The Borderlands Jaguar

Detection Project:
A Report on the Jaguar in Southeastern Arizona

Photo © Emil McCain.

Jack L. Childs blend in with the tree and surrounding was the first time a jaguar had ever
Emil B. McCain hillside. Our eyes finally focused on been photographed alive in the wild
Anna Mary Childs the most magnificent animal we had in the United States. The Glenns
Janay Brun ever encountered. photographed a second adult male
Borderlands Jaguar Detection Project This life changing event took jaguar in the same area in February
place on August 31, l996. 2006.
The constant barking of the On March 7, 1996, just six months The jaguar was virtually unknown
hounds announced that they had their prior to our encounter, professional in the desert environment of the
quarry at bay. Matt Colvin, our young guides Warner Glenn and Kelly Glenn American Southwest in l996. Historic
hunting companion, ran ahead, leaving Kimbro were hunting mountain lions records suggested a small and
us far behind. After a long hard climb in the Peloncillo Mountains along declining population until the 1940s.
up the steep, brushy mountainside, the Arizona-New Mexico border. After this time, only an occasional
my wife, Anna, and I finally arrived Their hounds brought to bay an adult jaguar was reported about every 10
at the source of the excitement. We male jaguar on a rocky cliff. Instead years. The species was therefore
could see the hounds and Matt. They of reaching for his rifle, Warner generally thought to be absent from
were all looking up into the branches grabbed his camera and took several the area and was overlooked for
of an alligator juniper tree. Expecting photographs before he gathered his protection by the Endangered Species
a mountain lion, we did not see the dogs, tipped his hat, and rode away Act.
jaguar at first glance, so well did he grateful for the experience. This Following the two 1996 sightings,

