One Of The Last Known Jaguars In US Killed

Officials at the Center for Biological Diversity said one of the last two jaguars known to be living in the United States was shown dead in a photo released Thursday.

The photo provided to the Arizona Daily Star showed a jaguar pelt looked like that of the the animal roaming the Huachuca Mountains in 2016 and 2017, Jim DeVos, assistant wildlife management director for the Arizona Game and Fish Department said.

The officials compared the latest photo with the previous picture of the jaguar and found similarities between the two based on spot patterns, DeVos said.

“There’s not much more to say. We don’t know any of the specifics — where, when, how. We’re trying to get as much information as we can,” he added.

Randy Serraglio, a conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity told BuzzFeed News the jaguar named Yo’oko had not been detected in the U.S. since last year and must have been killed a few months ago.

“[Jaguars] are like snowflakes. If you have a clear photo of their flank, you can verify it’s the same animal,” Serraglio said, adding the rustics of the doorway look like Mexico, Tucson News Now reported.

Carmina Gutierrez Gonzalez, a jaguar project biologist, said officials do not know who took the photo and when it was taken, adding “We’re very upset. It’s terrible. We’re very upset that somebody killed that jaguar. I just can’t believe that. It’s really sad for us.”

Jan Schipper, director of field conservation research at the Phoenix Zoo said, “They're coming into the U.S., and it's almost always males, and then they're leaving to go back. So there's lots of threats along the way on both sides. So it's really unfortunate when we hear about a jaguar being killed by people intentionally."

He added jaguars have problems on both sides of the border.

Calling the incident piercing, Serraglio said there have only been seven jaguars in the U.S. in the past 20 years including Yo’oko and three were detected in the last three years,

"It highlights the urgency to protect jaguar habitat on both sides of the border and ensure that these rare, beautiful cats have safe places to live,” Serraglio added in a statement. “Indigenous people of the Americas have revered jaguars as majestic, powerful spirits of the wild for thousands of years. Whoever killed Yo’oko could learn a lot from them.”

“Indigenous people of the Americas have revered jaguars as majestic, powerful spirits of the wild for thousands of years. Whoever killed Yo’oko could learn a lot from them.”

Another jaguar was photographed in the Santa Rita Mountains, Arizona, from fall 2012 through October 2015; however, it hasn’t been seen since then.

Jaguars are more common in Mexico and several of them photographed in the U.S. in recent decades have come from the neighboring country.

Hadley, president of the Northern Jaguar Project said the case is an example for need for having jaguar conservation in Mexico so that such a tragedy is not repeated.