could you see any signs of scalloping on the heelpad??

I'm also looking for claw marks but the light and ground clutter make it impossible to tell.
The tracks themselves look fairly fresh but not so much with the scat...
I'd don some gloves and dissect one of those to see what else I could find out, being sure to save the other bits in case you run across someone who can id it for you in person...

And then set up your camera and see if there's a coon dog or large hound in the area? I would want to know what it is, too. Or if I were you, I'd hope for 6 inches of good fresh snow before the end of winter and then if I came across these tracks, I'd get some water and snacks in a sack and just haul out down that trail til I got my answers or the moon caught me!

My next statements are not directed at you , Rachel, but just an attempt to express how I feel in general about the hordes of stories regarding "black panther" encounters. Yes, there are escapees and loosed pets and zoos and carnivals...(we had a black bear in the neighborhood that was illegally bought in KY for training dogs--the hick got tired of trying to feed the growing bruin and simply turned it loose and for weeks after, any weird noise in the night, any injured cow, any dog that ran off... even if these incidents were counties away, the bear got the blame)but I am simply and unashamedly a skeptic of all the big black cat sightings. If there are all these hundreds and hundreds of people in every county in every state who swear they have seen a large black cat, where are all the carcasses?? To have that many animals you would surely have road kill or hunter kill and it just isn't substantiated, not in the numbers that would have to exist to account for all the sightings in such a broad area. There are always those odd exceptions, such as one incident I ran across on the internet of a black leopard/jaguar (can't recall which ) being either killed or captured in a town somehwere after it approached a woman and then attacked a house or something. THe cat had been declawed and was obviously an escapee or liberated animal. SO yes, it DOES happen. But there is NOT a large black cat behind every stump and rock. People are seeing something else.
Please understand one thing: I am NOT NOT NOT calling anyone a liar or challenging anyone's integrity (this includes you, Rachel).
Our neighbor has been an avid outdoorsman and accomplished hunter for over 60 years. I have come to trust his judgement on things and was understandably shocked a few winters back when my phone rang and it was Dave asking me to come down and give me a second opinion on some tracks in the fresh snow around his pond. He was confident that there had been a cougar at his place sometime in the night and his wife refused to go outside. I went straight down, and I was excited. Anyone else but Dave and I would have saved my time. As soon as I knelt by the first track I saw the obvious giveaway-the big thick clawmarks of what was one heckuva big dog, which turned out to be the St Bernard mix from the next road over. Dave just slapped his forehead and said Oh, of COURSE...!
But how do you tell someone they are wrong when they already have it in their mind what must have happened?? You don't call someone a liar, you simply say they are mistaken.

I think the scat could be fresh as I just switched my dog to a fresh meat diet and his (fresh) feces look similar to those in your pictures, except much smaller. This is intriguing!

Can you put out a can of tuna or something in the right spot so the camera will get a good shot? You might want to spread it around a little so if something else eats it first, maybe the cat will at least come around to sniff the area.

Those game cameras are great. I used to have one but it wasn't digital so I had to wait for pictures to be developed.

Here's a story about a black panther in Missouri last year. Sad ending for the cat.

Here is a link that might be useful: Panther Shot, Killed After Attacking Home

Whatever it is, it seems to know about the camera as the tracks came right up to the edge of the camera range and circled around behind the pond up to its range on the other side. From what I've read, jaguars are aware of their own tracks, jumping over snow, mud, and game trails to avoid leaving them, so maybe this one is wary of the camera. They have a 50 square mile territory in the wild, and prefer water.

Here's a track comparison chart showing dogs, cats, and cougars

http://coldfuse2.agriculture.purdue.edu/entm/wildlife/homeagpro/tracks/index.cfm

Here's a photo of a jaguar track from South America

http://tides.sfasu.edu:2006/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/Tides&CISOPTR=174&CISOBOX=1&REC=8

I found the huge 4 x 4 tracks everywhere in the grass-I just took photos of the ones that showed up in the mud. According to the numerous track websites I found, the cougars show the scallop at the top and bottom of the heel pad, but the jaguars do not.

