That is a stock image — I didn’t want to spoil the trail cam video experience.
You’re about to see a very, very happy camper — and a jaguar.
A new jaguar is roaming southern Arizona after a trail camera documented one of the state’s most elusive predators.
On Dec. 20, Jason Miller’s trail camera in the Huachuca Mountains detected motion at 8:27 p.m. He was shocked to discover a jaguar at the bottom of the frame…
— Source, which also has good information on other jaguars and how these big cats are identified individually.
Yes, this big cat is making the same face that house cats sometimes do. According to PetMD, cats generally make this face to detect pheromones.
Though it sometimes happens in response to other interesting scents, I wonder if this new cat is investigating the nearby presence of a female (who didn’t trigger the camera)?
Wouldn”t it be great if a breeding population of this endangered cat gets established in the US!
Right?
There is a tussle about reintroducing jaguars — for the same reason that jaguars are unpopular among Brazil’s cattle ranches: they sometimes kill livestock.
Just my personal opinion, but jaguars — which thrive in arid climates, actually, as well as in wetlands like the Pantanal — might just be tbe answer to New Mexico’s oryx problem.
Lagniappe:
The jaguar’s Old World doppelganger goes after an oryx in South Africa:
Featured image: Josef Svoboda/Shutterstock
Flight To Wonder 