Project Jaguarundi: April 2013

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Wakulla WMA Photo

This low-resolution photo, taken at a distance by Jane Morgan on March 29, 2013 in the Wakulla (FL) Wildlife Management Area near St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, shows what appears to be a small-headed cat of moderate size. Mike Morgan, Fire Chief at Wakulla County Fire Rescue, posted this and others to his Facebook page. Mike thought it was a Florida panther, but in profile this animal subjectively aligns more with jaguarundi than panther, bobcat, or house cat. Not the smoking gun we're looking for, but certainly one of the more interesting photos that have surfaced in recent times.

Note that this USFWS brochure (PDF) on the adjacent St. Marks NWR lists the jaguarundi along with feral hog as non-native mammals on the refuge.

The Jaguarundi in Alabama

The jaguarundi is larger than a domestic cat and a little smaller than a bobcat. Color ranges from rusty brown to almost black. These cats are most active in the early morning and evening, and prefer densely vegetated areas. The known range is from Argentina to Texas, but there have been several eyewitness accounts from south Alabama and northwest Florida. If jaguarundis do exist in the region, they could represent an introduced population, a pioneer population (think coyote, armadillo), or even the remnant of a native population. Although they have received relatively little attention in recent years, the following reports were summarized for Alabama's First Nongame Symposium (1982) by the late Dr. Dan Holliman, mammalogist at Birmingham-Southern College:
August 1974: Dr. Holliman and Dr. Thomas Nieson observed a single adult near Bayou la Batre, Mobile County.
January 1975: An adult jaguarundi was captured alive in a Clay County, Alabama farmyard, and was confirmed by James Peavey.
August 1980: Dr. Holliman observed an adult and two young at a garbage dump just outside Bayou la Batre, Mobile County.
April 1981: Dr. Holliman and Hugh Dowling observed one jaguarundi in Baldwin County crossing the road near the Gulf State Park water tower.

In the 30 years since these reports, many other reports from competent observers, plus a few recent highly suggestive trail cam images, lend further plausibility to the existence of a viable, reproducing population of this secretive cat in the region.

How You Can Contribute

Our goals are to document the existence of this secretive wild cat in the Southeast by:

A.) Soliciting eyewitness reports from the public, and

B.) Gathering photographic evidence through a volunteer-operated network of "camera traps" in areas of potential occurrence.

If you have seen a jaguarundi in Alabama or northwest Florida, please share it with us at jaguarundi.alabama@gmail.com. Please provide the date, time, and exact location. Even better, use Google Earth to create and send a .kmz file placemark or else provide the latitude and longitude from the bottom of the screen. Attach a photo if you have one. All submissions will remain confidential and not made public without your permission.

If you would like to set up and operate a trail camera, go ahead. Also, watch this space for tips, as we are currently testing "camera trap" methods.