Jaguar

[TAM]

Looks like the environmental wackos are already trying to find ways to use this latest sighting against us!

 

Notice the bullet point that mentions a "Federal recovery plan". Nothing good for hunters or the way our country is allowed to secure our borders will come from this study.

 

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/camera-network-will-focus-on-jaguars/article_3bd1d60e-8a37-5390-b50e-a776166085fb.html

[.270]

that's where the lie is. there has never been anything more than a transient population of jags here. it ain't there kinda country. Lark.

[TAM]

that's where the lie is. there has never been anything more than a transient population of jags here. it ain't there kinda country. Lark.

 

 

EXACTLY!!!

[muleskinner]

I made a comment after the media circus surrounding the treeing of the jag by a Benson guide, that it would probably tur n to the bad for those that enjoy access to that area. There are too many people in the environmental areas, as well as Forest service, conservation, and so on, that operate on emotion and sentiment, rather than common sense. They will end up making a poster child out of the jag and use it to further their agenda, which I believe has very little to do with the future of the animal. Control of public lands and the eventual destruction of hunting activities is what they are about. I'm not a conspiracy advocate, but these people are dangerous to the pursuit of liberty. I hope the next guy that spots a jag in Az. or N.M. will keep his mouth shut about it. Take pictures to share with trusted friends and let someone else work in behalf of the tree huggers and anti's.

[Outdoor Writer]

And the recent report of an ocelot is hogwash. After the report, I did some research and found a photo of a serval from the rear. It looks exactly like one of the photos of the "ocelot." The back of the ears are the tipoff. The serval was likely someone's released or escaped pet.

 

Here are the pics.

 

Supposed ocelot:

 

Serval from the rear:

 

[Outdoor Writer]

Tucson: After further review, the Arizona Game and Fish Department said the reported rare sighting of an ocelot was another breed of cat called a serval.

 

A serval is a popular African cat in the pet trade, the fish and game department said.

 

The Department uses a three-tiered classification system to rank reported sightings from the public based on the level of physical evidence available, the department said.

 

The presence of physical evidence such as scat, hair, tracks and/or photos and video can lead to a Class I designation of "verifiable" or "highly probable."

 

A second-tier classification is one that lacks physical evidence, but is considered "probable" or "possible" because the sighting was made by an experienced or reliable observer that usually has wildlife or field experience.

 

The third tier classification is one that does not have sufficient physical evidence or sufficient details, or is otherwise of questionable reliability and would be considered "highly unlikely" or "rejected" as evidence for occurrence.

 

Friday's report of an ocelot was classified as "highly probable" based on the photos and the paw prints taken at the location of the sighting. The officer responding was unable to locate the animal or retrieve additional physical evidence such as hair or scat.

 

Game and Fish shared the photographs with department biologists and other ocelot experts for an independent analysis. The effort helped definitively determine if it was an ocelot, hybrid or other large cat, as well as compare it to photos from previous sightings to determine if it is the same or a different animal from those sightings.

 

"Upon closer examination, some key identification markers make a stronger case for this being a serval, or serval hybrid rather than an ocelot," said Eric Gardner, Nongame Branch Chief. "Although the pictures are blurry, two show that the animal has long ears, long legs, and appears to display only solid spots instead of the combination of solid spots and haloed rosettes seen on an ocelot."

 

"This is a textbook example of why the Department attempts to makes such a clear distinction between a report of any rare wildlife sighting versus one with properly examined physical evidence. Positive identification by species experts or genetic analysis is required before any report is entered into our Heritage Data Management System as confirmed. It appears that this one may go down as ‘close but no cigar'" Gardner said.

 

There have been only two sightings of an ocelot in Arizona this year.

[TAM]

Tucson: After further review, the Arizona Game and Fish Department said the reported rare sighting of an ocelot was another breed of cat called a serval.

 

A serval is a popular African cat in the pet trade, the fish and game department said.

 

The Department uses a three-tiered classification system to rank reported sightings from the public based on the level of physical evidence available, the department said.

 

The presence of physical evidence such as scat, hair, tracks and/or photos and video can lead to a Class I designation of "verifiable" or "highly probable."

