Jaguar in Southern Arizona
If I remember right, back in either the late 80's or early 90's, Warner Glenn was chasing lions when he treed a Jaguar. That was the first documented photo of one in the U.S. I also heard that a couple of college students captured some pics of one on a trail cam a couple years ago. The rumor is also floating that Warner Glenn managed to tree another Jaguar either last year or the year before.
Sneaky, you are 100% correct...and I was a "bit" wrong. This picture was taken by Mr. Glenn on a cougar hunting trip in New Mexico, not Arizona as I had originally stated. You were also correct in that this is his second encounter with one of these awesome cats. I told ya I'd see if I could dig anything up on this and here is what I found:
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Arizona rancher Warner Glenn has now had two once-in-a-lifetime encounters with jaguars, the latest in February during a mountain lion-hunting trip in the Bootheel of New Mexico. “I thought it was an old tom lion,” says Glenn. “But when I got closer, I saw it was a jaguar—it was an absolutely beautiful cat.”
After spotting it, Glenn walked back to his mule and reached into his saddlebag. “This is a really remote corner of the country, where a rancher might easily say, ‘I don’t want to have anything to do with an endangered species anywhere near my land,’” says Jonathan Adams, a Nature Conservancy biologist. “But Warner Glenn didn’t reach for his gun; he reached for his camera.” And he did the same in 1996, when he took the first pictures ever of a live jaguar in the United States.
The jaguar—the largest cat native to the Americas—has been making its way north from a core population of a couple hundred cats 140 miles to the south, according to biologists. “Historically, jaguars ranged as far north as the Grand Canyon,” says Peter Warren, a Conservancy grassland manager in Arizona. “The return of these big cats is an indicator that conservation work near the border is paying off.”
Glenn is part of the Malpai Borderlands Group, a team of ranchers that works with scientists, conservationists and public agencies to protect its lands from encroaching development by maintaining a “working wilderness” in the rugged and biologically diverse lands along the Arizona and New Mexico borders with Mexico. The Conservancy has partnered with the group since its beginning in 1994, assisting with more than 75,000 acres of conservation easements and helping to apply prescribed burns to about 150,000 acres.
Like most people living in the hardscrabble border region, Glenn needs to supplement his work as a rancher, and he does so by guiding hunting trips. He first hunted mountain lions on his ranch with his father more than 60 years ago to protect the livestock. “I know it’s difficult for some people to stomach,” says Warren. “But hunting a few animals is fairly benign when we’re talking about significant benefits to an entire ecosystem.” Recent in-creases in mountain lion populations have led to declines in bighorn sheep and other Southwestern species, he says.
“These ranchers live on land that is very difficult to manage, and the Malpai group is working to manage their land in a way that is responsible and sustainable,” says Nathan Sayre, a University of California geographer and author of a recent book on the borderlands. “The jaguar’s return is a symbol of that success.”
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Arizona rancher Warner Glenn has now had two once-in-a-lifetime encounters with jaguars, the latest in February during a mountain lion-hunting trip in the Bootheel of New Mexico. “I thought it was an old tom lion,” says Glenn. “But when I got closer, I saw it was a jaguar—it was an absolutely beautiful cat.”
After spotting it, Glenn walked back to his mule and reached into his saddlebag. “This is a really remote corner of the country, where a rancher might easily say, ‘I don’t want to have anything to do with an endangered species anywhere near my land,’” says Jonathan Adams, a Nature Conservancy biologist. “But Warner Glenn didn’t reach for his gun; he reached for his camera.” And he did the same in 1996, when he took the first pictures ever of a live jaguar in the United States.
The jaguar—the largest cat native to the Americas—has been making its way north from a core population of a couple hundred cats 140 miles to the south, according to biologists. “Historically, jaguars ranged as far north as the Grand Canyon,” says Peter Warren, a Conservancy grassland manager in Arizona. “The return of these big cats is an indicator that conservation work near the border is paying off.”
Glenn is part of the Malpai Borderlands Group, a team of ranchers that works with scientists, conservationists and public agencies to protect its lands from encroaching development by maintaining a “working wilderness” in the rugged and biologically diverse lands along the Arizona and New Mexico borders with Mexico. The Conservancy has partnered with the group since its beginning in 1994, assisting with more than 75,000 acres of conservation easements and helping to apply prescribed burns to about 150,000 acres.
Like most people living in the hardscrabble border region, Glenn needs to supplement his work as a rancher, and he does so by guiding hunting trips. He first hunted mountain lions on his ranch with his father more than 60 years ago to protect the livestock. “I know it’s difficult for some people to stomach,” says Warren. “But hunting a few animals is fairly benign when we’re talking about significant benefits to an entire ecosystem.” Recent in-creases in mountain lion populations have led to declines in bighorn sheep and other Southwestern species, he says.
“These ranchers live on land that is very difficult to manage, and the Malpai group is working to manage their land in a way that is responsible and sustainable,” says Nathan Sayre, a University of California geographer and author of a recent book on the borderlands. “The jaguar’s return is a symbol of that success.”
Well AGCHAWK, if you are going to eat some crow I'll share in the feast since I thought it was either the late 80's or early 90's and it was 1996. I think confusing Arizona and New Mexico was a very honest mistake, especially considering Warner Glenn's first pictures of a Jaguar did come from Arizona.
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The Arizona Wildlife Trophies record book has a category for them, much like Boone & Crockett. Obviously, however, there have been no new entries for a lot of years. If memory serves, the last entry was not THAT long ago, though, maybe the 60's and there were at least a dozen entries. I will have to break out the book and find the facts. I think the last one legally killed and entered in Arizona may have come from the Hannigan's Meadow area along the Eastern border with New Mexico, about 2/3 up the state line.
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StickFlicker
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I checked my record book this evening. There are 10 jaguars that were taken in Arizona and meet the minimum for entry to the record book. Four of those were taken in the 1960s, with the most recent being in 1965. I'm not sure what year hunting was closed on them. Clearly though, there were and probably are a few that come into Arizona each year.
Most were taken in the Southeast corner of the state, but two of those taken in the 1960s were taken pretty far North in the state, Big Lake and the Ft. Apache Indian Reservation.
Interestingly, the state record is 18 5/16, while the state record Mt. Lion is only 15 9/16. They are obviously quite a bit larger than a cougar!
Marvin
Most were taken in the Southeast corner of the state, but two of those taken in the 1960s were taken pretty far North in the state, Big Lake and the Ft. Apache Indian Reservation.
Interestingly, the state record is 18 5/16, while the state record Mt. Lion is only 15 9/16. They are obviously quite a bit larger than a cougar!
Marvin
Official Pope & Young, Boone & Crockett & Longhunter Society Measurer,
Records Chairman, Bowhunting In Arizona Record Book
Records Chairman, Bowhunting In Arizona Record Book