I was on a friend's ranch south of Sonora a few years ago. It was dusk and
we just arrived at the ranch and went through the gate. Two deer ran across
the road about 30 feet in front of us. My friend stopped and pulled out a
spotlight so we could spotlight deer on the way up to the house (no, we
weren't hunting!). Just as we started to move forward, a mountain lion
walked out onto the road as the same trail the deer were on. The mountain
lion stopped in the road and looked at us, twitched its long tail, and
continued on after the deer.
Another time, in Belize, we walked up to a large cave entrance (part of the
Caves Branch Cave system). The entrance has a large sandbar as it takes
water in the rainy season. A single set of jaguar prints lead across the
sandbar into the cave. We walked into the cave back to a lake. We heard
movement on the other side of the lake and then the low grunting that
jaguars do. Then, we heard splashing in the water and decided that it would
be best to leave the cave as we were between the entrance and the jaguar.
We never saw it and that might have been a good thing.
Yet another time, I was in Guatemala near the Usamacinta River. It was
early morning and one of our guides and I were hiking over to a nearby Army
base from our camp to ask about caves. We came to place on the trail where
my guide pointed out fresh jaguar tracks on the trail. As we round the next
bend in the trail, my guide stopped and motioned to me to be quiet. That is
when I heard that we were very close to a jaguar. The jaguar was sleeping
somewhere just off the trail and it was snoring! You could smell the cat
and my guide whispered to me to walk quietly and move on down the trail. I
never saw that one but didn't want to wake it up.
Other times in Guatemala, when returning on a trail from a cave, we have
seen jaguar tracks on top of our tracks we made on the way to the cave that
morning. I've yet to see a jaguar but I know I have been close and they
have followed me. I always have the thought of finding a jaguar in the back
of my mind when I check out caves. Mexico and Central America has lots of
caves named Cueva de Tigre. The day I find a cave with a jaguar in it is
the day I finally use the name Cueva CON Tigre!
Allan
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