Jaguarunds at an animal rescue station in Costa Rica. photography-wildlife-de / iStock / Getty Images Plus
Several times a year, Texas wildlife officials receive excited phone calls.
“I just saw something that looks like a really big cat, or maybe a huge weasel,” the caller might say. “Was that a jaguarundi?”
No, they are not reporting a sighting of a mythical beast like the chupacabra. But they could be.
The elusive, secretive jaguarundi (Herpailurus yagouaroundi) is a small, bizarre-looking cat species, not much larger than a house cat, with weasel-like features, short legs and an extremely long tail. It is native to South and Central America and once ranged as far south as Texas, but has not been officially spotted in the Lone Star State since 1986. The last one we know of was killed that year by the world’s most feared predator: a car.
Texas wildlife officers are still dutifully investigating each sighting and have debunked every single one to date. The “jaguarundies” people think they’ve seen, biologists explain, were simply house cats or other feral cats — or sometimes just squirrels — lurking in the dark.
That hasn’t stopped people from looking for jaguarundi in Texas or hoping to spot one. In fact, one group of scientists has just completed an exhaustive, decades-long study looking for evidence of the species’ persistence at the northernmost edges of its range, which also extends as far south as Argentina.
The researchers, mostly from the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University, spent 18 years placing motion-activated cameras at 685 locations in the cats’ most likely locations in their historic range in northern Mexico and southern Texas. During that time, they took 126 photos of cats in Tamaulipas, the Mexican state bordering southernmost Texas, indicating that it remains a healthy part of the animal’s range.
In Texas, trap cameras captured images of a wide variety of other carnivores, including ocelots, lynxes, coyotes and ferrets – but not a single jaguarundi in 18 years.
Based on thousands of photographs and a lack of verifiable sightings, the researchers concluded that “the jaguarundi is likely extirpated from the United States.” They published their findings earlier this year in the journal Ecology and Evolution.
“This is unfortunate news for jaguarundies in the U.S.,” said Wai-Ming Wong, director of small cat programs at Panthera, a global wild cat conservation organization, who was not involved in the study.
“While I’m disappointed, I’m not overly surprised by the findings,” adds Wong. “South Texas represented the northernmost part of the jaguarundi’s range, and in many cases it is these extreme fringes of the species’ range where they are most vulnerable to threats.” In addition to highways, the expansion and intensification of agriculture probably caused the extinction of the jaguarundi in this country.
Can this sad news serve as an opportunity?
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officially protected Gulf Coast jaguars under the Endangered Species Act in 1976, just three years after the law went into effect. Since then, it has been on the endangered species list in this country, although not much has happened in the following years. By the time the Service finally released its first draft jaguarundi recovery plan in 2012 — not an unusual delay — no one had officially seen the species in the United States for more than a quarter century.
That recovery plan, finalized in December 2013, made clear how little we knew about jaguarundi at the time – something that still holds true today. “Information on aspects of jaguarundi life history in the wild, including age at sexual maturity, minimum and maximum reproductive age, and mating behavior, is limited,” the recovery plan states.
This is not unusual, since big cats like lions and tigers attract the most conservation attention and research funding. “Jaguarundis, like many other small cat species, are understudied and poorly known,” says Wong. Without real data on the ecology of species, it is much more difficult to preserve them.
The 2013 plan called for closing those information gaps, as well as researching whether jaguarundis could move to Texas from Mexico or whether the species would benefit from proactive reintroduction efforts.
A new study says it’s time to put that last option into action.
“We suggest,” the authors wrote, “that federal and state agencies follow recovery strategies as outlined in the Gulf Coast jaguarundi recovery plan. These recovery efforts include restoring, protecting and reconnecting habitat, public outreach and education, reducing the risk of road mortality, and assessing the feasibility of reintroducing the jaguarundi to South Texas.”
This probably requires rethinking the border wall between the United States and Mexico. The 2013 recovery plan acknowledged that “increased border enforcement related to illegal immigration and homeland security may affect future jaguarundi recovery efforts” — and that was long before the Trump administration scrapped dozens of environmental laws to speed up construction of the border wall.
Wong agrees that the reintroduction needs further discussion, “especially in the context of jaguarundi action plans as well as the American Wildlife Recovery Act,” he says. “The authors make strong recommendations for next steps. It is critical to conduct spatial and population surveys to better understand their underlying ecologies and conservation needs, which would inform reintroduction plans and make them more effective.”
Federal officials, however, disagree.
“Given our limited resources, the US Fish and Wildlife Service works to focus recovery efforts where we can have the greatest impact on listed species,” says Aubry Buzek, Fish and Wildlife Public Affairs Specialist. “At this time, we have no plans to implement the reintroduction of the jaguarundi into the United States.”
Despite this, the species remains officially endangered in the United States – an important classification if feral cats are to return to their traditional northern territory.
That’s not an unlikely scenario. Their larger cousin of a similar name, the jaguar, has expanded its range back into the United States in recent years, a trend that is expected to continue.
Meanwhile, the threats that probably drove the jaguarundi out of the country still exist and are probably worse than 30 years ago. These risks need to be mitigated, not just for jaguarundies, but for all Texas wildlife.
Road mortality, loss of habitat, roads and hunting remain threats to jaguarundos south of the border. Although the IUCN Red List assesses the extinction risk of this species as “least concern”, they are not always doing well, and their legal protection varies throughout their range. “In many parts of their range, their populations are declining,” says Wong.
