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~~Greatearth~~ · 06-12-2017, 06:31 AM

I've made one interesting hypothesis and found very valuable photos of extinct Texas jaguar.

A.

The prehistoric ice age jaguar like Panthera onca augusta was about the size of a fully grown tiger. They lived during Pleistocene. Climates, biomes, animals, plants, natures, continents were 100% different than today.
Beside the giant prehistoric jaguars, today's North American jaguar and Central American jaguar are generally known as small size jaguar. However, we don't really know anything of the United States jaguar in Holocene.

The jaguar was once common in southern USA. It was once discovered Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and California. In the the early 20th century, the jaguar's range extended as far as north as the Grand Canyon, as far west as Southern California, and far east as near Louisiana.

B.

North American jaguar in Texas was bigger than Central American jaguar and other North American jaguar.

Texas is very large state. It is the 2nd largest to the Alaska. However, Texas is still bigger than majority European countries like Poland and about 7 times bigger than my home country South Korea.

Obviously, Texas has a very diverse climates and biomes (vegetation regions). Texas has more habitat diversity and living species than any other state of the USA.
Example: Western Texas has a lot of desert, northern Texas has a lot of open plain, southern Texas has a lot places look like rainforest (not exactly the rainforest), and eastern Texas has a lot of swamp land.

Therefore, jaguars in Texas were lived in many different habitats. Its sizes were a lot different in location within Texas.

The biome or vegetation region of the Texas.

*This image is copyright of its original author

The diverse Class species ranking of the USA.

*This image is copyright of its original author

http://texasalmanac.com/sites/default/fi...tation.jpg
http://tpwd.texas.gov/landwater/land/map...070r_6.gif

C.

Drawing of the jaguar by American naturalist John James Audubon.

*This image is copyright of its original author

https://markgelbart.wordpress.com/2010/0...s-jaguars/

Texas jaguars:

This jaguar was hunted in Goldthwaite, Texas, 1903. I couldn't find any information beside the location and time.
It looks small size jaguar. Goldthwaite's biome is like either cross timbers and prairies or rolling plains or edward plateau.

*This image is copyright of its original author

https://www.tsl.texas.gov/exhibits/parks/index.html

The location of the Mills country.

*This image is copyright of its original author

This was a large Texas jaguar.
It was probably a male jaguar. He was 214.6 cm and 91 kg.
He was shot in the San Benito, Texas on January 30, 1946.
This place is South Texas brush country or Tamaulipan mezquital.

*This image is copyright of its original author

The location of the San Benito

*This image is copyright of its original author

http://www.valleymorningstar.com/news/ar...80987.html

There is no photo, but jaguar was once lived in California.
The Tehachapi Mountains are also the last known breeding site of the jaguar in the United States. The big cats were found there as recently as the late 1800s.

This is from Wikipedia. I know many people don't trust wiki, but I found this information as useful:
The only extant cat native to North America that roars, the jaguar was recorded as an animal of the Americas by Thomas Jefferson in 1799. There are multiple zoological reports of jaguars in California, two as far north as Monterey in 1814 (Langsdorff) and 1826 (Beechey). The coastal Diegueño (Kumeyaay people) of San Diego and Cahuilla Indians of Palm Springs had words for jaguar and the cats persisted there until about 1860. The only recorded description of an active jaguar den with breeding adults and kittens in the U.S. was in the Tehachapi Mountains of California prior to 1860. In 1843, Rufus Sage, an explorer and experienced observer recorded jaguar present on the headwaters of the North Platte River 30–50 miles north of Long's Peak in Colorado. Cabot's 1544 map has a drawing of jaguar ranging over the Pennsylvania and Ohio valleys. Historically, the jaguar was recorded in far eastern Texas, and the northern parts of Arizona and New Mexico. However, since the 1940s, the jaguar has been limited to the southern parts of these states. Although less reliable than zoological records, Native American artefacts with possible jaguar motifs range from the Pacific Northwest to Pennsylvania and Florida.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar#Jaguars_in_the_United_States

The location of the Tehachapi Mountains. It is very far west than I expected. I think jaguar probably discovered in Sequoia National Park 200 years ago. It would be amazing to see the jaguar is roaming the Sequoia forest.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Arizona jaguar:

I don't know anything about this photo.
It was one of the Arizona jaguar shot near Wilcox, Arizona in 1986.

*This image is copyright of its original author

The location of the Wilcox.

*This image is copyright of its original author

The Texas and Arizona jaguars are extinct. A few jaguars are discovered in the Arizona. These are crossing boarder from Mexico and they were probably the same subspecies as the Arizona jaguar back in pre 1900s.
These are jaguar in Arizona these days.