This is one link showing comparisons

http://books.google.com/books?id=b5A9KgAve1UC&pg=PA224&lpg=PA224&dq=compare+cougar+jaguar+tracks&source=bl&ots=oDQ-34ZB6_&sig=QY-AfAubLs821SknhjR3hJF8X1g&hl=en&ei=VJqlSYmUKYyRngfahLmlBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result

Another track comparison link:

http://www.azgfd.gov/pdfs/w_c/jaguar/jaguar_brochure.pdf

I did find a few claw marks on the "little toe" of the front foot (the one that was 4 1/4 inch wide X 4 inches long) on a couple of the tracks, but the claw marks were holes that sunk straight down into the ground, like hooks. The websites said that jaguars put scat in prominent places, usually near water.

I sent the photos to a couple of "get answers from experts" websites" to see what they say. My sister said she saw a documentary on the Discovery Channel about the so-called Black Jaguar Mountain, located near here, where there have been so many sightings of heavy, short-legged, square-faced black panther sightings that some speculate that someone was illegally breeding them and turned them loose.
I keep telling myself that the critter my neighbor said he saw is friendly to humans, whatever it is. In fact, I was convinced it had to be an escaped pet until I read that jaguars in the Amazon are friendly to the Indians, so it could be feral.

If my neighbor is right about it being half grown just over a year ago, the alleged jaguar would only be two years old now and won't mature for another year.

There are so many animal experts on this forum, I hope someone will at least tell me where I can send the photos; I already sent them to two "ask the experts" websites but that will take a few days, they say.

For now I'm going to tell myself that it is a huge dog and go about my business.
It was raining this morning so I was off the hook, but I still plan to go to the top of the mountain tonight to see the Woodcocks.

By the way, how does one photograph Woodcock aerial displays anyway, since Woodcocks wait until the sun is down before they begin in the evening and end the displays before the sun rises in the morning.

If I should come into money, will the Canon 1D Mark III auto focus in the dark?

Hi Rachel and all,

The Woodcock won't display before mid-april around here so I envy you a little.

About the cat, I am always very skeptical. Pets have troubles to survive in the wild and go back to human when hungry. I think you will soon be able to associate those tracks to a dog using your great cam.

Peoples and friends sometimes send me pictures like that showed in the link below. But, a track has always a limited value to me. I prefer greatly a cam like yours.

Lately, a jaguar has been captured in the south Arizona. They put a collar emitter to that big cat to know where he is living. Southern Arizona and New-Mexico are, like you know, the most northen range for jaguar in North America.

Luc
(by the way, excuse my poor english)

Luc

Here is a link that might be useful: big cat?

Worse, I found one of the 4 X 4 tracks yards from our house. Now whenever my dogs start barking I'm shining flashlights out my bedroom window. Still, if it's some sort of feral jaguar, they have a 50 square mile range so that explains why it took two weeks before those huge tracks showed up again.

I posted the photos on the Name That Animal forum and someone suggested Virginia Tech where they've been doing jaguar surveys in South American, so last night I emailed photos to someone their website claimed to be involved in the study.

Rachel - you need a spotlight if you don't already have one. You can get hand-held rechargeable ones at Wal-Mart in the sporting goods section and a regular sporting goods store should have them too. I have a Brinkman that says 1 million candle power but they carry one now that's 3 million. That will light up anything prowling around close to the house. They make them even stronger though.

Here is a link that might be useful: Brinkman spotlight

Thanks! I checked out the link, but some of the reviews were negative so I clicked on more links and finally ordered a Black and Decker VEC192 20 Million Power Series 3335 Lumens Spotlight from Amazon for about $10 more. People raved about it in all the reviews..but I had never even thought of using a spotlight before. I guess I'll know why the dogs are barking now!

