You guys won't believe this..........

[COOSEFAN]

This is kinda funny because of the posts made before I headed back down to Mexico about crazy things happening to me. This following event ranks up there as one of my craziest and undoubtedly hardest to believe.....and that's why I almost kept it to myself. I know what I saw, and the people around me that day can attest to my excitement. To get the record straight, I have glassed up and watched quite a few Mt. Lions in the past and feel very confident in my ability to identify what a lion looks like and how it moves. You'll understand later why I feel I had to mention that

 

We've been hunting a new ranch in far south Mexico and to say it's thick would be an understatement! We have to use machetes to get to glassing points and then proceed to stare at small openings just hoping a small Coues will step into it. The weather was hot and the deer weren't moving at all, so we had my buddy Craig do a push. He was to "cut" his way through the bottom of a ravine below us and then on to where we had another hunter set up. Halfway through the push he called on the radio and said he could smell something dead but the brush was too thick to locate it. We could hear him swingin' the machete and you could tell he was getting very frustrated with the task. A few minutes later he called back and said he heard somethin' take off and to be watching so I moved over to a point where I could see his location better. I immediately noticed movement on a ridge leading out of where Craig was at and thought at first it was a deer. My hunter "Steve" got set up with his rife as I tried to follow it through the brush and in the first clearing it passed through I saw it had a long tail! "LION" I said to Craig, but it looked really dark...........and it wasn't running normal! I told Craig and Steve that it's gotta be a Lion but it's really dark colored and it's back wasn't straight like a Lion, it had a "round" appearance like a bear! I could only see it's outline every now and then behind the thin bushes as it made it's way up the ridgeline. It also had an abnormal "bounce" almost like a pig trotting. It finally got in a clearing but was trotting straight away and uphill and again it looked wider than a Lion with more pronounced shoulders, mid section and hips plus it really looked dark, almost black. Steve was trying to see it in his scope and I tried to call out landmarks as I followed it hoping to see it broadside. Finally, as I started shaking with excitement 'cause I had already determined this wasn't a Lion, the cat turned and sidehilled to the left and slowly went through a small opening..........."IT'S A JAGUAR" I yelled! The cat looked fat and stocky and once I could see it broadside I could see it had a pattern with spots. It wasn't bright colored yellow-orange like I thought it should be, but instead was a darker tan/brown with it's head, back and tail being the darkest areas. He definitely wasn't as dark looking when he was broadside and it was very noticeable he had a spotty pattern all over. The cat sidehilled for a short distance then trotted uphill again and disappeared in the thick brush at the top. I was freakin' out at what I just saw and couldn't believe it. Steve and I glassed hard to try and relocate it and Steve found movement back down near where the cat had gone through the last opening. I got excited thinking he was coming back out but it was a small Coues buck walking up the ridge. We watched as the buck hit the scent line of the cat and he took off making a big circle ending up back in the same spot with his ears and head looking all over. That buck stood there for almost 20 minutes just staring in all directions, appearantly not knowing what to do, but then trotted back the way he came the first time. The neat thing with the buck was that it gave me something to compare size to and verified it was indeed a big cat!

 

 

I had moved glassing points prior to finding the cat so I didn't have my camera handy, but here's where he was and where he went. Craigs direction of travel and where he kicked the cat out is in "yellow" and marked with an "A". The Jaguar went from the red "B" to the red "C" before disappearing. This also took place before there was sunlight in the canyon like there is in the pic's.

 

 

[mxslaugh]

All I can say is COOL!!!!!!!

[Huntn coues]

 

Its a jungle out there Looks like you should pack a chain saw.

 

Great story as alway's Jim.

[WFGinNM]

That is awesome Jim, big cats are amazing, but a jag... WOW. Too cool.

 

--Bill

[Outdoor Writer]

Jim,

 

That country with that heavy vegetation looks very much like most of the hills that surround the lakes where I fish for bass in Sinaloa. There are plenty of deer, but seeing one for more than a brief second is nearly impossible. I've often thought of how I would actually hunt it if I had the chance.

 

Great sighting on the jag. Not many folks get to see them in the wild. -TONY

[GameHauler]

Your my Hero

Lucky S.O.

[Kilimanjaro]

very cool, Jim!! That's something you don't get to glass up every trip!

 

Did ya find out any info on those quail you saw down on the place down in Obregon?

[Coues Sniper]

That, sir, is awesome. Congrats on the jaguar, not many people have seen one of those! I'm Jealous!

[John O]

Awesome Jim! Thanks for the story.

[Hunterdan]

Awesome Jim, Most of us dream of seeing one someday.

[Guest 300ultramag.]

I would put trail cams along A,B, and C..

And then Repost..

[billrquimby]

Great story, and congratulations on sighting the jaguar.

 

I saw what I've always believed was a jaguar swim across the Colorado River near San Luis (south of Yuma) when I was a boy hunting geese on Gadsden Lake. I thought its head was a beaver (there were lots of them in the river then) until it climbed onto a sandbar and walked into the arrowweeds. There was no mistaking that it was a big cat. As you described, its coat seemed to be very dark at a distance, but that could have been because it was wet. It was about 1948 or 1949.

 

Then, in about 1970, I was fishing either Lake Dominguez or Hildalgo (I forget which) in Sinaloa when we came around a point in our boat and saw a dead cow on the edge of the water. When we returned a couple of hours later, the cow was gone. The Mexican I was with said a jaguar had dragged it into the brush while we were fishing elsewhere. We kept on fishing and didn't check for tracks, so I don't know if he knew what he was talking about. As Tony said, the brush there was extremely thick. We fished the two lakes on the El Fuerte River maybe six or seven times over as many years but never saw a deer. I wouldn't want to try hunting in that stuff!

 

Bill Quimby

[hunter4life]

Awesome story!! Hunting gives one the opportunity to have some unique and amazing experiences, that is why I love it so much.

[fatfootdoc]

I swear I saw one down in 36A one year, I was glassing and saw what looked like a huge black panther stalking some whitetail, I lost it in a canyon and when I told my buddies they all told me I was full of Crap!, so I quit bringing it up. It was way bigger than a lion. I would have like to see it through my NEW SWARO 15's!! ag

[daryl_s]

When I was 15 or 16 I went Bass fishing with my dad and cousin in Sinaloa. Some of the local kids showed us the hide of a jaguar stretched out on some sticks they had put together. We slept in tents and I never went too far from camp when I had to take care of business at night . I do remember seeing one deer on the shore during our 6 days of fishing.