Project Jaguarundi: Wakulla WMA Photo

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.

6 comments:

UnknownApril 10, 2013 at 10:16 AM
Intriguing shot. I just conducted a scientific study by googling images of sitting jaguarundis. It seems as though jaguarundi front legs are too short for them to be sitting upright at this angle and have their paws on the ground. This pose reminds me more of a sitting rabbit then a jaguarundi. So, I think house cat.
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AnonymousJune 14, 2013 at 2:36 PM
I saw one yesterday in the Lake Nona area of Orlando. Had to search online to figure out what is was.
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AnonymousAugust 7, 2013 at 2:37 AM
Maybe 10 years ago - the internet wasn't what it is today - I saw a pair of jaguarundis on the peninsula in Daytona Beach - just a couple of blocks from Main Street no less. I didn't know what they were and contacted UF to help me ID. I was walking my dog at dawn. The first sighting was one, the second time it was a pair. They ran up trees when they saw us.
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Ocho Verde WildlifeMarch 16, 2014 at 8:01 AM
Hi. We run a small camera trap project in Costa Rica. This past fall(2013) we had several jaguarundi pass through the property. We got a number of them on camera. I know they were not from the US, but the images and video may me of use for comparative purposes. Here is a video.
http://youtu.be/c47H5rP6rY0
And at a still here:
http://ovcamtraps.blogspot.com/2014/03/camera-trap-project-update-camera-gaea.html

Thanks.
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True believerFebruary 1, 2021 at 10:09 AM
I was awakened by two Florida Jaguarundi in my yard last night at 3 am, not sure exactly what I was seeing, but the two were snaring at each other, after hours of research I’ve come to the conclusion they we’re definitely Jaguarundi, I live in a very rural area in Martin county Florida, very interesting to say the least
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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.