 

A second-tier classification is one that lacks physical evidence, but is considered "probable" or "possible" because the sighting was made by an experienced or reliable observer that usually has wildlife or field experience.

 

The third tier classification is one that does not have sufficient physical evidence or sufficient details, or is otherwise of questionable reliability and would be considered "highly unlikely" or "rejected" as evidence for occurrence.

 

Friday's report of an ocelot was classified as "highly probable" based on the photos and the paw prints taken at the location of the sighting. The officer responding was unable to locate the animal or retrieve additional physical evidence such as hair or scat.

 

Game and Fish shared the photographs with department biologists and other ocelot experts for an independent analysis. The effort helped definitively determine if it was an ocelot, hybrid or other large cat, as well as compare it to photos from previous sightings to determine if it is the same or a different animal from those sightings.

 

"Upon closer examination, some key identification markers make a stronger case for this being a serval, or serval hybrid rather than an ocelot," said Eric Gardner, Nongame Branch Chief. "Although the pictures are blurry, two show that the animal has long ears, long legs, and appears to display only solid spots instead of the combination of solid spots and haloed rosettes seen on an ocelot."

 

"This is a textbook example of why the Department attempts to makes such a clear distinction between a report of any rare wildlife sighting versus one with properly examined physical evidence. Positive identification by species experts or genetic analysis is required before any report is entered into our Heritage Data Management System as confirmed. It appears that this one may go down as ‘close but no cigar'" Gardner said.

 

There have been only two sightings of an ocelot in Arizona this year.

 

 

Sounds like we need to get this Serval cat an endangered species listing and a Federal recovery plan in place right away!

[.270]

just wait until they are able to get some dna to breed with an elephant and make a wooly mamoth or a mastodon and turn this place into a wooly mammoth recovery area. i guarantee you someone is working on it. trying to save something that never existed, like a healthy population of jags, is a way to control the land. the animal doesn't matter. but the views of some liberal assed treehuggers do. it's all about someone else imposing their will on others that they don't like. plain and simple. if the animal mattered, then the success of the yellowstone wolf program would mean something. but it doesn't. they still want the control that they are about to lose. if the animal mattered, then 2 folks hired to manage wildlife wouldn't have gone out of their way to make decisions that ulimately caused the death of one of the few jags in the country, while they were supposed to be doing something else. decisions that they lied about and decisions that they were told to not make. it's an out of control bunch of dangerous folks that are callin' the shots. Lark.

[daryl_s]

And the recent report of an ocelot is hogwash. After the report, I did some research and found a photo of a serval from the rear. It looks exactly like one of the photos of the "ocelot." The back of the ears are the tipoff. The serval was likely someone's released or escaped pet.

 

Here are the pics.

 

Supposed ocelot:

 

Serval from the rear:

 

 

 

A guy I work with has a Savannah cat. They are part Serval. Looks just like the cat pictured.

[billrquimby]

"just wait until they are able to get some dna to breed with an elephant and make a wooly mamoth or a mastodon and turn this place into a wooly mammoth recovery area."

 

Lark:

 

You definitely are clairvoyant. There are several stories on the internet about how Japanese scientists isolated usable DNA samples from the marrow of a frozen mammoth leg bone found recently in Siberia. They say they will recreate one or more of the beasts within the next five years.

 

It's not Jurassic Park, but it's close.

 

Mammoth bone fragments found at more than 50 "digs" across Arizona might be enough to cause those things to be released here. If that happens, the younger guys on this forum may want to consider making a down payment on a .600 double rifle before the price really goes up.

 

Bill Quimby

[Outdoor Writer]

Just to keep the facts straight:

 

It should be noted that McCain is NOT or ever has been employed by the AZ G&F Department.

 

Interviews with both he and the fired game dept. employee, Thorry Smith, revealed that McCain and another female volunteer, Janay Brun, had intentionally baited several snare sites with scat from a female in heat that they had obtained from a zoo because they thought it would be neat to catch a jaguar. They were both members of the Borderlands Jaguar Detection Project -- an independent group that voluntraily monitored jaguar activity.