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the Arizona and New Mexico Game
and Fish Departments joined forces
and created the Arizona-New Mexico
Jaguar Conservation Team (Jag Team)
in l997, complete with a Scientific
Advisory Group of the world’s
leading jaguar biologists. This team
of state and federal wildlife and land
management agencies, university
biologists, conservation groups, local
landowners, ranchers and concerned
citizens was formed in a collaborative
approach to help protect and manage
the jaguar and its habitat in Arizona
and New Mexico. The U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service formally listed the
Below: Emil McCain cleans a the sensor for one of the Borderlands Jaguar Detection Project’s remote cameras. Photo © Emil McCain.
jaguar as an endangered species in the
United States the same year.
In March 2001, Anna and I
founded The Borderlands Jaguar
Detection Project with the help and
support of the Jag Team. The focus
of this project is two-fold. Our
goals are to describe and quantify
the current status and distribution
of jaguars in the borderlands region
and apply our findings to sound
conservation management through the
Jag Team and its land management
members. We want to learn as much
as we can about jaguars in southern
Arizona. Are these animals residents
here or dispersing immigrants from
a population in Mexico? If they are
residents, what is the size of their
home range? What types of habitat
do they require? What are their major
prey species? Most importantly, do
we have a viable breeding population
in Arizona?
In order to answer these questions,
we set out remote sensing trail
cameras and established a network
of track transects. We focused on
major travel routes and natural funnels
through areas of core and connective
habitats in the mountains of
southeastern Arizona. We established
our surveys in areas where we located
high densities of mountain lion sign.
Our belief was that jaguars might use
the landscape similar to lions and
travel along the same routes. We
used our knowledge of mountain lion
behavior, gained during more than 40
years of experience following them
in these remote mountain ranges, to
predict the most likely places to find
Photos © Emil McCain.
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jaguars in this desert environment.
Our trail cameras photographed
our first jaguar in December 2001.
The Jag Team’s Scientific Advisory
Group estimated that he was 3 to
5 years old. Because the jaguar is
so deeply rooted in Latin American
culture, we began referring to this
jaguar as “Macho A.” “Macho” being
the Spanish word for “male” and “A”
because he was the first jaguar of our
study.
Between 2001 and 2004, we
captured three photographs of Macho
A, all of his right side. Therefore,
we never learned the spot pattern
on his left side. Shortly before and
shortly after we last photographed
Macho A, our cameras obtained two
photographs of the left profile of a
jaguar. These pictures could either be
the left unknown side of Macho A or
a different, unknown jaguar. Without
a simultaneous photograph from both
sides (paired cameras) we cannot be
sure.
Emil McCain, a Humboldt State
University graduate student, joined
the project in June 2004. He added
several years of jaguar research
experience gained in Costa Rica and
Sonora, Mexico. Emil soon expanded
the project three-fold. Camera
captures soon expanded exponentially.
We now have more than 15,000
images of 25 of the region’s wildlife
species, including more than 70
photographs of jaguars.
On August 31, 2004, we
photographed another adult male
jaguar in the same mountain range as
Macho A. This jaguar had a distinctly
different spot pattern. On his right
side was a conspicuous rosette
resembling the cartoon character
“Pinocchio.” Being the second jaguar
on our study, he became “Macho B.”
Ever since the project began, we
hoped to find the original 1996 jaguar
again. Finally our wish came true.
One spring day in 2006, we were
reviewing our old photos of the jaguar
we first treed in 1996 and realized
what we hadn’t comprehended before.
Winking at us through the juniper
branches was the familiar face of
Pinocchio. The jaguar which glared
down at us from the tree that day was
Macho B; our beautiful Baboquiviri
jaguar is still here 10 years later!
Those original photographs of
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Above: Jack Childs (left) and Emil McCain survey tracks in the Borderlands. Photo © Emil McCain.
Macho B from 1996 were analyzed
by the Jag Team’s Scientific Advisory
Group, who aged him between 2 and
3 years old. Macho B remains in
Arizona today, crossing back and forth
between several mountain ranges in
Arizona. We believe he also ranges
south of the border into Sonora,
Mexico. So far, our surveys have
recorded Macho B at 83 locations
over a minimum observed range of
1,360 km2. We have photographed
him during every month of the year,
and quite continuously from 2004 and
into 2007. At the time of the latest
photograph in March 2007, he was
between 12 ½ and 13 ½ years of age.
Some scientists speculate
that our southern Arizona jaguars
could be transient individuals that
were displaced by dominant males
from a known breeding population
approximately 180 miles south in
Sonora, Mexico. Theoretically,
displaced juveniles could then grow
to maturity in Arizona, eventually
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returning to the population in Mexico
as breeding adults.
Our data would suggest otherwise.
Macho A and Macho B are clearly not
dispersing juveniles. Macho A was
present as an adult animal from 2001,
at 3 to 5 years old, to 2004, when he
was 6 to 8 years old. We know that
Macho B was in Arizona as a 2- to
3-year-old in 1996 and has been here
continuously from 2004 to 2007.
Did he spend the intervening years
in Mexico contributing to the gene
pool, or was he simply in a portion
of his range in Arizona we were not
surveying at the time?
In September 2001, an aspiring
young naturalist named Janay Brun
joined the project. She soon became
a leading field technician. One sunny
May morning in 2006, Janay and
Emil were checking cameras near the
border and came upon fresh jaguar
tracks. Kneeling in the sandy wash,
Janay studied the track in the early
morning light, which accentuated the
rounded toes and enormous plantar
pad. She turned and said, “I’ve seen
this track before.” She then said that
in 1999 in a distant mountain range 50
miles to the north, she had seen a large
spotted cat jump from a rocky ledge
and disappear into a steep brushy
ravine. Minutes later she heard a low,
cough-like roar repeatedly sounding
out of the canyon where the cat had
disappeared. In 2002 and again in
2004, Janay found and photographed
the tracks of a large cat on this same
trail. After returning from the day’s
camera work, Janay showed Emil her
photo albums. There were hundreds
of photos of tracks: mountain lion,
bobcat, coyote, and badger. But there,
on the first page were the tracks that
had inspired her passion in tracking
cats. The pudgy toes and robust pad
were compressed in a huge track that
was unmistakably jaguar. We had not
previously monitored this mountain
range, and this information made us
wonder if this could be where Macho
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Photo © Emil McCain.
B had been living between 1996
and 2004. Janay returned to place
cameras where she had seen the cat.
In September 2006, she photographed
Macho B. With 13 more pictures over
the next six months, our suspicions
were confirmed. Just recently, we
videotaped Macho B spraying – scent
marking – the tree where Janay had
seen him seven years before.
It is impossible to prove that a
species or individual animal is absent
or does not exist. This is especially
so with an animal as secretive as
the jaguar. Just because we did not
document Macho A after 2004 or
Macho B from 1996 until 2004 does
not mean they were not present.
Similarly, the fact that we have not
yet confirmed any female jaguars
in the Borderlands does not mean
that none exist. Other biologists
in the heart of the jaguars’ range in
Central and South America have
been puzzled by the small number of
females photographed by trail cameras
(~35%). The best explanation is
that females occupy smaller home
ranges and have more restricted
movements than males, thus reducing
the probabilities of being detected by
passive monitoring techniques like
trail cameras.
From 1900 through 1995, 61
jaguars were documented in Arizona
and New Mexico (confirmed
records with existing hide, skull or
photographs). Twenty-five of these
were identified to gender, with 18
males (72%) and seven females
(28%). Three were cubs belonging
to two females. These demographics
are not dissimilar to populations in the
rest of the jaguar’s range. This leads
one to conclude that although jaguars
may never have been abundant in
the Southwest, there was at one
time a small breeding population in
residence.
Using the 25 most reliable
and spatially accurate locations
of the confirmed jaguar records in
Arizona, the Arizona Game and
Fish Department (AZGFD) and the
Jag Team’s Habitat Sub-Committee
created GIS habitat suitability
index models that identified 30% of
Arizona as potentially suitable jaguar
habitat, primarily in the southeastern
mountains.
In addition to photographing
jaguars, our cameras have taught
us a great deal about the ecology
of the borderlands region; we have
photographed 25 other wildlife
species. Our data and records from
AZGFD confirm an abundance of
natural prey in the area. The area
supports an abundance of Coues
whitetail deer, desert mule deer,
javelina, white-nosed coati, three
lagomorphs and four skunk species.
The area contains the highest densities
of mountain lions in the state, as well
as abundant bobcats, coyotes, foxes
and black bears. This confirms that
the area’s prey base is capable of
supporting jaguars.
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With the help of the AZGFD and Jag Team,
the Borderlands Jaguar Detection Project
has collected more than 15,000 images of
25 of the region’s wildlife species. The data
shows a diversity of life capable of supporting
a jaguar population. Pictured are a jaguar
(right), black bear (lower left), ringtail (lower
right), and cougar (bottom). Photos © Emil
McCain.

