Jaguars in Arizona

Factual Questions
1

Huh. Assuming this isn’t just a solitary wanderer, and there is a population struggling towards viability, how does this this affect the existing state of affairs? Jaguar are larger than cougar, does this push the cougar out of areas incapable of sustaining both? Or are cougar generalists enough to work around another large cat?

And how well does the jaguar interact with humans? Cougar attacks on kids and joggers appear to be happening more frequently as we move our sprawl into their last bits of habitat… if a cougar will stalk and attack a female jogger, will a jaguar go after a male jogger?

2

On a related note, a mountain lion was recently spotted on the Kenai Peninsula up here, which is WAY out of range.

3

Not that it answers any of your questions, but Jaguars have been spotted in the Southwest for years. Smithsonian Magazine did an article fifteen years ago about how ranchers in southern Arizona and New Mexico were pooling their rangeland. One benefit was a return of wildlife, evidenced by the picture one rancher got of a jaguar.