Georgia Photo: Gray Fox?

Thanks to a reader for sending in this link to a lively discussion on a forum about a series of photos from Georgia.  People are all over the map on this (most claiming some sort of cat), but the dark tail strongly suggests gray fox.

Baldwin County Photo?

More on this as it develops, but a reader writes, 

"We believe we may have captured a picture of a jaguarundi on a scouting camera this week on my property in Baldwin County, AL.  Today an Alabama game warden visited my property to take measurements of where the picture was taken for hopefully some confirmation."

We have not seen the photo, but Baldwin County has been the source of nearly half of the recent putative jaguarundi reports from Alabama.  Trail camera photos are often blurry, and scale is often in question.  Let's hope the measurements and  photo analysis provides something substantial.  Stay tuned...

Seriously?

This is from the March 2011 newsletter (pdf) of Friends of Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve in south Florida.  The caption and photo are not altered.  The animal was observed in an area where Florida panthers are actually known to exist, so it's gotta be one, right?  No!  Frustrated conservation professionals are constantly fielding "sightings" from an out-of-touch public that can't tell a cat from a dog.  Large house cats resemble jaguarundis far more than yellow labs look like panthers, and if we're going to make claims about jaguarundis, we're going to have solid evidence.  So far we don't. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and so far all we have for the jaguarundi in the Southeast are anecdotal reports and questionable photos.