 

It wasn't until after the fact, that the fired G&F guy found out about it. Unfortunately, he lied about what he knew when first interviewed by dept. officials. He later told them the truth, and that's why he was terminated.

 

The interviews with Smith are long but interesting. You can read it here:

 

Thorry Smith Interview Transcripts - Posted April 16, 2010 [PDF 5.5mb]

 

There are also two other interview transcripts on the Jaguar Page.

 

 

AGFD Mar 19, 2010 press release:

PHOENIX – The Arizona Game and Fish Department today dismissed one of its employees as a result of the department’s ongoing internal administrative investigation into the events surrounding last year’s capture of the jaguar known as Macho B.

 

Dismissed was Thornton W. Smith, 40, a wildlife technician for 12 years with the department and one of the field biologists involved in the placement and monitoring of traps used in a black bear and mountain lion research project that resulted in the initial capture of Macho B.

 

The department dismissed Smith based on the employee’s own interview statements made during the course of the internal investigation. The statements related to Smith’s conduct that occurred several weeks after the capture, recapture and euthanizing of Macho B.

 

Smith’s statements and further investigation confirmed that he did not comply with verbal and written directions issued by supervisors and that he admitted to knowingly misleading federal investigators regarding facts surrounding the original capture of Macho B.

 

The department’s official letter that documents the grounds for dismissal was delivered to Smith earlier today.

 

Smith admitted that he failed to comply with verbal and written direction from supervisors not to communicate with anyone (other than investigators) regarding the original capture of the jaguar due to the fact that a federal law enforcement investigation had begun.

 

In his statements to department investigators, Smith stated that he talked about the capture with Emil McCain, a biologist with the Borderlands Jaguar Detection Project, even though Smith had previously been instructed not to communicate with anyone regarding the subject of the ongoing investigation. According to Smith, McCain had assisted Smith in selecting bear and mountain lion trap site locations for the research project. Smith alleged that McCain disclosed to him after the capture had occurred that McCain had placed jaguar scat at two camera sites in the vicinity of where Macho B was captured. Smith also alleged that during his discussions with McCain, the two of them concocted a false story about the capture for federal investigators, and that McCain later allegedly went to the area where Macho B was captured and removed all traces of jaguar scat so that the capture scene matched the story.

 

Smith also admitted to Game and Fish investigators that he had knowingly misled federal investigators from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when he told them the story he and McCain had allegedly made up denying that jaguar scat had been placed in the vicinity of the Macho B capture site.

 

Yet in his interview with department investigators, Smith alleged that McCain “went in and removed whatever scat he left, whatever it was. You know, I don’t know what got eaten. Because by the time we actually caught, you know, the jaguar, the scat by the camera had been kicked over and knocked. I don’t know what was left. He went in and cleaned it up, made it look like our story.”

 

When asked by department investigators if he had knowingly misled the federal investigators, Smith said, “Yah. Yah. We (McCain and Smith) came up with a story, and I just, it’s been eating on me and I just couldn’t live with it.”

 

Upon further questioning by department investigators, Smith went on to allege, “We made a different story to protect the department, to protect Emil, to protect my association with Emil, about, you know, not leaving jaguar scat, but (tape recording inaudible). There was no scat at all placed anywhere. The one scat I did find he pointed out was an old one, which it was, but you know, I can’t live with that. You know, I did it.”

 

The Department has concluded that the employee’s conduct is cause for dismissal as allowed by Arizona Revised Statutes 41-770 and includes violations of the standards of conduct for state employees found in Arizona Administrative Code R2-5-501.

 

Smith has been restricted from working on field activities since July 16, 2009, and the department placed him on paid administrative leave on March 8 pending a determination on what final administrative action would be taken. On March 15, the department issued Smith an official notice of charges of misconduct letter. Today, Smith submitted to the department his intent to resign his position. The department refused to accept Smith’s resignation as allowed by Arizona Administrative Code R2-5-901 and issued a letter of dismissal to him.

 

Department officials added that the Game and Fish internal investigation cannot be considered completed until the department has an opportunity to review whatever findings may come out of an ongoing federal investigation being conducted by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. However, department officials noted that as the one year anniversary of the initiation of the federal investigation approaches, the department had reached a point in its own investigation where it could no longer delay taking appropriate action.

