|
|
| Post Number: 1
|
Walkinman 
A rainbow
Group: Members
Posts: 6612
Joined: Nov. 2002
|
 |
Posted on: Feb. 18 2010, 2:39 pm |
|
   |
Hey Folks,
Article
New photos show jaguars alive and well near border.
TUCSON, AZ (KOLD) - The death of Macho B, a 16-year-old jaguar, has not spelled the end for the big cats in southern Arizona, as new photos along the border show.
The conservation group Sky Island Alliance has captured several images of the big cat 30 miles south of the US border with Mexico, on a private ranch.
The group is not disclosing further details of the location, out of respect for the property owner.
Cheers
Carl
Guided Hiking and Backpacking Treks in Alaska.
--------------
Guided Alaska backpacking and hiking trips
"What good is a used up world and how can it be worth having?" -- Sting, All This Time.
|
 |
|
|
| Post Number: 2
|
|
|
| Post Number: 3
|
|
|
| Post Number: 4
|
red dog
Elev 2,180'
Group: Members
Posts: 6628
Joined: Nov. 2003
|
|
Posted on: Feb. 19 2010, 11:35 pm |
|
 |
Actually, this jaguar thing has been going on for some time.
There was a Macho A. Mid 90's.
And before that.
Keeping quiet is better.
Macho B was pretty
Attached Image
--------------
Arizona
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 5
|
Walkinman
A rainbow
Group: Members
Posts: 6612
Joined: Nov. 2002
|
|
Posted on: Feb. 20 2010, 4:39 am |
|
|
(big_load @ Feb. 19 2010, 4:51 pm)
QUOTE
(Walkinman @ Feb. 18 2010, 2:39 pm)
QUOTE The group is not disclosing further details of the location, out of respect for the property owner. I almost with they'd kept this to themselves. The last guy hired by the state of AZ to study jaguars was little more than a bounty hunter.
Hey Big_load
Except with the move to study for protection of habitat under the ESA, things will be vastly different. I forget the actual details, but the F&WS will be dealing with it more than the AZ G&F dept - is my recollection anyway, I could be wrong.
Agree with your sentiments on the last person - though the move to push for that study seemed to come from the office mgt more than the biologist didn't it?
You're welcome.
Cheers
Carl
Guided Hiking and Backpacking Treks in Alaska.
--------------
Guided Alaska backpacking and hiking trips
"What good is a used up world and how can it be worth having?" -- Sting, All This Time.
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 6
|
|
|
| Post Number: 7
|
FnAskippy
Group: Members
Posts: 1095
Joined: Nov. 2009
|
|
Posted on: Feb. 20 2010, 10:38 am |
|
|
They are beautiful but damn hard to spot. Very shy critters.
The best chance of seeing one is by water, about an hour before sunrise.
We have some big ones roaming at the base of Arenal and living along Rio Chiquito..
One is said to be close to 300 lbs.
--------------
Pura Vida !
www.arenalbotanicalgarden.com
Lake Arenal, Costa Rica
"When you shop, you're really voting for the kind of world you want."
Gary Hershberg
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 8
|
|
|
| Post Number: 9
|
red dog
Elev 2,180'
Group: Members
Posts: 6628
Joined: Nov. 2003
|
|
Posted on: Mar. 10 2010, 12:17 pm |
|
|
Just got an email press release from the Arizona Game and Fish Department:
Game and Fish places employee on administrative leave
March 9, 2010
PHOENIX – The Arizona Game and Fish Department yesterday formally placed one of its employees on administrative leave with pay as a result of an interim finding in the department’s ongoing internal administrative investigation into the events surrounding last year’s capture of the jaguar known as Macho B.
The department took this action based on statements made by the employee during the course of the internal investigation, bringing about a need to consider taking administrative action to resolve concerns raised by the statements.
Under state personnel rules, placing an employee on paid administrative leave relieves the employee of duties, pending a determination on what final administrative action may be taken.
Department officials said the employee’s statements were related to the employee’s actions taken several weeks after the capture, recapture and euthanization of Macho B. The department continues to maintain that it did not direct any department employee to capture a jaguar, and that the department’s actions related to the capture were lawful.
Department officials added that the Game and Fish internal investigation cannot be considered completed until the department has an opportunity to review whatever findings may come out of a concurrent federal investigation being conducted by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
Information about events related to Macho B can be found at www.azgfd.gov/MachoB.