It rained all day, but when it quit I went out in a nasty wind at dusk and found more clear tracks at the end of our property's logging road.

2-27-09, Near end of our logging road, suspected jaguar tracks, showing length of stride from tip of toes to tip of toes on next track

2-27-09, suspected jaguar tracks, showing length of stride over 37 inches. Note lengthened second toe from left, corresponding to index finger, indicating it's a right front foot.

2-27-09, suspected jaguar track, smaller hind foot {{gwi:1358027}}From 2-24-09, Tracks and scat

One of the tracks was sunk so deeply into the mud, it clearly showed the triple lobes on the bottom edge of the big metacarpal pad, and the double lobe on the leading edge as well as the slight concave of the sides of the pad, thus limiting the track to the cat family.

But cougars' front feet only measure 3 1/4 long X 3 1/2, and their stride length is 14-17 feet

Link to wildlife book showing these features in jaguar track

http://books.google.com/books?id=b5A9KgAve1UC&pg=PA224&lpg=PA224&dq=compare+cougar+jaguar+tracks&source=bl&ots=oDQ-34ZB6_&sig=QY-AfAubLs821SknhjR3hJF8X1g&hl=en&ei=VJqlSYmUKYyRngfahLmlBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result

My photo didn't show the metacarpal pad lobes well, though, so I may have to go back tomorrow.

But then, if it's hanging around closely enough to leave fresh tracks after the rain stopped this afternoon, maybe this night it will walk in front of the Cuddeback.

Now I'm really spooked, but I'm still telling myself it's only passing through and it hasn't bothered me up until now, and it's safe to pass that way in the dark to see the Woodcocks tomorrow.

If nothing else, our walking up there in the dark early tomorrow morning part of the way along the logging road we could trample in scat and good tracks. Now that I'm looking for it, scat in various sizes is all over the road. I almost wish I'd never paid attention..now I hate to think what's in my boot cleats.

Rachel - You're more daring than I would be. I'd be birdwatching from my car. lol
Sounds like you found a good spotlight. Our dogs are always barking at something and it bugged me not to be able to see back into the field. My father has cattle and uses one if he has to drive around the field at night so he won't accidentally run over a calf which happened to him once. His headlights didn't shine down into the grass enough I guess. Anyway - They're a great thing to have and not that expensive.

Bless you for your suggestion!

Since the dogs were finally quiet last night after frenzied barking for the past few days, I thought the critter had left already to tour the rest of its supposedly 52 square mile territory, but this evening during a sleet storm DuBois and I went back to the end of the logging road again where I took the photos yesterday and found fresh tracks AGAIN. I put the photos on the Feb 27 "Cuddeback photos from last night" thread.

That does it. As soon as the weather breaks, we're just going to go on and see the Woodcocks. Obviously, if it's really a jaguar, it's been around at least a year, so maybe it'll be O.K. (?)

I wouldn't put a whole lot of weight behind the Amazon stories of jaguars playing with people. Jaguars are very well-known as animals that will attack people. Jaguars are not known as a "playful" animal like an otter might be seen. They are solitary animals that do not crave the attention of humans or even other cats for most of the year.
However, I find it hard to believe that there would be an established population of jaguars in Kentucky. I could see escaped exotic, perhaps.

Like I just said in my Feb. 27 Cuddeback photos thread,
I googled jaguar predation last night found out that I've been worried about the big tracks for nothing. In numerous websites, experts agree that there is no record of a man-killer jaguar, that they only kill livestock in the Amazon after the forests have been burned and no game is left, and then only a certain percentage of jaguars learn to do it.
Around here, there are so many deer now that licensed hunters haven't been able to keep up with thinning the herds, so food shouldn't be a problem.

I also found out that jaguars are a protected species in the US and nearly extinct through over-hunting in their home range, so I'll just leave the poor creature alone since it's doubtless here through no fault of its own.

