Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog » Jaguars Back in the Southwest USA

October 10, 2006

Jaguars Back in the Southwest USA

photo of jaguar at night in Arizona

Gone for Decades, Jaguars Steal Back to the Southwest

Jaguars are the largest native American cat. They once roamed much of the Southwest, but when ranchers took cattle to the region in the last century, the jaguars were trapped and hunted to extinction in the United States. The last known resident female was killed in 1963 near the Grand Canyon.

Jaguars were thought to be gone from the Southwest until Warner Glenn, a cattle rancher and mountain lion hunter, saw a live one in the Peloncillos Mountains, near the New Mexico border with Mexico, on March 7, 1996.

Story and cool photo by the NY Times. Related: Big Cats in America - The Cat and a Black Bear - Cat Family Tree

by curiouscat Tags: Cats, Life Science, Students
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One Response to “Jaguars Back in the Southwest USA”

CuriousCat: Far Eastern Leopard - Rarest Big Cat Says:
June 24th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
“Among the scientists’ main concerns is whether Far Eastern leopards, also known as Amur leopards, can continue to sustain their tiny, isolated population, or whether disease and inbreeding may eventually wipe out the cats…”