It was March 7, 1996, on the fourth day of a 10-day
lion hunt in the Peloncillo Mountains of southern Arizona, when
rancher Warner Glenn and his hunting dogs happened on a big cat
they’d never seen before in America. It was a jaguar, and Glenn, in
this quickly produced little booklet, tells us he had no desire to
kill the rare animal. His chief concern was saving both the cat and
his dogs, which leapt to the attack; next, he wanted to record the
rare sighting. So Glenn yelled and stomped gravel to divert his
hounds, then shot the 175-pound male with his camera. Ten color
pictures are featured in this memoir; in an afterword, photographer
Jay Dusard says the encounter tells him that wildlife can coexist
with a hunter-rancher like Glenn, who tries to minimize fences and
create a “working wilderness.” While the jaguar is protected under
the Endangered Species Act, it has no habitat designated here. What
that means, Glenn says, is that “It will take all of our efforts to
protect this animal and the wide open country it needs.” The
spotted cat probably followed a 100-mile corridor that the
Peloncillo range creates along the Arizona-New Mexico border up
from Mexico. As for the lion hunters, they bagged a lion the
following day.
Eyes of Fire: Encounter with a
Borderlands Jaguar, story and photographs by Warner Glenn, 28
pages, is published by Printing Corner Press, Warner and Wendy
Glenn, Glenn Ranch, P.O. Drawer 1039, Douglas, AZ 85608
(520/558-2470). $19.50.
*Betsy
Marston
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Eyes of fire.
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