This is topic Border story in forum Cat forum at The New Huntmastersbbs!.
To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://www.huntmastersbbs.com/cgi-bin/cgi-ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=5;t=000128
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on December 04, 2023, 09:38 PM:
Everybody known that I’ve hunted along the border for many years. Mostly in Arizona, and mostly on the Papago.
Most of the actual border is mesquite scrub but there is a hilly part south of Sells. I was traveling the border road this one time, probably mid day, when what I thought was the darkest bobcat I have ever seen cross in front of me, down from the rocks and in to Mexico. I really didn’t think too much about it.
But then I started remembering about how some wildlife agency had collared a Jaguar in the Babwaquarvi mountains which were maybe ten miles further east. Big stink over that, the cat died and of course nobody was to blame, etc.
Anyway, I’m positive what I saw wasn’t a bobcat, although there are plenty around, and lions, but this might have been a melanistic phase of a young jaguar. Since jaguars usually weigh 150 pounds, maybe more, and what I saw couldn’t have been more than 35-40 pounds, which is a very big bobcat. In fact, the biggest I ever killed went 32 pounds, a very big female who’s head is on the wall in my den. I also know that the black jaguars have rosets and they aren’t totally black in direct sunlight.
So, since I have killed a lot of bobcat, and many lynxcat in northern Nevada, and they are long legged and more uniform gray with a white spotted belly, I have never seen a dusky coal black bobcat anywhere? I almost positive I saw a young black phase jaguar, but he wasn’t coal black, I’d call it dusky, not like a panther.
Anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
Good hunting. El Bee 🐝
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on December 06, 2023, 09:55 AM:
The Border, at least it used to consist of two parallel rows of barbed wire, maybe about a foot apart. I've climbed over it a few times just to retrieve a down coyote. First, you try to determine if there are anybody hanging around on the other side, of course. Along the border, south of the reservation, it's about 120 miles or so and I think there are 3 gates, the middle one at Papago Farms is unmanned and it has a corral on the Mexican side.
Anyway, at irregular intervals, you might see gallon jugs wired to the fence, hard to say how long, but this was before all the fence construction, such as it is. The section closer to Yuma has a rather well maintained gravel road, between San Louise and Nogales, which is on the Cocopah res. They used to have a blimp type of balloon very close to the Organ Pipe Monument, which has a real, manned Border crossing station and on the US side there are a lot of Federal Rangers willing to shadow anybody straying off the #85 blacktop, between there and Ajo.
Anyway, it's just about as remote as it gets, west of Sasabee. It is coyote hunting Paradise, in my opinion, the Sells Dump and the air strip on the north side are why they make 30 round magazines! (just kidding!) wink, wink!
That's all I got for now. Anybody needing a back pack, don't bother buying it, that wash north of the border of Nogales has enough discarded backpacks to open a friggin' mail order outfit to rival Amazon! To tell you the unvarnished truth, that 20 miles of that wash north of the border and up into Tucson is an ecological disaster!
Just thought y'all might like to know.
Good hunting. El Bee
UBB.classicTM
6.3.0