--------------
Arizona
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 10
|
red dog
Elev 2,180'
Group: Members
Posts: 6628
Joined: Nov. 2003
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 20 2010, 1:31 pm |
|
|
Update on the Macho B story:
Somebody got fired. Arizona Fish and Game Dept is starting to release information about their investigation.
The link below has 300 photos of the capture and re-capture…quite frankly I found no enjoyment in viewing the photos.
They are releasing transcripts of the investigation interviews…so far there is just one posted, but will be several others in the near future.
Link
--------------
Arizona
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 11
|
big_load
Group: Members
Posts: 21815
Joined: Jun. 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 20 2010, 3:57 pm |
|
|
The transcript is making my blood boil. I wrote a couple pages and deleted it. The Deputy Director does some infuriating Good Cop stuff to elicit the confession, but he's also trying to protect everybody above the bottom level by badgering the interviewee to repeatedly affirm what he thought the department's intent was as well as that of the accomplice. Even after the admission come plenty of transparent lies. It's just disgusting. There's a huge gap between why he claims to have lied and why he claims that actual outcome had nothing to do with what he was lying about.
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 12
|
big_load
Group: Members
Posts: 21815
Joined: Jun. 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 20 2010, 4:09 pm |
|
|
I just got to the part where they redacted all the answers about who else in the department had knowledge, along with the follow-up Q's and A's. Other people are named explicitly, including the intern who was asked to delete emails.
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 13
|
double cabin
Group: Members
Posts: 15401
Joined: Nov. 2005
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 20 2010, 4:20 pm |
|
|
Oh boy, inexcusable. I'd love to try and play Devil's Advocate here but the Devil isn't that dumb.
I thought there were more sightings/tracks in years past? I think I might have seen a track above the San Francisco River just inside New Mexico years ago. Of course it could have been a 200 pound Lion, I don't know.
I think the guilty should have to cross a certain section of Panama wearing nothing but pot roast.
--------------
We have nothing to fear but an industry of fear...and man skirts.
http://www.facebook.com/media/albums/?id=129511480442251
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 14
|
big_load
Group: Members
Posts: 21815
Joined: Jun. 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 20 2010, 4:27 pm |
|
|
McMullen, one of the lower-down guys, seems to be the Bad Cop:
"... but through the course of doing this investigation, there is a series of events that when you look at them together really speak loudly of preparing to catch a jaguar. And I wanted to just throw them out to you, things we were aware of through the course of this investigation just so that you can have a chance to frame them in the context in which you were working at the time. And those things are: [itemized list redacted]"
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 15
|
big_load
Group: Members
Posts: 21815
Joined: Jun. 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 20 2010, 4:30 pm |
|
|
It's funny that they didn't redact the locations where the snares were set.
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 16
|
|
|
| Post Number: 17
|
big_load
Group: Members
Posts: 21815
Joined: Jun. 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 20 2010, 5:08 pm |
|
|
They redacted an answer and a follow-up to whether he was sacrificing himself to protect someone. I don't think that would have been necessary if the answer were "no".
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 18
|
big_load
Group: Members
Posts: 21815
Joined: Jun. 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 20 2010, 6:02 pm |
|
|
Hmmm ...
This is immunized testimony, and the Deputy Director has had to include a rebuttal of the witness's statement that refers to his own actions. I'm still unclear as to why his participation in the investigation is anything but a conflict of interest.
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 19
|
big_load
Group: Members
Posts: 21815
Joined: Jun. 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 20 2010, 6:21 pm |
|
|
OK, I finished the transcript. I have the impression that despite being immunized, the witness is not being completely honest. I also think the Deputy Director is overly concerned with damage control. He did ferret out some key inaccuracies, but he also seems to be pushing the blame onto just a few people, when many more seemed to be aware of what was happening.
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 20
|
|
|
| Post Number: 21
|
big_load
Group: Members
Posts: 21815
Joined: Jun. 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 20 2010, 7:22 pm |
|
|
OK, so here's my last question/observation on the matter. Anybody who reads the transcripts will come away with the impression that Emil McCain was the mastermind of both the capture and the cover-up, and Thornton Smith stupidly went along with it. McCain also allegedly took many of the specific actions, such as baiting the traps and hiding the bait afterward. There is nothing in the transcripts to indicate that AZGFD thinks otherwise. Yet they still host his elegy on their Macho B page. I'm sure the legal system isn't done with him, but I can't believe they continue to provide a platform for his self-serving analysis after firing the guy who helped him.
