In the Pink

With great pleasure, I would like to present a new jaguar! This individual -- whom I believe to be female -- was recorded on the Gallon Jug Estate's Peterson Creek road on April 7 at 9:33 AM. This animal does not match any previously photo-captured in the database. There were just these two frames, and very nice frames they were.

Actually, they would have been awesome, had the normal color appeared. I had to doctor the images to remove a disconcerting pink cast. Evidently the infra-red did not switch over to the regular day time color. I have several pink turkeys recorded as well. We've emailed the camera company to see what they recommend to correct this. Nothing like being forced to view the world through rose-colored glasses ... !

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.

Another Jaguar Walks

How lucky can we get? More jaguar footage from Ben! This series appears in black-and-white due to low light levels triggering the infra-red mode. It's a really nice feature as it doesn't eat up batteries anywhere near as rapidly as conventional flash photography does. Since a canopied tropical forest typically has fairly low light, the infra-red mode is frequently necessary, even during daylight hours. I used to spend hundreds of dollars each field season to replace batteries almost weekly due to heavy flash usage in the "old style" camera traps.

Anyway. So here we have another nice sequence of an adult jaguar going about her business on a trail near Chan Chich Lodge. Yes, it is a female ... and it turns out we've already "met" her in 2004 and 2009.

More on this jaguar soon!