Twenty years ago we attended a huge flea market in Lucasville, OH, where several vendors were offering exotic big cat cubs for sale, including black ones. Some people use dangerous animals to protect their marijuana plots, others just like the status of owning a big exotic animal.

Any rate, around here, sometimes people make their own rules. I suppose if an animal became too unruly, it could be turned loose.

Like I said, apparently I have nothing to worry about unless the jaguar finds out that horses and mules are delicious. Some South American jaguars take a liking to domestic dog, but it has plenty to eat around here without them..jaguars even eat frogs!

Anyway, A Bobcat's front foot, is only 2" long X 1 7/8" wide, with a stride length of 10-13 inches, and even a cougar's front foot is only 3 1/4 inch long X 3 1/2 inch wide with a walking stride of only 14-17 inches.

As the largest North American cat, jaguars have huge front paws designed for swimming, up to 4" long by 4 1/4" wide, and a walking stride length of 16-30 inches, and the only known candidate for those huge tracks.

The first time the tracks appeared this last time "Bigfoot" was in the area, the tracks showed that the animal braked hard into the mud the moment it saw the camera, and there were no tracks further on, so it must have leaped aside.
Perhaps eventually it'll ignore the camera and give me a photo

I just came back to clear up a very big error that I made. I did a little more reading, and jaguars VERY, seldom attack humans. My apologies for that. I certainly do not want to give jags a bad name.

To me, in most of the pictures that are clearer of debris. The print appears to be about three inches long, with about the same width. Maybe I am seeing it wrong.

The back feet are almost an inch smaller than the front ones-about 3 1/4" wide X 3" long. It's just those huge front swimming paws that are all splayed out

Rachel, I can't tell you what kind of animal you do or do not have roaming your property. While I am skeptical of its being a jaguar, I can absolutely relate to your desire to find out what it IS. I myself have had experience with putting up cams to see what the heck is making strange tracks, only to never get a shot of anything. The answer is there, but so is the frustration until we finally find it!!!
If you haven't already (I can't recall what you might have said about this), getting your hands on a good fecal sample (or hair or urine, etc, but hey, you already got poo, right?) and getting it to the RIGHT PEOPLE is the only way you are going to get a definitive answer from the professionals. They have little or no use whatsoever for anecdotal evidence, photos can be problematical and inconclusive, and even tracks can cause suspicion. In most cases, even the slightest shred of doubt in a case will be enough to disallow it as an acceptable sighting. Researchers want DNA! Your measurements and documentation will still help in getting a proper id of whatever-it-is that you are dealing with, but above all you need genetic material. Yes, this means the soles of your boots are a potential gold mine. :)

Maybe you have had dealings with the professional community before, but if not, be forewarned. It is a highly variable group of individuals--some welcome input from a grassroots level and see it as having extra eyes and ears and are a joy to work with. However, there are also those who are elitist, cliqueish, and immediately dismissive of anyone without the proper lettering before or after their names. This spectrum is not limited to wildlife. I have sought out information from archaeologists, wildlife biologists, geologists, foresters--anyone I thought who could answer questions and otherwise better educate me--and on more than one occasion I quickly regretted ever contacting them to begin with.
My point is that you may have a difficult time finding anyone in the research field to devote much to you in the way of time or effort. While there is currently quite a bit of ongoing study in the general Midwest regarding puma concolor (cougar) dynamics and population drift, most inquiries about large black cats are likely going to be cooly received with a long, telling pause on the phone line or unanswered e-mails and I doubt you will be taken seriously unless you can do some real convincing. Be patient. If you yourself were investigating every halfway believable call about a large cat sighting and had once again arrived on location only to find a black lab or a golden retriever camped out next to a rotting deer carcass or simply a redneck playing pranks on the neighbors, you might develop dismissive tendencies over time as well. And add to this the fact that many many many people believe there is some sort of government coverup regarding these sightings and that researchers and DNR people are active and willing participants...so yes, you might get any number of possible reactions from the professionals you ask for help. It's understandable.