 

The department has determined that no agency personnel directed any person to capture a jaguar, and that the department’s actions related to the capture were lawful.

 

 

Arizona Daily Star, April 2, 2009

 

I baited jaguar trap, research worker says

 

By Tony Davis and Tim Steller

 

A trap the state says inadvertently snared the last known wild jaguar in the United States actually was baited with female jaguar scat, a member of the Borderlands Jaguar Detection Project says.

 

Janay Brun told the Star that on Feb. 4 she put the scat at the site of the trap that two weeks later snared the male jaguar, known as Macho B. He was released but recaptured 12 days later, on March 2, because he showed signs of poor health. He was euthanized that afternoon.

 

Brun, 37, said she spoke to the Star because she thinks she helped cause the death of Macho B. "That jaguar meant a lot to me, and the fact that I mindlessly participated in this — it's a regret I'll have for the rest of my life."

 

She said she put the scat out in the presence of a state Game and Fish employee and Emil McCain, a biologist for the project. Brun alleges that McCain told her to place the scat at the site.

 

In two interviews with the Star this week, McCain vehemently denied her allegations. On Tuesday, he said Brun was fired from the project within the last month and was "completely unreliable in the past and untrustworthy." On Wednesday, he said the project ran out of money to pay her and that he was waiting to meet with Brun to tell her that.

 

The Star is not naming the Game and Fish employee Brun says was present when the scat was placed because it has not been able to reach the person.

 

The state Attorney General's Office has taken over an investigation of the circumstances of the jaguar's capture from Arizona Game and Fish. The game department, which announced the investigation Tuesday night, would not elaborate.

 

Project workers have used female jaguar scat to attract jaguars, McCain and others said this week. In 2004, the project began placing scat at locations of motion-sensing cameras where they were attempting to photograph jaguars, two former volunteers said. Jaguars and other cats use scents as a way to communicate, and female jaguar feces may attract male jaguars.

 

The borderlands jaguar project obtained female jaguar scat from the Phoenix Zoo in November and December of last year and from the Reid Park Zoo on Feb. 18 of this year, officials of both zoos told the Star this week. They said they understood the scat would be used to attract jaguars to cameras, not snares.

 

On Dec. 10 of last year, in an e-mail exchange forwarded by Brun, McCain sent her an e-mail saying he "just got a package of female … jag scat. Am thinking about placing it under a certain tree. You concur?"

 

"Si," Brun replied in an e-mail nearly an hour later.

 

Brun, of Arivaca, is out of state taking care of a family matter. But she said by phone and e-mail that she is speaking up because of the guilt she feels over the death of Macho B, whom she had been studying since she accidentally saw him in 1999.

 

"I felt guilty as all heck that I never questioned Emil enough, that I didn't go back and set the snares off or do something to get them out of there," said Brun, who has been a paid, part-time field technician for the jaguar detection project.

 

McCain denied having told Brun to place jaguar scat at the snare site and said he didn't know that she had done it.

 

"I'm extremely shocked that she would have said that or put scat in that snare," McCain said. "That snare was obviously for mountain lion and bear purposes, not for jaguar research."

 

More........

 

 

Preparing for capture

 

E-mails obtained through public-records requests to Arizona Game and Fish and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service make clear that in the two weeks before Macho B was captured, McCain and others were preparing to capture a jaguar, even though subsequently officials emphasized the capture was inadvertent.

 

On Feb. 3, the Game and Fish employee and McCain received e-mails from veterinarians Roberto Aguilar and Sharon Deem suggesting what dosages of which drugs to use to sedate a jaguar.

 

McCain followed up on Feb. 5 with an e-mail to Deem and the unnamed Game and Fish employee clarifying that the employee "is not trying to catch a jaguar, but he is working on a mountain lion and black bear study in an area where he may inadvertently encounter a jaguar."

 

On Feb. 13, McCain wrote an e-mail to Blake Henke of North Star Science and Technology, who provided the radio collar that five days later was placed on Macho B.

 

"I wanted to thank you for getting the donated jaguar collar back to me so quickly," McCain wrote. "I also wanted you to know that we have again started trapping, and that there is fresh jaguar sign in the area."

