El Tigre

[mesquite buckeye]

Thought you might enjoy this one. Video shot in the Santa Rita Mountains 25 miles south of  Tucson. These used to range as far north as the Grand Canyon as late as the 1950's. They are quite rare now. Scary guy to run into while out on a hike with the yappy little lapdog.

 
Livin' in the Wild Wild West. ;D 8) 8) 8)

[crtreedude]

We have them down here in Costa Rica - beautiful animals.

We have a black jaguar in one of our plantations which comes out of the national park in the evenings, or so I am told.

[Raider Bill]

I've already received a email that this very same cat was spotted in Tenn. :D

[beenthere]

Here is a YouTube video of the AZ cat caught on tape.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTC8XdViC5s

[mesquite buckeye]

Thanks for posting the video. I was too lazy to find it. ;D

[thecfarm]

I read about that in my paper.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Nice to see but I bet he's lonely. I think I heard or read about him over a year ago. Surprised he has hung around alone that long. Hope he does well and behaves and stays out of trouble. I understand they are the 3rd largest big cat behind the tiger and the lion.

   As to the black jaguar - I understand there are no such things as true black panthers. They are the black phase of leopard in Africa or black phase jaguars in South/Central America. While not common apparently they are not that rare either.

    Closest I ever came to a jaguar was fresh tracks at a muddy salt lick in Ecuador along a tributary of the Amazon. In Africa we saw several leopards in various game parks and once while trekking in Central Africa we came back and found fresh leopard tracks in our tracks along a small stream.

[mesquite buckeye]

There have been several recorded sightings throughout the period I have been in Arizona. There was one called Macho B that ended up dead after some government employees made several bad decisions. One of them ended up convicted of endangered species law violations. Maybe 30 years ago a hunter shot one down near the border and got in big trouble. We are at the northern end of their range in AZ.

[terry f]

Beautiful

[edkemper]

No Jaguars but we do have regular 'ol Mountain lions. There are so many, hunting season is 365 days per year. The first one I saw ran across a local mountain highway in front of us. They are regular visitors at our property. Along with Bobcats and Badgers. Love the country.