But knowing how much they fail and what they need to thrive remains under-researched. Fewer than 20 scientific studies on the jaguarundi have been published as of 2018. During the same period, researchers have published hundreds of studies on lions and other charismatic mega-cats.
Ultimately, that’s what makes this study of the potential extirpation of jaguarundi from Texas so important. It is a reminder that we leave many interesting species unstudied and insufficiently protected.
Wong says he hopes this will change the mysterious, overlooked jaguarundi.
“Any information that increases awareness of the conservation of the species will be useful,” he says.
Meanwhile, people in Texas continue to report potential jaguarundi sightings. Maybe one day soon they will spy the real thing.
John R. Platt is the editor of The Revelator. An award-winning environmental journalist, his work has appeared in Scientific American, Audubon, Motherboard, and numerous other magazines and publications. His “Countdown to Extinction” column has run continuously since 2004 and covers news and science related to more than 1,000 endangered species. He is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and the National Association of Science Writers. John lives on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon, where he finds himself surrounded by animals and cartoonists.
Reposted with permission from The Revelator.
Jaguarunds still exist in Mexico, but are extinct in Texas. The last confirmed sighting of jaguarundi in Texas was in Brownsville in 1986. People in the lower Rio Grande Valley are working together to plant native shrubs and restore habitat for jaguarundi, ocelot, migrating songbirds and other animals.
Is Jaguarundi a Jaguar?
Although both jaguarundis and jaguars are in the Felidae family, the jaguarundi cat is not a jaguar. In fact, the jaguarundi cat was more closely related to the puma. Although jaguarundis face certain threats, they are not as threatened as jaguars.
What is jaguarundi? Jaguarundi, a wild cat that lives from southern Texas to south-central Argentina, resembles a domestic cat but is twice the size with a flat face and rounded ears. Read also : The Texas GOP calls homosexuality an ‘abnormal lifestyle choice’ on the platform. She is agile like a weasel and has a long tail like an otter, which is why she was nicknamed ‘the weasel cat’ or ‘the otter cat’.
What kind of animal is a jaguarundi?
Jaguarundi (Herpailurus yagouaroundi) is a wild cat native to America. Its distribution extends from central Argentina in the south to northern Mexico, through Central and South America east of the Andes. Jaguarundi is a medium-sized cat with a slender build.
What is special about the jaguarundi?
This leads us to another unique characteristic of jaguarundi. It has several color phases, which means that within this species there are individuals of several different colors. On the same subject : United States: National Day of South Sudan. In Costa Rica you can find black, gray, a kind of grizzled brown/grey and even orange individuals.
Is the jaguarundi rare?
Jaguarundi is considered relatively common over much of its range, perhaps because it is diurnal and uses open habitats, making it easier to see than other species. See the article : UT/Texas Politics Project poll: Most Texans oppose abortion ban; Texans say state is on the wrong track reach historic high – UT News.
Is the jaguarundi rare?
Jaguarundi is considered relatively common over much of its range, perhaps because it is diurnal and uses open habitats, making it easier to see than other species.
What is special about jaguarundi? This leads us to another unique characteristic of jaguarundi. It has several color phases, which means that within this species there are individuals of several different colors. In Costa Rica you can find black, gray, a kind of grizzled brown/grey and even orange individuals.
Do jaguarundi make good pets?
The early natives of Central America supposedly “domesticated” them fairly easily and used them to control rodent populations around villages. Nowadays, it is not recommended to keep these or other wild animals as pets.
Where are Jaguarundis found?
Like the Ocelot, the Jaguarundi is found in dense, thorny bushes. Jaguarunds are found in northern Mexico and Central and South America. Jaguarunds are extinct in Texas.
How big does a jaguarundi get?
What big cats are native to Texas?
The bobcat is the only native Texas cat that is important as a fur animal. The mountain lion is a cat without spots. Males can be as tall as 8 feet, 6 inches; females, 6 feet, 71/2 inches. The average weight of the three males was 184 (160-227) pounds; six females, 118 (105-133) pounds.
What are the big black cats in Texas? The name instead refers to any large, black cat. According to TexasHillCountry.com, the “black panther” seen around Bastrop and Caldwell counties may actually be jaguarundis. Okay, so what is jaguarundi? It is a lynx-sized wild cat that weighs about 20 pounds and has dark fur and a long tail.
Are there any Jaguars in Texas?
STATE OF THE POPULATION. Jaguar is extinct in Texas today. There are many records and sightings dating back to the late 1800s and early 1900s, and this big cat was actually considered common in some areas. The latest documented record from the state was in 1948 when the last jaguar was shot 4.8 km (3 mi.)
What type of big cats live in Texas?
Included in this diversity of mammals are five species of wild cats that currently or historically call Texas home: jaguar, mountain lion, lynx, ocelot, and jaguarundi.
How big is a Jaguarundis?
How high can Jaguarundis jump? Jaguarunds are shy and wary of traps set by humans. Unlike many other South American cats, jaguarondis spend most of their time on the ground and climb trees to rest. Jaguarundi can jump up to 6.5 feet to catch a bird in flight.
What do Jaguarundis eat?
They eat birds, rabbits and small rodents, they hunt early in the morning and in the evening. Although jaguarundi mostly hunt on the ground, they also climb trees easily and have been seen leaping into the air to catch prey.
What do Jaguarundis look like?
Jaguarundi is a very common cat, with a long slender body, shorter legs and a small flattened head with short rounded ears, the cat is often described as having the appearance of a weasel. Sometimes called the ‘otter-cat’, the Jaguarundi is closely related to the puma.
