Jaguar Detectives

Nancy from Tucson, on 01 Aug 2008

I’m so sorry. It is very sad to see this happen to any animal, as you say, and especially to such a beautiful animal whose existence hangs in such delicate balance. Your research keeps this death from being a total waste.

The only time I’ve seen gila monsters and badgers is as road kill. Very disheartening.

In the southwest U.S. there is a move to protect and create wildlife corridors that allow large predators to move from area to another, e.g. providing tunnels under roadways. We have sightings of jaguar here too (but not ocelot, at least not that I have heard), though they don’t seem to have ventured close to our highways.

Blessings to you and the wonderful, worthwhile work you do.

sheryl, washington dc, on 01 Aug 2008

What a depressing site. The driver had to have known they hit a large animal - why didn’t they pull over and see if they could help it or at least report the accident?

s.

Bruno Lima, on 01 Aug 2008

Porra que bosta em Fernando, cena trite !!!

Abraço*

jaguardetectives, on 03 Aug 2008

Hi Nancy,
Thank you for your regards! It is indeed really sad. My hopes are the same as yours: that our research keeps it from being a total waste and help us to improve management to avoid situations like that. The original distribution of ocelots do not reach Arizona. However in your “almost” neighborhood: the state of T exas – where the specie still surviving, despite the reduced habitat - the Feline Research Program from Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute find that vehicle-collision was responsible for 35% of ocelot mortalities in Lower Rio Grande Valley (Journal of Wildlife Management 69(1):255–263; 2005. In fact, Dr. Aaron Hines and the great team of researchers that work with Dr. Michael Tewes evaluate ocelot recovery strategies through models and to reduce road mortality is a main issue to promote its conservation (Biological Conservation 126 (2005) 512–522). Here, we are dealing with the same problem, but we are indeed implementing forest corridors throughout the landscape. This will not be the final solution: the roads will be there anyway, but we hope to increase habitat and use the data we are gathering to promote culverts constructions in preferred locations, e.g. where the roads across the forest corridors.
Thank you for your kind regards,
Keep coming!
Fernando

jaguardetectives, on 03 Aug 2008

Dear Sheryl,
Yes, it is really depressing. If you think the site is depressing, can you imagine how sad was to actually be in there? Was a hard day… As Sauwah said, most of them didn’t care. Truck drivers do not even try to break because to then is almost impossible in a short space. To make things worst people do not stop because they have afraid of some kind of punition by the Forestry Service, to been fined by the Road Police (they are always over the speed limit) or just don’t want to stop because they are #$%^& and don’t want to “lose time”. This is not so usual with wildcats, is more common with wild dogs. Because of the vehicle headlight phenomenon is such a recent variable on their evolutive history, they – as Douglas Adam’s says – believe that the best way to deal with that pair of lights is just stand in there staring on it. As they do with everything. Cats take a look and goes away. Think that’s way we have many more crab-eating-foxes dead on roads. Anyway, this is not funny. Once I heard someone saying that if animals are dying on roads is because they are not adapted and it is natural selection. I wanted to jump in the throat of such a Nazi speaker, however - of course, as a gentleman - I just argue, and indeed, as a good scientist, just throw his argument on the ground with best ones…
Best from Brazil Sheryl!
Fernando