Grey Wolf, time will only tell if humans can overcome their fear of predator species and learn to co-exist on the land as integral parts of the web of life.

Video credit:
Center for Biological Diversity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTC8XdViC5s

Intro Song:
Estun-Bah "Mountain Spirit"

Видео History of Jaguars in Arizona канала Keep Arizona Wild