Arizona jaguar? Photos show rare big cat near Tucson.
| Tucson, Ariz.
New photographs show that a rare male聽jaguar聽apparently has been roaming in Southern聽Arizona聽mountains for at least nine months, indicating the animals are occasionally moving into their historic range from northern Mexico and into the American Southwest.
The聽Arizona聽Daily Star reports (聽) that remote cameras have photographed the big cat in five locations in the Santa Rita Mountains' eastern flank on seven occasions since October. Those photos were taken for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by University of聽Arizona聽cameras after a hunter gave state authorities a photo of a聽jaguar's聽tail that he took last September in the Santa Ritas.
The images were provided to the Star this week by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
Federally financed remote cameras photographed the聽jaguar聽west of the proposed Rosemont Mine site in the mountains southeast of Tucson.听
It is the only聽jaguar聽known to live in the United States since the 15-year-old cat known as Macho B died inArizona聽in March 2009.
The photographs come as federal wildlife officials consider designating more than 1,300 square miles in New Mexico and聽Arizona聽as critical habitat for the聽jaguar.
The proposed habitat would include parts of Pima, Santa Cruz and Cochise counties in聽Arizona, and New Mexico's Hidalgo County.
While this habitat isn't as good for聽jaguars聽as what exists in Mexico, said Jean Calhoun, an assistant field supervisor in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Tucson office, "It's the best (jaguar) habitat we have."
Tim Snow, an聽Arizona聽Game and Fish Department nongame specialist, said the area where the photos were shot has prey for the聽jaguar聽like deer and javelina.
But the new photos don't change the state Game and Fish's opposition to a聽jaguar聽critical habitat.
"That solitary male聽jaguar聽is no reason for critical habitat. We don't have any breeding pairs," said department spokesman Jim Paxon. "If that was critical habitat, we would still be doing the same thing that we are doing today. We are not harassing that聽jaguar聽or modifying normal activities there that are lawful today."
Michael Robinson of the environmental advocacy group Center for Biological Diversity, however, said a habitat is needed in American Southwest. "It's hard to see how an area with possibly the only聽jaguar聽living in the wild in the United States ... how that habitat would not be essential to recovery here," he said.
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Information from:聽Arizona聽Daily Star,聽
