...was killed in 1948 near Kingsville. The Last Jaguar in Texas 1948 Wild Texas History

Should they be reintroduced? I know ranchers and farmers may have lots of concerns about a big cat predator for obvious and fair reasons.

I think, however, it would be feasible and worth it for a small manageable group in south and or west Texas. They naturally avoid human interaction and unlike wolves in the northwest, I don't think they would spread as far or create near as much of a conflict. I don't know the answer, but I am curious on yalls thoughts. Have a great weekend, and good luck to all the hunters out there if you're not already in a deer blind!

We have an article on jaguars in Texas, authored by Judge Ken Wise, coming out in our December edition of Texas Wildlife magazine.

Mountain lions are polarizing here in Texas. My own personal opinion is that adding another apex predator cat to the mix would be a cluster. Ask the western states about headaches regarding their wolf reintroduction efforts.

Yeah, I grew up and lived most of my life in San Antonio. I remember always having that in the back of my mind when in the hill country. Never once saw a mountain lion, but I know they do exist. I always thought it would be like, Guy on the Buffalo.

I ranch on the river and just north of Laredo. I think it would be cool beans to release jaguar and black bear around me.
We stocked Turkey back in 86 and they are doing great. I'm small but my northern neighbor is over 100,000, that's lotsa dirt to get started on.

If it would have an impact on the feral pig population, might be worth consideration

God put the predators on this earth for a reason. Man, due his domestication of livestock and using it as an income producing medium, decided all predators should be exterminated to protect his livelihood.
Man, being the top predator, is also very self centered and selfish in that he doesn't want any other predator but himself killing his deer, elk, moose, etc. for his own hunting needs.
There is always a needed balance in nature of prey vs. predators to prevent consequences of what the unbalance causes. Wherever you deplete your apex predators you increase your varmints, rodents, etc. and they then become the problem that man wants to eradicate… again.
We rarely go a couple of weeks on the OB that someone in their suburban neighborhood or fringe rural ranchette (for lack of better terms), is not complaining about a raccoon, squirrel, rabbit, opossum, some kind of bird, etc. etc., upsetting them in their personal world……but heaven forbid if a coyote, bobcat or fox walks through that neighborhood or their yard, that keeps those other animals in balance.
Historically, man has done a very poor job of co-existing with apex predators or even mesopredators, whose populations increase due to eradication of apex predators (see mesopredator release), which then results in the decline of small mammals, birds and reptiles…..which then leads to local or widespread ecosystem disruption.
As said above, man is the top predator. It would be cool to reintroduce some of our depleted apex or even mesopredators back into their native habitats. However, man has forever altered those ecosystems for his own benefit…..which therein lies the problem and challenges of trying to accomplish such.

Jaguares cries are chilling. We have them here in Tulum. I've never seen one in person but we have seen them on friends ring doorbells.

There was some writings about some reintroductions they did in Africa with either Cheetahs or Servals and how it stabilized populations of other apex predators as well as mesopredators. Introducing Jaguars back into their once native habitat would perhaps stabilize mountain lion and some mesopredator populations.
Them making an impact on pig populations would definitely be a plus big time!

You are miss remembering your study as Africa has Leopards not jaguars.

Knew it was two cat species. Actually it was Cheetahs and Servals. Fixed it. Thanks!

Nvm lol

I think they should repopulate Jaguars in Africa, for fun.

I'm thinking trapping all our hogs and take them to Africa.?

Hard to wish that on any continent although it could cure the hunger issue and never go away

TPWD has had voluntary reporting of mountain lion kills in place for a year.

Two have been reported.

I've seen more than that on FB and IG in that time frame. Look for mandatory reporting being put in place next year.

Even if jaguars were to receive the same protection as black bears I have to wonder how livestock and deer ranchers would think about their presence on the landscape.

SanAntoneAg said:

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TPWD has had voluntary reporting of mountain lion kills in place for a year.

Two have been reported.

I've seen more than that on FB and IG in that time frame. Look for mandatory reporting being put in place next year.

Even if jaguars were to receive the same protection as black bears I have to wonder how livestock and deer ranchers would think about their presence on the landscape.

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A friend's family had an exotic ranch around Falfurrias, and a mountain lion got inside the fence. It killed several animals before they finally caught it. The cousin that managed the ranch said what pissed him off was the cat seemed to be smart enough to eat the most expensive animals first.

At our ranch in the hill country we had two experiences with mountain lions. TPWD had a lion project going on run by a biologist named Bill Rush out of west Texas,if I remember correctly. When we would contact them they would come stay at the ranch for 2-3 days or so and study the kills etc.
The first instance was with a female that had cubs. She killed a small goofy buck that I was going to cull anyway. She fed her cubs for almost a week with that one kill. She eventually moved on.
The second was a male that killed 3-4 of our Axis. The TPWD guys really showed us a lot and taught us a lot about lions. The lion biologist said that the lions get blamed for a lot they don't do.
The biologist said it is fairly uncommon for a male to arbitrarily kill lots of animals on one place. And females kill only to feed themselves and cubs and will totally use up an entire animal before killing another. They usually don't stay long in one area. They abhor human scent. …..so the biologist told us scatter our scent around the ranch as most we could.
They seem to pick the slower or older animals to kill. The TPWD lion guys said they try to kill whatever is the easiest and will usually not attempt stronger mature animals as it expends too much energy compared to the old fat and slow or sick ones.
We actually learned a lot from those guys and it dismissed a lot of myths and thoughts I had about mountain lions.
Even though we had the high fence place with exotics and deer, they never really caused any great loss of animals to us.
They are unique apex predators that live very solitary lives….is what we gathered from all the information those guys gave us.

I wonder if we could train them to hunt feral pigs like marine biologists are trying to get sharks to hunt lionfish in the Caribbean. 2 birds, 1 stone? Try 2 pigs, 1 cat! AMIRITE?!

Now THAT is the idea and best post of the century!

Still scares me. Errbody knows that when you shoot a pig and blood spills on the ground, two pigs sprout up.

Deerdude said:

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Still scares me. Errbody knows that when you shoot a pig and blood spills on the ground, two pigs sprout up.

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Unless you shoot them in the nuts....

The guy thought he could outrun it if his first shot pissed it off. Holy hell.

Jaguars are GORGEOUS animals and easily my favorite big cat. That stated, I don't think reintroduction would end very well for multiple reasons.

The University of Arizona Wild Cat Research Center spotted one earlier this year south of Tucson and I believe I read they think there are 8 in the state. All areas but far west Texas are much more populated than southern Arizona so I'm also not sure how reintroduction might work.