Page 5 - American Jaguar; Big Cats, Biogeography, and Human Borders

INTRODUCTION
WELCOME

TO THE

BORDERLANDS

ne cold and windy day late in the winter of 1996, near his ranch in the
OPeloncillo Mountains along the United States–Mexico border, rancher
Warner Glenn was on the trail of a mountain lion.
For Glenn, it was the fourth day of a long and grueling hunt, even
for a fourth-generation rancher who had spent decades in these lands.
For hours the hunter and his hounds stalked the cat through the jagged
mountain landscape. Glenn followed on horseback while his dogs moved
ahead, rifling through the underbrush, sniffing out rocks and crags, trying
desperately to keep on the trail of the elusive and dangerous cat. During
the chase, Glenn was astonished by the speed and distance the cat covered
across the mountain ridges. It seemed always to be just out of reach, never
close enough to get a look, let alone a good shot with his rifle. Occasionally,
Glenn spotted unusual tracks. They didn’t look like mountain lion tracks.
Finally, after hours and miles of the chase across the mountain ridges
and valleys, Glenn and his team of dogs finally caught up to the cat. There,
on a bluff high above the desert, the animal stood on a rocky ledge and
looked back at its pursuers. But it wasn’t a grizzled mountain lion. Instead,
Glenn found himself staring at a magnificent, spotted jaguar.
A seasoned cat hunter like Glenn knew the prize he had stumbled upon.
No one had seen a jaguar in the United States for decades. This would be
the ultimate trophy for any big-game hunter. But instead of raising his rifle,

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