Last-known free jaguar in United States euthanized

"RIP Macho B" read one of the signs at a memorial service held on Thursday celebrating the life and mourning the death of the last known and verified jaguar living free in the United States of America.

They brought their babies and their pets and assembled together under the noon-day sun to memorialize a 16-year-old jaguar named Macho B, who died earlier in the week at a Phoenix area zoo. Jaguar's are the only cat native to North America who roar. Tragically, on Monday, March 2nd, the last roaring jag, dubbed Macho B, was silenced after being euthanized due to acute kidney failure. It was estimated at the time of his death, that Macho was between 15 and 16 years old. It was just two weeks ago, on February 18th, when the Arizona Game and Fish Department's (AGFD) world was turned on its axis. They discovered that a jaguar had been snared in the southwestern region of Arizona. Macho had been inadvertently trapped by an AGFD foot snare that was meant to capture mountain lions or bear. Stunned AGFD officials quickly tranquillized the jaguar, did a quick physical, took some blood for DNA analysis and fitted him with a GPS-tracking collar. The collar was programmed to send GPS co-ordinates as to where the jaguar was every three hours. An assessment by field biologists at the scene showed that the cat had a thick and solid build, weighed in at 118 pounds, and that he appeared to be "healthy and hardy". Early tracking data showed that the cat was moving a a good pace and two days after being snared, Macho had already traveled three miles from the capture site. Bill Van Pelt, nongame birds and mammals program manager at AGFD was quoted as saying that it was the first time ever in the US that a jaguar had been successfully captured and collared. Hopes were high that the GPS transmitter would give researchers and the scientific community all kinds of valuable information on how and where the elusive jaguar lived and ranged. This was considered to be essential information that would assist in future conservation efforts. However, things took a turn for the worse over the weekend when officials noticed that Macho was hardly moving and when he was, he was moving very slowly. They went out into the field to observe Macho in his natural habitat and noticed that he had lost some weight and he had an "abnormal gait". It was then that AGDF officials decided to recapture Macho B. After tranquilizing him for a second time, Macho was choppered out of a wooded area just southwest of Tucson, Arizona up the the Phoenix Zoo. Dr. Dean Rice, executive Vice president of the zoo and the veterinarian who treated Macho was quoted as saying that the stress of the capture and the tranquilizing drugs passing through his already ailing kidney's caused extreme stress to the endangered animal and played a key role in his death. A conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, Michael Robinson, said that as far as he knew, Macho was the last knownjaguar living in the wild of the United States. The Center for Biological Diversity works through science, law, and creative media to secure a future for all species, great or small, hovering on the brink of extinction. Robinson told me that Macho was first sighted in 1996 in the Baboquivari Mountains. Over the years, Macho had been photographed by trail cameras in Southern Arizona many times. Robinson also told me that jaguars originally ranged as far north as the Grand Canyon, as far west as the San Francisco Bay area and as far east as the Appalachian Mountains. Robinson told the 30-40 people gathered in front of the Tucson offices of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (F&WS) that it appeared that this magnficient animal who once freely roamed the southern US in abundance had been reduced to this one animal, Macho B. He also told the gathering that Marcho's death may have been prevented and we all had to work together to ensure that the F&WS no longer handed out permits to "take" jaguars. A common sentiment expressed by many at the memorial was:

We hope that Macho did not die in vain.

Sergio Avila-Villegas is a Wildlife Biologist and Outreach Specialist from the Sky Island Alliance, a grassroots organization dedicated to the protection and restoration of the rich natural heritage of native species and habitats in the Sky Island region of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. Avila-Villegas reiterated Robinson's remarks and added that he believed scientists studying this one jaguar would not get a total picture of the whole species. He said that the use of non-invasive research techniques should have been a priority in this instance and repeated the mantra:

Ask questions, see the big picture.

A key question to the AGFD should have been: at the time when Macho was snared, why use a tranquillizer on such an old animal? Another question Avila-Villegas would like answered is why use a tranquillizer on an animal while the region had been experiencing such high temperatures? The last formal speaker at the event was Kierán Suckling, who is the Executive Director (and the original founder) of the Center for Biological Diversity. Suckling gave an impassion speech noting that over the last twenty years working with endangered species he had seen a lot of heartbreaking things and seeing the picture of a collared Macho was one of them. Suckling ended his plea for the plight of the jaguar by saying that this time, he wanted to make it the very last time that the "last jaguar in the United States is killed".

Carolyn E. Price

RIP Macho B

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