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...

Kitty kitty

Last week I put the trail camera on a small drying pool on our property.  We created this shallow depression a few years ago and it has served its purpose well as an amphibian breeding site.  The deer love it also and tracks were abundant.  I thought I'd get some interesting deer photos, but this was what I ended up with:

 

In the comments section of a previous post, Dave Steen said that in addition to the handful of ambiguous trail camera photos that might be a jaguarundi, we also should be getting trail camera images of black house cats that are clearly just that and nothing else.  My response was that nobody's likely to report or post such photos, because it would be of little interest to anyone.

Well, this is without doubt a domestic cat, Felis catus.  There are a lot of them out there.  I got these photos far too easily for someone with an interest in melanistic felids.  I'll admit that had the animal been walking away with its head down and out of clear view, or had the focus or lighting been poor, this might have gone to the "interesting photos" file.  Having multiple images certainly helps (these were four minutes apart).  If there are jaguarundis in this part of the world, it will take either a dead body or photos as clear and unambiguous as these to confirm their existence.

Another Recent Photo

This 2007 trail camera image at a deer feeding station is from Barbour County, Alabama. We may release more information with permission from the source, but this one is inconclusive; nothing here eliminates a large house cat. Feel free to comment below.

Alabama (?) Black Cat Video

This heavily edited video has been around a while. YouTube embedding is disabled, but you can watch it here. Evidently filmed from a deer stand, allegedly in Alabama south of Selma, with a buck actually in the field watching the cat. There is little to use for scale, however, and although it appears large, black house cat cannot be ruled out. It's interesting that the buck seems nervous about the cat, though.

First Post: Interesting Photo

Alabama jaguarundi or house cat?

According to my source, the low-resolution photo above was taken in a south Alabama county that borders Florida. As requested, the location will for now remain confidential. The animal is walking away from an automated trail camera. Although the location has not been positively verified, the vegetation is apparently consistent with the region. The tree to the right appears to be a live oak. Lacking scale, it is entirely possible that this is a large house cat, but note the striking similarity of the tail and hindquarters to this jaguarundi:

South American jaguarundi.

House cats frequently (but not always) carry their tails higher:


Of the putative "jaguarundi" images I've seen from the Southeast, the top image here is the most compelling.

A photo like that calls for an on-site investigation before the surroundings are appreciably altered. It should be a simple matter to return to the site of the photo and re-shoot a similar photo as documentation of site authenticity. It may also be possible to place a measuring stick in the position of the cat for scale. We're working on that.

More to come. Please don't hesitate to initiate discussion in the comments.