This photos are famous Arizona jaguar name "Macho B." I think he died mysteriously in 2009.

*This image is copyright of its original author

http://www.hcn.org/issues/48.9/the-tenuous-fate-of-the-southwests-last-jaguars
http://justseeds.org/whistling-for-macho-b-an-interview-w-janay-brun-pt-2/
http://wildsonora.com/?page=3
https://investorshangout.com/post/view?id=409200

There is another male jaguar name "El Jefe" these days. He is living in the Santa Rita Mountains.
Jaguar seen roaming around a creek and other parts of a mountain range just south of Tucson.

But president Trump said he will going to build wall. I don't think jaguar will come back to USA again if they build actual wall.

Videos of El Jefe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdLoAfhR30E

El Jefe in 2013.

*This image is copyright of its original author

El Jefe in the snow.

*This image is copyright of its original author

https://www.northernjaguarproject.org/ph...y/jaguars/
http://thewildlife.wbur.org/2016/02/09/el-jefe-the-uss-only-wild-jaguar-can-we-keep-him/
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/496675/jaguar-spotting-a-new-wild-cat-may-be-roaming-the-united-states.html

D.

By climate
Arizona jaguar is/was smaller version of the jaguar. They were and are usually living in desert, semi desert, and dry woodland in Arizona and New Mexico states. However, jaguar was also discovered in Grand Canyon, which winter minimum temperature sometimes falling -17.8 °C.

Texas is a lot different. There is many dry forest or normal forest or grassland. There is many pinny wood, swamp, open wetland basin, wet woodland & savannah like Pantanal and Los Llanos in Eastern Texas like Houston.

Texas jaguar was probably variable in size. Jaguar of the Goldthwaite looks small like other jaguars in North America and Central America. It could have been female. However, jaguar of the San Benito was 91 kg, about size of South American Jaguar.

California jaguar may have been small to large just like South American jaguar. If jaguar did lived in place like Sequoia National Park, then they may have been huge size. The jaguar in Mojave desert was definitely small. I can't really tell the Tehachapi Mountain since it is California interior chaparral and woodlands ecoregion (woodlands are varied and rich in plant life).

By prey
Arizona jaguar main prey is mostly javelina and deer. Coati, raccons, frogs, birds, reptiles, and desert bighorn sheep may also be on the menu. It is usually similar prey as jaguar in central America (smaller size jaguar).

Texas is a lot different. May different animals are living in different part of Texas. Central and southern Texas were probably the same as Arizona beside more wet climate.
Eastern Texas is different.
There is many descent size of mammals, birds, fishes and reptiles in Texas. Back in 1800s, there was American bison was also abundant lived in Texas. I don't believe jaguar can take down full grown healthy bull bison easily (most liekly not unless it was 2 or 3 male jaguars are cooperate together). But female, calf, and old bison are different.

I believed the prey animal of the jaguar in Texas: white tailed deer, mule deer, bighorn sheep, javelina or collard peccary, coyote, mink, otter, opossum, fox, weasel, raccoon, coati, American bison, badger, american alligator, alligator snapping turtle, common snapping turtle, many other turtle species (land turtle, river turtle, and sea turtle), large snake like indigo snake, Alligator gar fish, bass, carp, trout, ...etc. I passed on birds because I don't know bird is largely based diet of the Jaguar.

Texas jaguar has a lot of large size prey animals unlike in Arizona.

California.. I really don't know. But prey animal size of the California is still larger and more abundant than Arizona.

By studying the Southern United State nature. A large North American jaguar in Holocene probably could grow the same size as average size of Pantanal jaguar.

Bison range map of the USA before White American almost made them to extinct to take over the Native American.

*This image is copyright of its original author

http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/the_vault/2014/05/19/LgBisonMap.jpg
https://historyonthefox.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/bison-map.jpg?w=515

Just like in Pantanal, it was possible to see jaguar was hunting american alligator 200 years ago in Texas

*This image is copyright of its original author

I am ending by photos of North American jaguar with its prey.

Collared peccary (javelina) is main prey of the North American jaguar

*This image is copyright of its original author

The skulls of black bear was killed by Jaguar the El Jefe, evidence of the first recorded jaguar predation on a bear.

*This image is copyright of its original author

https://www.earthtouchnews.com/natural-w...ar-hunter/
https://news.mongabay.com/2014/07/seekin...in-mexico/
http://thewildlife.wbur.org/2016/02/09/e...-keep-him/
http://animals.mom.me/sonoran-desert-jag...-3736.html
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-na...180960443/

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