 

On Feb. 16, McCain wrote to the Game and Fish employee and Henke: "At this point I think that for the week long trapping periods in the area where we may capture a jag, I think we should leave that collar (turned) on. Especailly (sic) given the remmoteness (sic) of the area, the lack of internet or phone access and the once in a lifetime change (sic) to collar a AZ jag, I think it is prudent to be 100% sure the collar is on."

 

Naive about traps

 

As Brun described the scent-baiting event, it occurred on a cold evening, after she, McCain and the Arizona Game and Fish employee had spent most of the day hiking in rugged hills northwest of Nogales, Ariz. The trio checked sites where the borderlands project had set camera traps to photograph passing jaguars and where Game and Fish had set snares for the mountain lion and bear project, Brun said.

 

"Emil said to me, 'Janay, put the scat over there,' " Brun recalled, referring to the area of the snare trap. "I was very naive about what the traps were. We'd used the scat before at the (camera) traps for two months in Macho B's territory last year and no jaguars had showed up. I didn't think he would be back in the area."

 

Photos of the jaguar taken on Jan. 21 had shown Macho B about 12 miles north of the eventual trap site, Brun and McCain said. A photo taken earlier that month had shown Macho B south of and much closer to the trap site.

 

On Feb. 21, three days after Macho B's capture, she said she went to the capture site and saw what she later described as a tree with jaguar claw and tooth marks running up and down it.

 

"They told the story of how he tried to climb the tree to pull the cable off his paw, only to be pulled down to the ground by the same cable," Brun wrote in an e-mail to the Star, describing the braided, metal cable that is used to snare an animal by a limb. "I found pieces of his claws, including a tip, embedded in the bark. The 'padding' on the cable was electrical tape. This is done to ensure that the cable does not slice through the animal's skin, bone, ligaments and joints as it fights to get free. The loop of the cable remained taut against his paw, cutting off circulation."

 

In his interview on Tuesday, McCain said Brun had "done a very dirty trick here to make this information public without talking about it first."

 

"This particular individual has been completely unreliable in the past and untrustworthy," McCain said.

 

Brun has worked as a volunteer and paid employee for the borderlands project since 2001. But McCain said the project fired Brun sometime in the past month.

 

Brun said she had no knowledge of having been fired. She provided the Star an e-mail exchange between McCain and her from March 19 and 20 in which he had asked her to go with him to Sonora for 10 days in April to set up to 20 cameras, presumably to photograph wildlife.

 

Brun was described as "an excellent tracker, putting in countless hours in the field each month," in the book "Ambushed on the Jaguar Trail," an account written by Jack Childs and his wife, Anna. He is co-founder and project coordinator for the Borderlands Jaguar Detection Project. He and Anna, also a co-founder of the group, have been photographing jaguars in Southern Arizona since first catching Macho B on camera in 1996.

 

Jack Childs, of Amado, said he knew nothing of Brun's allegations until being told of them by a reporter. He declined to comment on them.

 

In their book, the Childs also thanked biologist McCain, and said, "His bulldog tenacity, tracking ability and vast knowledge of the wild critters of the region elevate the status of the project far beyond our expectations."

 

Brun was also described as "reliable, totally honest and very trustworthy" by a federal biologist for whom she had worked as an unpaid intern at Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in 2001. Brun spent a year working for the refuge, surveying, releasing and tracking endangered masked bobwhite birds — "she was my right-hand person," recalled Mary Hunnicutt, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist.

 

For years, many jaguar researchers and other wildlife biologists had wanted to capture a jaguar to learn more about its movements and other behavior, particularly because of concerns that a planned fence along the U.S.-Mexican border would disrupt its movements.

 

McCain was among the leading advocates of capture. Some environmental groups such as the Sky Island Alliance and Center for Biological Diversity have questioned or opposed capture on the grounds that its risks to the rare animal outweighed the benefits.

 

But from the moment that Game and Fish officials announced the Macho B capture, they have stuck to their account that the capture was accidental. They have said repeatedly that that trap and others in the area were set to trap black bears and mountain lions to study their movement patterns and migration corridors.

