AZMEX SPECIAL 21 DEC 2012
Note: as the world didn't seem to end today, looks like the AZMEX
reports will continue. Sorry.
Note: An assumption that it the same one, no paw prints, DNA, etc.
remains to be seen if this animal will take precedence over border
security. As many of our little nature nazi buddies advocate for.
Have to wonder what else those 150 cameras have picked up?
Updated Dec 21, 2012 - 8:58 am
2 rare spotted cats photographed in Arizona
By Associated Press
Originally published: Dec 21, 2012 - 8:14 am
http://www.ktar.com/22/1597153/2-rare-spotted-cats-photographed-in-AZ
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Wildlife monitoring cameras recently snapped photos
of two endangered spotted cats in mountain ranges in southern Arizona.
Images of an adult male jaguar were taken last month in the Santa
Rita Mountains, while a photo of an adult male ocelot was captured in
the Huachuca Mountains west of Sierra Vista.
Wildlife officials said both cats are extremely rare in Arizona and
don't know how many live here.
The jaguar seen in the Santa Rita Mountains matched the spot patterns
of a jaguar that was photographed by a hunter in the Whetstone
Mountains during the fall of 2011.
Spot-pattern comparisons of the ocelot in the Huachuca Mountains
showed that it was the same cat that had been photographed in the
Huachucas in 2011 and this year.
UA, government agencies release 4 photos of jaguar in Santa Ritas
This male jaguar was photographed Oct. 25 by automatic cameras in the
Santa Rita Mountains as part of a survey conducted by the University
of Arizona.
12 hours ago • Tony Davis Arizona Daily Star(27) Comments
http://azstarnet.com/news/science/environment/ua-government-agencies-
release-photos-of-jaguar-in-santa-ritas/article_7c6661ae-db1e-5c39-
b704-06fe99cff42b.html
Four late-night photos of an adult male jaguar roaming the northern
Santa Rita Mountains were released Thursday to the public by
University of Arizona researchers and federal and state wildlife
officials.
The photos, mostly full-body shots, show the endangered animal in
woodlands and grasslands between Oct. 25 and Nov. 10.
They show the only jaguar known to be living in the United States.
The last one, known as "Macho B," died in Arizona in March 2009.
There hasn't been a female jaguar seen in the U.S. since 1963.
Most jaguars live in Mexico, Central America and South America.
The researchers and agencies also released a fifth photo, of the tail
and much of the rear of an adult male ocelot. It was taken Oct. 8 in
the Huachuca Mountains, west of Sierra Vista.
These photos were the first of the endangered cat species to come
from a new, $771,000, federally financed study by the UA using remote
cameras to photograph jaguars and ocelots across Southern Arizona.
Six other photos taken of the same jaguar in the same general area
this fall were withheld by Arizona Game and Fish Department
officials. Those photos, shot by a Game and Fish camera, contain too
many landmarks pointing to the big cat's exact location, said Lynda
Lambert, a Game and Fish spokeswoman. Typically, state and federal
officials don't like to release exact locations, out of fear that
could jeopardize animals' safety.
"Those photos were six frames of one incident, all shot 10 seconds
apart," Lambert said. "It would be too easy for someone to pinpoint
the location."
The majority of those photos were taken very near or adjacent to the
6,990-acre site of the proposed Rosemont Mine project southeast of
Tucson, Fish and Wildlife Service officials have said. All 10 were
shot on U.S. Forest Service land, but none inside the mine site, said
Jean Calhoun, a Fish and Wildlife Service assistant field supervisor.
The Rosemont site is a mixture of public and private land.
This jaguar's spot pattern matches that of a jaguar treed and
photographed in November 2011 by a mountain lion hunter in the
Whetstone Mountains south of Benson, officials said. Together, these
photos offer "clear evidence" that jaguars travel between Arizona's
Sky Island mountain ranges, the agencies and researchers said in a
news release Thursday.
These 10 photos can't be matched to a September photo of a jaguar
tail, taken by a hunter in the Santa Ritas, because the tail in the
new photos is obscured, authorities said. But that jaguar is likely
the same one that was photographed in October and November, the
agencies and researchers said in the news release.
Similarly, spot patterns of the ocelot photographed in the UA study
show it's the same male ocelot that was photographed several times in
2011 and 2012, officials said Thursday. The new photo was shot four
miles from where the old photos were taken, again showing the cat's
ability to move across the landscape.
The purpose of the UA's three-year research project is to set up a
"noninvasive, hands-off system" to detect individuals of the two
endangered cat species, the researchers said. The cameras, activated
by motion sensors, are in areas deemed most likely to detect the cats.
About 150 cameras are in operation now for the study, and 240 will be
in place by next spring, the researchers and the wildlife service said.
The cameras lie along the U.S.-Mexican border, from the Baboquivari
Mountains on the west to the southwestern New Mexico "boot heel" area
south of Lordsburg. A scat-detection dog is also being used by
researchers to help them look for jaguar and ocelot scat in areas
where a camera detects the animals. UA's Conservation Genetics lab
will conduct genetics testing of the scat to verify its species and
possibly identify individual cats, the UA news release said.
Contact reporter Tony Davis at tdavis@azstarnet.com or 806-7746.
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