Sonorensis 2008
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sonorensis Introduction Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum contents Newsletter Volume 28, Number 1 Winter 2008 Introduction I 1 D The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum By Craig Ivanyi E The Big Cat of the Americas Co-founded in 1952 by & Shawnee Arthur N. Pack and William H. Carr Riplog Peterson 3 Jaguars: The New World Monarchs By Craig Ivanyi, Associate Executive Director for Living Collections and Exhibits, and Robert J. Edison By Peter Warshall, Ph.D. P J Shawnee Riplog Peterson, Curator of Mammalogy and Ornithology Executive Director N Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Christine Conte, Ph.D. Director, Center for Sonoran The Future of Jaguar Conservation P 9 J Desert Studies N in Mexico and our Conscience By Rodrigo A. Medellín, Ph.D. Richard C. Brusca, Ph.D. Senior Director, Science and Conservation 12 Binational Collaboration to Save This issue of sonorensis focuses on one of the Sonoran Desert Region’s the Planet’s Northernmost Jaguar I Linda M. Brewer D E most beautiful and powerful inhabitants—the jaguar, Panthera onca. Chiefly Editing By Oscar Moctezuma & Diana Hadley t h solitary, this wide-ranging predator is the third-largest cat in the world and the g i n Martina Clary K d l a Design and Production n only true big, or “roaring,” cat from the Americas! With an exceptionally o D 18 Jaguar Conservation through Education and Outreach powerful bite, it can crack the armor of turtles and tortoises, and will often kill Board of Trustees – Officers By Juan Carlos G. Bravo mammals by biting directly through the skull, between the ears, puncturing its William H. Lomicka z t i r brain. It is the most powerful felid in the Western Hemisphere, capable of Chair F Go Cats! University of Arizona n a 22 I and the Real “Wildcats” Patricia A. Engels killing and eating large animals—our pets, our livestock, and even us. Vice Chair By Lisa Haynes & Melanie Culver, Ph.D. Although attacks on humans are rare, just the possibility tends to make us t h g i Frank Boyle n Why We Have Jaguars in Mexico K d Secretary 26 l nervous. Any one of these characteristics and behaviors might contribute to a n and Not in the United States o D Henry H. Boice the controversial status of jaguars in the opinion of some. For others of us in Treasurer By Diana Hadley n i the post-industrial, technotronic world, this elusive predator may simply not a C Sophia Kaluzniacki, D.V.M. c M The Borderlands Jaguar Detection Project: l Immediate Past Chair i 32 m occupy any space at all in our worldview. However, jaguars have long figured E Cameras, Cats, and Cooperative Conservation sonorensis is published by the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, By Jack Childs, Anna Mary Childs & Emil B. McCain prominently in indigenous American cultures, making this species part of our 2021 N. Kinney Road, Tucson, Arizona 85743. ©2008 by n i v cultural heritage. In addition, for thousands of years this apex predator was the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Inc. All rights reserved. l o C t No material may be reproduced in whole or in part without prior t a written permission by the publisher. M an important component of healthy New World ecosystems. 38 A Scent Message from sonorensis is published as a benefit to the Arizona-Sonora Desert an Arizona Jaguar The story of jaguar in the Sonoran Desert is intriguing. The very fact that it Museum membership. It is intended to further our members’ under- 42 Ranching with Jaguar standing of the desert and shape their sense of stewardship. By Emil B. McCain occurs here may come as a shock to some (even to those of us who live Visit us at www.desertmuseum.org By Warner Glenn n i a C here); but, indeed, the jaguar has been, and still is, in our backyard. So it is c M l i Cover photographs: far right, Warner Glenn; bottom left, NJP; top left, n n m e P E l J G important for people to know about the history and, perhaps even more N Emil McCain. Back cover: far right, EDI; center, Emil McCain; r e n r a top and bottom left, ASDM. W importantly, the future of this keystone predator. That is why the Desert Jaguar (Panthera onca) sonorensis | winter 2008 1 Museum interprets the jaguar. federal goal under the Endangered ByPeter Warshall, Ph.D., In 1954 the museum received its first Species Act. Some people have Northern Jaguar Project Panthera onca—a 185-pound adult suggested that this decision may be P J N male. We called it “El Tigre” (the tied to removing an impediment to the Spanish common name for “jaguar” construction of a new border fence throughout most of its range). During intended to reduce illegal access into Jaguars:The New World Monarchs n j i the following thirty years the museum the United States. Continued survival e t s e g o o acquired several more jaguars, some of this species north of the border, H l e a f a of which even bore kittens. Though however, is likely to require that it stay R y b o Jaguars are powerful. Top predators, they are one of only two large felids surviving t o connected to, and travel among, h we currently have no jaguars on p display, we are happy to say that you its brethren to the south. 