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.

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.

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.

Wolf Bay-Blackwater River Update

Maybe white-tailed deer like sardines.

You get what you pay for. The recent Wolf Bay trip yielded nothing of interest, as the three cheap ($50) new cameras failed to work properly in multiple trials. I left them out for a week even though I knew they weren't up to snuff, and the only photo taken that was not of my hand reaching for the camera is the one above. This was actually from the location of a reported jaguarundi sighting in Blackwater River State Forest in Florida, and the other two cameras were deployed on the Wolf Bay tract. All three have now been returned for a refund, and the next camera purchase will emphasize quality, not quantity.

While at Wolf Bay, I asked a local resident about any sightings of long-tailed cats. "Jaguarundis?" he replied. "Oh, they're here. One guy with a nearby homeowners' association has a hundred dollar reward for proof of one." I should point out that he said "jaguarundi," not me. He is also not a typical local, being an avid observer of nature and having considerable interest in environmental issues. He also does not claim a personal jaguarundi sighting. So, is the jaguarundi in these parts reality or myth? The jury's still out. I'm going to try to track down this person who's allegedly offered the reward.

Fieldwork Begins

Tomorrow, for the first time, bait stations will be set up in conjunction with trail cameras for the sole purpose of photographing a jaguarundi in Alabama.  Three Tasco Model 119223C trail cameras (available at Wal-Mart for $50, not counting a $15 4GB memory card and batteries) will be employed on a large, densely forested private tract on Wolf Bay in south Baldwin County.  Bait will be fish suspended 6-7 feet off the ground (out of reach of coyotes).  The cameras will be left in place for a full week and checked on September 9.  Results will be posted here in a little over a week.

Thanks to Dr. Bill Summerour for advice on methods, for relaying his own 1963 possible sighting in Barbour County, and for passing along a recent report from a competent observer who watched with binoculars for five minutes at a distance of about 50 yards what he was virtually certain was a jaguarundi.  This was in 2005, and on an overgrown woods road near Weeks Bay, roughly 15 miles from where the cameras are to be set up tomorrow.