But if you truly want information you will have to seek these people out just the same, and I wish you luck.

whoops---one last thought:

The thought of irresponsible individuals being able to go to swap-meet-style events and purchase potentially dangerous animals has ALWAYS angered me. Some people, such as handlers of poisonous reptiles, might be skilled professionals who understand and provide for the individual needs of these animals, but it is simple ANIMAL TRAFFICKING when a redneck or druglord or general thrill seekers /collectors can purchase creatures like this. This is not a new concept, nor is it limited to any one part of the country ...I once had a close friend call me from a house in a rural town of maybe 100 inhabitants. she was babysitting for the evening and wanted to have me hear the bleats of the tiny antelope (!!) that was cowering in the bathroom. There was a small alligator-like creature in the bathtub that I think may have been a caiman. She then walked outside to a cage, cellphone in hand, to have me listen to the cries of their black bear cub. She knew I was "into animals" and thought it would be fun to share this with me. It was a pathetic thing to hear their cries and to consider what their existence must be like. The people kept a menagerie of foreign and domestic creatures and although I was assured there were permits and papers as needed, this detail did not save the life of the cougar (puma concolor) that they also had on the premises. A small unsupervised child reached her hand through the cage, was scratched (could have been worse) and the animal was put down by the owner. More than once my friend , who was a neighbor to these people and regarded the situation as "cool", would return home after a day's work to find goats, potbellied pigs, and a pygmy buffalo of some unknown variety in her front yard. Not that these particular animals were dangerous creatures, but that the owners of this hick "zoo" made no special effort to keep their purchases properly confined.

This was about ten years ago, but I think I would report this to the authorities if I came across it now.

Rachel, if someone around there is buying jaguars, it's a good bet that those transactions are funding illicit activities somewhere, and also directly accelerating the decline of the animals in the wild.

That's no doubt true.

About collecting scat for analysis, I would have to collect very fresh scat, dry and preserve it before shipping, pay for the lab analysis, then wait two months, so I'll continue to hope the critter overcomes its camera shyness.

Animal traffickers are a problem here; it still breaks my heart to think about the half grown lion cub kept in the corn crib across the road and hearsay about an adult lion kept in a barn a few miles away from me.
I read about southern exotic animal swap meets in one of my nature magazines several years ago and I couldn't even finish the article I became so upset. I don't understand why they aren't closed down since people were selling cubs from protected big cat species openly in the Lucasville flea market when I was there 20 years ago-not very secret.

Turning someone in while still living here puts your own pets at risk, however, as people know one another and always find out who called it in.

DuBois and I hiked the logging road tonight and found fresh tracks near the pond that must have been made since the freeze last night. Whatever the animal is, it's heavy enough to make deep tracks in half-frozen mud. Two of the tracks showed triple lopes on the anterior of the heel pad, but it didn't show on the photos. {{gwi:1358028}}From 2-24-09, Tracks and scat
{{gwi:1358029}}From 2-24-09, Tracks and scat

The enlongated second toe indicates a right front foot in the first track, the top hind foot lands to the inside, indicating a male animal (their shoulders are wider than their hips) {{gwi:1358030}}From 2-24-09, Tracks and scat
{{gwi:1358031}}From 2-24-09, Tracks and scat

I found several-day-old 4 X 4 tracks almost behind the horse tack shed tonight, so told DuBois that whatever our camera-shy friend is, since it spends alot of time on our land-every day for the past week as far as I can tell-I am going to claim it. I already feel protective toward the local wildlife and birds anyway.

If the animal finally gets on camera and turns out to be the black jaguar described by my neighbor, the unfortunate animal is like a dumped dog; here by the thoughtlessness of humans, through no fault of its own.