 

"While we didn't set out to collar a jaguar as part of the mountain lion and bear research project, we took advantage of an important opportunity," said Terry Johnson, endangered species coordinator for the Arizona Game and Fish Department on Feb. 19, the day the state announced the capture.

 

The Borderlands research project began using female jaguar scat obtained from the Reid Park Zoo in 2004, said two former volunteers for the group, Shiloh Walkosak and Sergio Avila.

 

Arizona is at the northern edge of the range of jaguars. In a paper published in the Journal of Mammalogy last year, Childs and McCain said the project "provides valuable new information" on the distribution, travel patterns, longevity and activity of jaguars in the borderlands.

 

Walkosak, a former Reid Park zookeeper and volunteer with the jaguar project, said she supplied McCain and the project with female jaguar scat that she collected when the zoo's jaguars were in their fertile periods.

 

"Using the scat was an ongoing part of the project up till when I left the zoo" in late 2006, she said. "We would give him (McCain) maybe the equivalent of one bowel movement for a large cat. He would use that for a very long period of time. He was literally putting a small smear on a rock in front of the camera."

 

Walkosak and Avila, who now researches jaguars for the Sky Island Alliance, said the project got more photos of jaguars when they began using female jaguar scat.

 

He and other project workers "used jaguar scat in 2004," Avila said. "That same year, as a result of this, we obtained four photographs of jaguars."

 

Said Walkosak: "Afterwards we consistently got photographs whenever that (scat) scent was used."

 

Reid Park Zoo administrator Susan Basford confirmed Walkosak's account, and Phoenix Zoo president Bert Castro acknowledged the zoo provided scat for photo sites last year.

 

Earlier this year, the zoo agreed to resume supplying jaguar scat to McCain and the project for use in attracting jaguars to the cameras, Basford said. McCain requested the scat to place at camera sites, not snares, she said.

 

 

From AGFD:

 

May 20, 2010

 

An individual involved in the Macho B incident last year pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Friday, May 14 for unlawfully taking a jaguar, an endangered species, in violation of the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

 

Emil McCain, 31, of Patagonia, was sentenced by U. S. Magistrate Judge Bernardo P. Velasco to five years of supervised probation with the condition that he is not permitted to be employed or any way involved in any large cat or large carnivore project or study in the United States during his probationary term. McCain was also fined $1,000 for the Class A misdemeanor conviction.

 

Court documents provide the following facts describing McCain’s connection to the conduct for which he pleaded guilty:

 

On February 4, 2009, at or near Ruby, in the District of Arizona, Emil McCain placed jaguar scat or directed a female person to place jaguar scat at three (3) snare sites in an attempt to capture and trap an endangered species, to wit, a jaguar (Panthera onca).

 

McCain knew that there had been recent evidence of a jaguar in the area of the snares. The snares had been set solely for the purpose of capturing and placing tracking collars on mountain lions and bears; there was no authorization to intentionally capture a jaguar. A jaguar known as Macho B was caught at one of those snare sites on February 18, 2009.

 

Some media reports and other accounts about McCain’s guilty plea have incorrectly identified McCain as an Arizona Game and Fish Department employee or state official. As the Department has previously stated, McCain has never been an employee of the Arizona Game and Fish Department, and by February 2009, when Macho B was initially captured, McCain was acting independently, and was neither a contractor, subcontractor, nor a formal volunteer to the Department.

 

McCain’s admission of guilt conclusively establishes his true involvement in this matter and supports the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s long-standing assertion that there was no authorization from the Department for the intentional capture of a jaguar.

 

Until the Department obtains access to the federal investigative file, the Department’s own internal investigation continues to be open and ongoing.

 

Web Links:

 

Read the U.S. District Court documents: USA vs. McCain [PDF 452kb]

 

Read the Associated Press story: Southern Arizona man pleads guilty in jaguar’s death

 

View the Arizona Republic story: Trapper pleads guilty to capturing jaguar

 

Learn more by reading the AGFD Response to Office of Inspector General Report

[1azbowhunter]

Why "should" you call game and fish if you see a jaguar? What benefit is this to the jaguar?

I would tell game and fish to go find their own jaguar...

haha