500,000 years of climate change and human impacts in the New World. The jaguar has P J can expect an exhibit on jaguar in the In the following articles, biologists, N Sonoran Desert in the near future. ecologists, and natural historians roamed from the desert shores of Sonora to the highest montane forests of the Andes. Today, researchers estimate that explore the ecology of the American perhaps 100 to 150 jaguars make a Panthera, along with efforts to They are so powerful that pre-Columbian Olmecs who wanted to show their own special living in the 100,000 terrestrial square conserve it in its northern range. i f l o d n miles of the Sonoran Desert Region, They speak to the importance of o M strength flattened their skulls to resemble the cats! These people believed jaguars turned o d r a but its range stretches all the way from natural corridors used by jaguar; they g d E y b o Paraguay and northern Argentina to describe the ways in which landown- t o h into divine gods and could start earthquakes while inside caves (where they sometimes p southern Arizona and New Mexico. ership and land use have played into Historically, jaguar sightings dotted the cat’s diminishing numbers as well sleep). Their god-jaguar “roar” contains the sound of the earth cracking. Later, the Aztecs P J Arizona as far north as the Grand as their conservation; they tell of a N Canyon, but in the latter part of growing cooperative movement for sculpted them out of stone, and positioned them, with rattlesnakes, as the great guardians the twentieth century, all recorded jaguar protection, including a new e s r o P M J e encounters have occurred in the reserve in northern Mexico; and they N u of their temples. Their character is still mimicked by high-octane, flashy vehicles and, in S y b o t southeast corner of the state, where tell us about novel methods being o h p this regal cat can still be found. used in research and conservation their dark melanistic form, by a football team in Jacksonville (where jaguars haven’t Unfortunately, the jaguar’s future education. You will also hear from in the United States is in jeopardy. Arizona residents who have recently roamed in recent times). Jaguar power is both feared and revered. A recent federal decision authorized encountered jaguar in southern All images on this page: Jaguar habitat in Arizona. abandoning jaguar recovery as a Arizona and New Mexico. S jaguar (Panthera onca). 2 sonorensis | winter 2008 sonorensis | winter 2008 3 P J N P J N Panthera onca and the way they tear at their meat jerking their rivals in favored habitat—rich riparian lands with closed- comes in many From the heads rather than holding the meat down with their canopy gallery forests. Jaguars, like tigers, are water cats, sizes and colors. Beginning front paws. In bright light, the pupils of their eyes and they hunt turtles, fish and frogs, caimans and capy- In fact, every Jaguars came to North America from Eurasia about remain round, not contracting to vertical slits. Like all baras. In 1971, boys out duck hunting along the Santa jaguar is uniquely two million years ago. Fossils tell the story of a cats except lions, the males and females resemble Cruz River shot-gunned a jaguar whose belly was “full of decorated with super-sized jaguar living at the same time as mam- each other, with the males bigger and stockier. frogs.” Riverside farmland has replaced prime jaguar habi- black stripes and moths, shrub-oxen, and cats like African lions and Jaguars are such intense carnivorous hunters that the tat, but jaguars still visit P clusters of spots. saber-toothed tigers. About 600,000 years ago, our males and females live solitary lives, and the females springs and water tanks J N Genetically, jaguar Cenozoic jaguar roamed much of North America guard their cubs from males who might devour while hunting. Dams populations differ, and journeyed south across the Isthmus of Panama them. They come together only for courtship and have further reduced the Jaguar skinned and with the greatest into South America.