Jaguar captured, collared and released in Arizona

A jaguar was captured southwest of Tucson this week during an Arizona Game and Fish Department research study. The study was actually aimed at monitoring black bear and mountain lion habitats.

The male cat has been fitted with a satellite tracking collar and released. The collar will provide biologists with location updates every few hours and it is hopeful that this data will provide information on a little-studied population segment of this species. This is the first time in the U.S. that a jaguar has been able to be followed in this manner.

"While we didn't set out to collar a jaguar as part of the research project, we took advantage of the important opportunity," Terry Johnson, Arizona Game and Fish dept. endangered species coordinator, said in a press release issued by the department. The jaguar is protected under the Endangered Species Act. According to Steve Spangler, Arizona field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a permit was issued under this act to radio-collar a jaguar if the opportunity presented itself.

"Gathering habitat-use information and learning whether and how the cat is moving in and out of the United States may be essential to jaguar conservation on the northern edge of their range," Spangler said.

More: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/outposts/2009/02/jaguar-captured.html

:o

With modern electronics they could come up with something smaller, and less likely, to inhibit the animal's movement.

The things have to carry a battery large enough to transmit for a useful period of time. You can make a GPS tracker the size of your thumb, but it's useless if it's not powered.

Of course, you were probably being sarcastic for some reason, but I don't really care.

It will be interesting to see what they can learn by tracking this animal rarely seen in the SW, though that collar does seen so unnatural. Why can't they just use ear tags?

Ear tags wouldn't give information about its movements.

I didn't think they were a native species to America.

The historic range for the jaguar goes as far north as the grand canyon in AZ.

Nothing escapes our ever expanding net.

If you want to put that thing on the jaguar, it should be earned. Go out there, face to face, one on one, just you and him, and see if you can get the tracking device on.