Besides, if it could have traveled 100 miles and there's no way to find out who is responsible. When I tried to report the Great Blue Heron caught in the otter trap at the Minor Clark Fish Hatchery just over a year ago, the ranger's wife locked the door and told me to go away. I tried to call other wildlife officials but every one gave me the cold shoulder. So we drove the bird 50 miles to West VA to a vet clinic that has a rehabber on staff.

Why isn't this a dog track???

Dog tracks are longer than they are wide, leave visible claw marks, especially on the two midde toes, the heel pad is triangular, the negative spaces between the toe and heel pad form an "X," the entire track is triangle shaped

In cats, the front track is wider than than it is long, and the back foot smaller and more round. The big cats have an elongated index toe that indicates which foot it is.

http://www.bear-tracker.com/caninevsfeline.html

http://coldfuse2.agriculture.purdue.edu/entm/wildlife/homeagpro/tracks/index.cfm

With the jaguar, the negative space betwen the toes and the metacarpal pad resembles a "C." The jaguar track also differs from a cougar track in that the metacarpal pad covers most of the track, the triple lobes on the back edge of the heel pad are seldom visible, and the front foot is almost an inch larger.

The cougar stride is only 14-17 inches long, while in the jaguar it is 16-30 inches, and as I showed in numerous photos, the stride in this animal runs around 27-42 inches.

http://books.google.com/books?id=b5A9KgAve1UC&pg=PA224&lpg=PA224&dq=compare+cougar+jaguar+tracks&source=bl&ots=oDQ-34ZB6_&sig=QY-AfAubLs821SknhjR3hJF8X1g&hl=en&ei=VJqlSYmUKYyRngfahLmlBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result

Rachel,
Here is a link to a site where you might eventually find some answers. Although I personally am interested in their work that deals with the reappearance of cougars (puma concolor) in the Midwest, there are also individuals involved with studies of all the North American native cats.
Today's "breaking news" might be of particular interest to you since it deals with jaguars in the southwest. Subscribing is free, simple, and most importantly, only validated sightings/info will be passed along. Lately when I find myself involved in yet another local "big cat" debate, I just scribble this link down and hand it out...saves me a lot of time and wasted breath.

www.cougarnet.org/breakingnews.html

This is a handy organization for me since much of the studies are based out of Southern Illinois University which is just 45 min from here.

You gave this site. http://www.bear-tracker.com/caninevsfeline.html , the guy who runs it is Kim Cabrerra. If you email him the pics, he usually gets back with his expert analysis. You say the middle toes would show claw marks. None of the pics are clear enough to spot claw marks. Email him. He is very helpful. Jaguars were never indigenous to Kentucky by the "historic range" maps that I have seen.

PS The second to last pic appears to have a claw mark. You should email these to Cabrerra.
If you don't want to, with your permission, I will.

Thanks!
This afternoon I emailed the latest track photos to the cougar site that dirtgirl mentioned as well. That long groove that seems to be a claw mark is from a pine needle I dug out of the mud for the photo. I try to pick leaves and debris out of the print before a photo and that often leaves a groove.

A couple of feet away from those tracks is a place that might be a territorial jaguar scrape; the half frozen mud was scratched with deep, hooked claws in a 4 inch wide swath

I've been puzzled that the animal was seemingly constantly active during the day. During the past week, it didn't matter when we went up on the logging road, the jaguar had just been there. It would rain all day and stop, and we'd find fresh tracks, untouched by rain. Or it would be in the teens all night and finally get up close to 30 degrees in the afternoon and we'd find fresh tracks in half frozen mud, as was the case with these photos.

I googled jaguar scrapes and found they use them to mark territory, that the males are often active 60 percent of the time and that that are usually diurnal-active during the day, so this elusive critter is teaching me alot about jaguars, whether that's what it is or not.

So? Can I email your pictures to Kim Cabrerra?

I just sent it, I think. I may have messed up the email, though, so I'll try again.

Today is the first day I went up on the hill and DIDN'T find fresh jaguar tracks. There were a mess of bobcat tracks, though..looks like some romantic activity had been going on, and within a couple of feet of the old jaguar tracks.