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Pictured are a bobcat (top),
coati (left), and jaguar (bottom).
Photos © Emil McCain.

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Jaguars, like mountain lions, lead
solitary lives in a “land tenure system”
to reduce competition for prey and
increase breeding opportunities.
Finding prey and locating mates
are likely the two primary factors
influencing where a carnivore
chooses to spend its time. Scent
marking and vocalizations facilitate
communication between individuals
to maintain “mutual avoidance” and
locate mating prospects. We now
have video footage of Macho B scent
marking and anecdotal observations
of jaguar vocalizations. This data, in
combination with the longevity and
frequency of our camera data, strongly
suggests that these jaguars are Arizona
residents. Including the two Glenn
sightings, four adult male jaguars and
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a possible fifth unidentified individual
have been photographed in the United
States in the past 10 years. Why
would these males remain in the
area for so many years if their basic
requirements were not being met? It
is highly unlikely that they would stay
in the absence of females.
If there has been a female jaguar
in Arizona during the last 10 years,
the odds are that she would have had
at least one litter. Female jaguars are
capable of bearing one to two cubs
every two to three years. She would
be fortunate to raise half of these to
maturity. It is therefore possible that
a single female could have raised
from three to five young here in the
Borderlands during the last 10 years
since we have been documenting
Photo © Emil McCain.
males. Some of the cubs would
likely be females with the potential
of raising litters of their own. If this
speculation has any merit, there is the
potential for more jaguars to be out
there. We hope to step up our efforts
to find them as funding becomes
available.
The habitat, as well as the prey
base, appears to be there. Our failure
to locate a female after six years of
searching is discouraging, to say the
least. However, the Borderlands
Jaguar Detection Project remains
optimistic and dedicated to the
continuing search for this elusive
female. After all, many colleagues
doubted that we would ever find
Macho A and were amazed when we
found Macho B.
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