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 22
|
big_load
Group: Members
Posts: 21815
Joined: Jun. 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 20 2010, 11:54 pm |
|
|
Here is the best summary I've been able to find. It has two parts, the second being an article in the Arizona Daily Star.
Here is a relevant quotes:
QUOTE One federal agency, the U.S. Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General, concluded earlier this year that the capture by state workers was intentional and that the evidence points to criminal wrongdoing.
That agency said in January that the evidence against an Arizona Game and Fish Department subcontractor – and possibly a Game and Fish employee – is in the hands of federal prosecutors in Tucson. The inspector general’s report does not name individuals who could be liable. However, the description of the Arizona Game and Fish subcontractor matches McCain in several respects.
Despite all that has transpired, including the foregoing and even the conclusion of its own investigators in Post 14, the AZGFD's Macho B website still says:
QUOTE Then, on Feb. 18, 2009, jaguar conservation in the borderlands experienced an exciting development with the incidental capture, collaring and release of a jaguar. The jaguar was captured inadvertently by the Arizona Game and Fish Department during a black bear and mountain lion research study south of Tucson.
It's time for them to correct this.
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 23
|
red dog
Elev 2,180'
Group: Members
Posts: 6628
Joined: Nov. 2003
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 22 2010, 1:33 am |
|
|
(big_load @ Apr. 20 2010, 4:47 pm)
QUOTE
(red dog @ Apr. 20 2010, 1:31 pm)
QUOTE Somebody got fired. It was the guy in the transcript. Press release
Wow.
I sat down to read the Torry Smith transcipt. On page 85 of 178.
And this is the guy that got fired.
If anyone else wants to read
THIS...start on page 11
--------------
Arizona
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 24
|
big_load
Group: Members
Posts: 21815
Joined: Jun. 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 22 2010, 2:16 am |
|
|
Amazing, huh? The follow-up interviews are scary. You really see the claws come out, and he's totally screwed. The reading gets tough after they go four-to-a-page.
AZGFD's new problem is that their standing on a very small piece of ground, maybe even invisible, and I'll be surprised if McCain avoids a federal indictment.
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 25
|
|
|
| Post Number: 26
|
|
|
| Post Number: 27
|
|
|
| Post Number: 28
|
big_load
Group: Members
Posts: 21815
Joined: Jun. 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 23 2010, 1:32 pm |
|
|
(Walkinman @ Apr. 23 2010, 2:13 am)
QUOTE Hey big_load, Here is the summary report from the F&WS.
This is very interesting. It's key findings stand in direct contradiction to AZGFD's press releases and the information posted on their web site.
In this report, they clearly admit the intentionality of the capture and the lack of adequate permits to do so. AZGFD's Macho B front page, as I quoted in Post 22, has not removed the claim of "incidental capture".
That inconsistency can be attributed to a mere delay in updating the information due to resource limitations. However, there is a more disturbing inconsistency still in play. In this press release of April 20, 2010, the AZGFD claims that the final report
QUOTE Makes it clear that Emil McCain, a biologist with the Borderlands Jaguar Detection Project, was acting on his own behalf and was not a contractor, subcontractor, nor a formal volunteer for the Department during bear and lion research study field activities in February 2009.
Yet their own report, to which this press release refers, repeatedly refers to a subcontractor and in its response to Item 10 says:
QUOTE The subcontractor for the AZGFD, who was associated with JagCT, Borderland Jaguar Detection Project, decided where the mountain lion and black bear snares would be set. The FWS agents’ investigation revealed that the subcontractor and an AZGFD employee consulted with veterinarians and the Jaguar Health Program Manual on jaguar immobilization.
It looks to me as though the press release contains an outright lie about a section of the response it purports to describe.
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 29
|
big_load
Group: Members
Posts: 21815
Joined: Jun. 2004
|
|
Posted on: May 02 2010, 3:36 am |
|
|
The next transcript is out, with Ron Thompson. It is more heavily redacted, at least in the first 40 pages. Nearly everything relating to Emil McCain is cut. This testimony seems to refute the state's repeated disavowal of his contractor status.
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 30
|
big_load
Group: Members
Posts: 21815
Joined: Jun. 2004
|
|
Posted on: May 02 2010, 3:37 am |
|
|
Some interesting discussion of trophy hunters going after collared mountain lions by tracking the radio signals. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Survival Skills 101 • Eat Better