Today, while staring at the scrapes that I had photographed yesterday, I suddenly realized what they were. I went home and googled "jaguar scrapes" and sure enough, jaguar territorial ground scrapes were mentioned on several websites. That's when I also found out that they were very active and mostly diurnal.

SO, HOW COME THIS BIG GUY manages to avoid the CAMERA??
EVERYONE ELSE gets caught!! Even humans!!!!

Hi Rachel,

Wild animals seem to have more or less activity in time. Birds for example seem more active just before it rains. In the forest, I noticed that I saw more tracks the second day after a storm.

We do not have Bobcats and Cotton tail Rabbits in my area. I saw one once in Mass a few years ago.

I appreciate all your great cam pictures.

Luc

Warning to game camera buyers..BUY INFRA-RED FLASH ONLY!

It's clear that animals are avoiding the annoying flash-which always scares me when I hike up there at night-and doubtless explains why there are few repeat animal photos. I can see by their tracks that they are skirting the camera, including the Big Foot.

When I took photos yesterday afternoon, the ice was just melting slightly in sunny spots, and there was no new jaguar sign. I thought he'd moved on, but this morning there were several new, now frozen, scrape marks right where I'd been photographing yesterday, meaning that the jaguar had visited and scrape-marked his territory right after I left, before the temperatures dropped again.

I could see that he was giving me a warning, so I circled the pond to where he'd previously left his scat, sniffing the air to see if he'd scent-marked anywhere close, like the jaguar websites said they did. Sure enough, I became aware of a very strong, pungent odor, almost a skunk-like muskiness, so I followed the smell to a scrape-marked tree a few yards away from the scat.

3-4-09, farm pond, scent-marked tree with jaguar (?) scrape {{gwi:1358034}}From 2-24-09, Tracks and scat

paw-sized claw marks

First scrape photographed, 3-2-09

Old frozen scrape, possibly the same one? {{gwi:1358036}}From 2-24-09, Tracks and scat

3-4-09, new frozen jaguar (?) scrape made yesterday afternoon in the same spot I'd been photographing, before night freeze {{gwi:1358038}}From 2-24-09, Tracks and scat

Several websites said jaguars are unafraid of people, which makes them easy targets for hunters. Another website claimed that Amazon Indians are frequently followed by male jaguars to escort them off their territories. Still other websites said that jaguars seldom bother to mark territories unless there is a boundary dispute or overlapping territories.

Perhaps our constant poking around "his" territory is prompting the alleged jaguar to warn us off. The meerkats in Meerkat Manor are always "furiously scent-marking" bushes and rocks to "see-off" trespassers, so he could be warning us to back off.

If he is imprinted on humans from being in captivity as a cub, he might see us as rivals, but maybe all jaguars view humans that way.

Of course, I was here first. Websites also say that about their second year, male jaguars move on to establish their own territories, which can be up to 500 square miles, depending on food availability, so he might be moving on soon.

Hi Rachel and all,

Could it be simple as a bobcat track with the rear foot track over the front one?

Luc

Well, now that I know that jaguars don't hunt people, I'm going to get back to my birding agenda and not worry about it. If more fresh tracks appear in the mud..and believe me, the way I comb the back logging road every morning I'll know if they're fresh..we'll just position the camera high above ground over the tracks and try to catch the critter in the act.

Since animals have been avoiding the camera, we moved it last night to a tree overlooking the suspicious ground scrape. No jaguar photo, but we caught the unsuspecting coyote-now looking pregnant, two deer, and the male Red Fox (I posted the photos in the Feb 27 "Cuddeback photos from last night" thread).

Thankyou everyone who tried to help me ID the tracks! I've sent the photos to every place suggested, and now, since the weather is finally warmer, I'm heading again to the Woodcock aerial display ground tonight.
Hopefully, they'll show up this time.