The Last Jaguar in TX

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The March 1946 issue of Texas Game and Fish carried an account of the final moments of the last jaguar in the Valley. This particular cat had been raiding area ranches where it killed and ate yearling calves. "For several weeks the jaguar went his nefarious way. Then he made a fatal mistake. He left tracks in the dense brush of the San Jose ranch," wrote Charles G. Jones in the magazine article. "In no time all the hounds picked up the jaguar's trail. The chase was on. Ranch hands were stationed with rifles and shotguns on open spots where the jaguar might appear in his maddened efforts to lose the closely pursuing hounds. "Reynaldo Ramirez was stationed at one open spot. He was armed with a shotgun. Ramirez was a bit startled when the jaguar came bounding out of the brush just a few feet from where he was standing," according the magazine account. "He fired a load of buckshot at the big animal. The load went wild. The jaguar charged toward Ramirez. A hound cut across the open field and closed in on the infuriated jaguar. A mighty sweep of the paw and the hound was ripped apart. "The jaguar continued his charge toward Ramirez who fired another load of buckshot at the snarling beast. All but one of the buckshot missed the jaguar. That one piece of lead struck the jaguar in the neck just below the head," according to the article. "The animal slowed his charge to brush away the sting in his neck. Ramirez pumped six more loads of buckshot into the jaguar. This time every load went home," the article said. The cat was dead but not before it had killed 28 yearling calfs over a three-week period.

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In recent years, automated cameras and sightings by hunters have confirmed the existence of jaguars in southern Arizona. The exact location of these sightings is being kept secret to prevent poaching, according to a 2004 article in the Arizona Daily Star.

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