OFFICIALS WARN: Tracks of large exotic cat found near Reagan library

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. -- Authorities are warning residents who live between Simi Valley and Moorpark to keep their pets and children indoor.

This after discovering paw prints believed to belong to a large exotic cat. Officials from the Department of Fish and Game says the prints were discovered Tuesday in an area near the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. They say the prints were two to three days old and indicate an animal larger than a mountain lion.

http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=2967741

Move along, nothing to see here

eom

In a related story, they have found large deposits of male cattle excrement surrounding the George HW Bush library.

There have been a few sightings of jaguars in southern Arizona over the last decade. They still exist in northern Mexico. Before European settlers killed them off their range extended well into California.

I've always considered both mid-sized felines. Then again, I'm no expert on sooty puddy-footie prints.

Largest cat in the Americas.

http://lynx.uio.no/catfolk/onca-02.htm

I know some people here in Florida with about 250 big cats (www.bigcatrescue.com ). The cougars are somewhat larger than the jaguars (both in length an height), but about the same size (or slightly smaller) as the leopards. Only the lions and tigers are significantly larger than the other species.

This is supposed to be bigger than a Mountain Lion??? The only cat bigger than a Mountain Lion, that I can think of, is a Tiger or a Lion. The Panther is smaller and the Jaguar is smaller if I remember correctly. Those are the only other two cats native to the southwest.

This is cross-breed between a Tiger and a Lion. Wonder if one of these fellas got loose.

....but I've been wrong before. Part of it may have to do with the areas in which they range as well.

Check out stats here: http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/agarman/bco2ns.htm

I suspect, since the description implies a cat that is significantly larger than a cougar, that it's an escaped lion or tiger.

I hope kitty marks his turf well... :evilgrin:

That is the size order for wild cats. Jaguar is bigger and dominates the Mountain Lion in Mexico and South America. If this is a Jaguar it is somebody's lost 'pet.' There are no wild Jaguar in the US.
No way. Liger is bigger than all of these but because there is no where on earth where Tigers and Lions cohabit, this hybrid only occurs
in captivity. (Yes, a lion and tiger will breed in captivity.)

They are much more common in captivity than the Jaguar.

Not many people have them, though I'm sure there must be some illegal ones.

How do you know this? I seem to recall seeing a photograph of one taken in S. Arizona within the last few years.

Link:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/11/1126_031126_jaguararizona.html

...and here's that link:

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=98074&page=1

It was taken by a rancher who spotted (heh heh) the cat on his land.

There was a Jaguar sighting in SW New Mexico a few years ago and the paws were larger than that of the mountain lion.

house in Trimdon Colliery - pictured in UK press because it was last official day of foxhunting....

another DUer and I were discussing this very subject a couple days ago

big cats

they will probably kill the poor thing if they get a chance <sigh>

:P

I am guesing this is a Siberian-Bengal Tiger mix, three years old :)

That's probably what Dorothy would say if they re-made "Wizard of Oz" today.

While the rest of the nation thinks he's in Afghanistan, Rush is forced to wear a giant cat suit and walk around the Reagan library.

Well, I can dream, can't I?

Trust me on this one.

--p!

http://www.defenders.org/wildlife/new/bigcats/jaguar/az.html

Jaguar Sighting in Arizona
In December 2001, the image of a jaguar was caught on film south of Tucson, providing new evidence that the endangered cat is still present in Southern Arizona. Taken by a remote, motion-activated camera that was set out to monitor potential jaguar corridors near the U.S./ Mexico border, this photograph shows a young male jaguar weighing around 175 pounds. Although these cameras have been in place along these potential corridors since 1997, an image of the elusive jaguar was not recorded until late 2001. Previously, two photographs of jaguars were taken in 1996, one in the Baboquivari Mountains west of Tucson and one in the Peloncillo Mountains, along the New Mexico border near San Simon. Biologists believe the two images captured in 1996 and the one in 2001 are images of three separate cats.
(a little more to read at above link)


...and another Jaguar AZ ztory:

http://tinyurl.com/5xhol

Pic here:
http://tinyurl.com/5gvc3

<snip>
The updated story of Brown Canyon's Jaguar Canyon Trail began in 1996 when Tucson researcher Jack Childs took a now-much-publicized videotape and still photographs of a jaguar that his dogs treed just north of the canyon.

Two years later Buenos Aires manager Wayne Shifflet revealed that a cowboy rounding up leftover cattle came upon a jaguar dining on a deer carcass. There have also been several unsubstantiated sightings in the area since.

As per my earlier comment, I was sure I remembered reading a story about a Jaguar sighting in S. Arizona within the last few years. The one I recalled was the Brown Canyon story of the Jaguar treed by the dogs.

:evilgrin:

:shrug:

seeking justice in the afterlife.

Exotic Feline Breeding Compound in Rosamond, CA -- it's quite a distance, but there are routes of mostly uninterruped mountain terrain and desert between Rosamond and Simi (Los Padres forest)

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napoleon!

So much for the "jaguar" and "leopard" theories. Anything that big could only be an old world lion or a tiger or a lion/tiger hybrid.

:scared:

I had a Maine Coon Cat with an eating disorder (she was a "recreational eater - ate when bored, ate before and after using the kitty litter, whenever) -- and she was 24 pounds.

A cowardly lion marking his territory.

from Neverland, since it's doubtful he'll ever live there again.

I wonder what she wants from the Reagan archives.

I'd recognize him anywhere!

(Great pic!)

Bad cat...

I don't want to hear another goddamn word about him or his library.