Posted on 09/14/2017 12:48:29 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The Center for Biological Diversity released video of a wild jaguar caught on a trail cam in the Chiricahua Mountains. The jaguar appears to be the same one that was photographed in November 2016 in the Dos Cabezas Mountains, according to a news release.
Students at the Paolo Freire Freedom School in Tucson named the jaguar "Sombra."
Researchers said that these images taken seven months apart are good evidence that the animal has made southern Arizona its home.
The center said jaguars have been photographed in the United States for the past 20 years.
Three jaguars have been spotted in Arizona since 2015: El Jefe, Yo'oko, and now Sombra.
Researchers are hopeful that these sightings signal a recovery in the American southwest.
About two decades ago we had a good size Mountain Lion decide our area was nice and safe for it with good deer hunting. The police refused to come out when it was in the city and told us to leave it alone. The same when it was in the county area by the sheriff’s department.
One night it killed a deer across the street and dragged it down a little arroyo to dine on fresh venison. Bambi was screaming on its one way trip down the arroyo!
We had a lot of construction going on in the area. Some of the amigos liked to tailgate and have cervezas after work. We had a few thefts like boat motors disappearing.
I took a couple of the foremen on a stroll and showed them the kitty kat tracks and piles of bambi bones. There were a lot of lion tracks from the feasting area to the work areas.
I explained to them that the Mountain Lion was protected by the police, and they needed to get the workers out of the area before dark.
A few more deer disappeared and the robberies after dark stopped.
I thought they all were, everywhere.
Winning!
Winning indeed.
Last year the deer rebounded and ate, laid on and killed half an acre of rock roses. It cost over $k to have the dead fire hazards up and hauled away.
The good news until a new mountain lion shows up, some new and really big coyotes are now in our area. They handle stray cats, dogs left off a leash or just unleashed by a$$hole owners, and love to eat little bambis. Our normal 10-14 deer herd is down to about 4 does and a forked horn buck. He is probably on his second year and is big. Coyotes will leave him alone.
More good critter news: We and some close neighbors have one or more Bob Cats adopting our yards and back decks. Now the racoons, skunks and ? are no longer eating our tomatoes, figs and other garden goodies. One of the racoons started hissing at us at night if he didn’t find food or water. Since the Bob cat tracks started showing up on our deck, the coon is gone.
I leave an old baking pan out with water for the daytime birds and our new Bob Cat use at night.
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