Thursday, February 18, 2010

The Kitty in black-and-white



The jaguar "Kitty Carlisle" was active around Chan Chich Lodge last month. And how do I know this is the Kitty? It's really pretty easy now that she's so "familiar" from her growing photo portfolio. Her unique coat patterns have become very recognizable after so many comparisons with previous photos of her.

This is a nice sequence from one of Ben's camera traps, that appears in black-and-white due to low light levels and infra-red use. One of the neat things here is seeing her ears flick and the subtle movements as her body tenses and relaxes as she regards the camera on the River Trail before moving on.

She's gotten to be quite the star at Chan Chich, showing up in several photos over the last years. On Friday, several guests had a nice look at a jaguar on the River Trail in late afternoon. Interesting to speculate that it might have been Kitty since it is only a couple hundred meters from where this image series was taken. After all these years based around the Lodge, she certainly is human-habituated and is probably pretty unflappable. It's been our experience in Gallon Jug Estate and Chan Chich Lodge that jaguars here, unused to persecution, are generally confident but cautious when confronted with humans.

Be sure to check out other posts for more info about her.

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