HOUSTON (FOX 26) -
The cell phone pictures are blurry, but to
professional wildlife tracker and trapper Jerry Hunt, it's pretty clear
this is no house cat.
"I think it's a black jaguar. They are coming from Mexico. Arizona has nine of them radio collared right now," says Jerry Hunt.
He says they are native to Texas, but the last time one was bagged here was in 1932. They are the third largest species of cat behind lion and tiger.
Hunt has spent a lifetime in the woods tracking big cats. Farmers and ranchers pay him to trap and either kill or relocate predators. When we showed the pictures of a horse that had been mauled two weeks ago, his Facebook page lit up with comments.
He says there has been an uptick in the number of big cat attacks on livestock for a number of reasons.
"We are encroaching in their neighborhood. We've been in a drought. the deep population has gone down a little bit which is their natural prey so they're are coming after whatever they can get right now," says Hunt.
The big cats have big territories too. They expand them in tough times. Here's what he finds so worrisome about these pictures. That they exist at all.
"They love to be hidden. The Native Americans called them ghost cats. And if you they want to see them they you are in their territory," adds Hunt.
He has only seen one in all his years of being in the woods.. This is considered the first level of aggression from these animals...a warning...a warning only fools would choose to ignore.
"Somebody's going to get hurt. I just hope it's not a child."
source
"I think it's a black jaguar. They are coming from Mexico. Arizona has nine of them radio collared right now," says Jerry Hunt.
He says they are native to Texas, but the last time one was bagged here was in 1932. They are the third largest species of cat behind lion and tiger.
Hunt has spent a lifetime in the woods tracking big cats. Farmers and ranchers pay him to trap and either kill or relocate predators. When we showed the pictures of a horse that had been mauled two weeks ago, his Facebook page lit up with comments.
He says there has been an uptick in the number of big cat attacks on livestock for a number of reasons.
"We are encroaching in their neighborhood. We've been in a drought. the deep population has gone down a little bit which is their natural prey so they're are coming after whatever they can get right now," says Hunt.
The big cats have big territories too. They expand them in tough times. Here's what he finds so worrisome about these pictures. That they exist at all.
"They love to be hidden. The Native Americans called them ghost cats. And if you they want to see them they you are in their territory," adds Hunt.
He has only seen one in all his years of being in the woods.. This is considered the first level of aggression from these animals...a warning...a warning only fools would choose to ignore.
"Somebody's going to get hurt. I just hope it's not a child."
source
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