I have a family of Harris’s Antelope Squirrels (Ammospermophilus harrisii) at my house. I enjoy watching them as they scamper, bounce, and climb their way through my front yard. They seem to appreciate that I’ve worked hard over the past 7 years to re-vegetate the area with native plants. They are quite comfortable here – finding all the food, shelter, and water that they need.

In return for providing these basic necessities they give me free tree and bush trimming, soil aeration, and other landscaping help. The recent monsoon soaking revealed another of their free services – tree planting. Apparently, they have been busy squirreling away caches of palo verde seeds in my garden paths. Their food storage plan didn’t work so well since the seeds have now sprouted in thick clumps. Judging from the number of mini-forests, they’ve been busy little buggers!

A few splashes of color from my yard. Should have even more flowers to appreciate soon since it finally rained today (after a month-long dry spell).

Once native in the United States jaguars were extirpated by hunters encouraged by federal predator policies. In 1997 the jaguar was added to the Endangered Species Act but it wasn’t until 2014 that 764,207-acres were designated protected jaguar habitat (most of that here in southern Arizona).

The handsome male jaguar pictured below, weighing in at roughly 200 pounds, was first spotted in southern Arizona in 2011. Since then he’s been caught on film over 100 times by remote trail cameras in the Santa Rita Mountains, 30 miles south of Tucson. How do they know it’s the same animal? Just like snowflakes, the pattern of each jaguar is unique.

He is one of several jaguars that have been documented over the past 20 years in Arizona. So far all of them have been males. The last known female jaguar in the U.S. was killed by a hunter in the White Mountains of northern Arizona in 1963. Which means we may never have a breeding population here in the States.

It pleases me that they still roam free. Jaguars are magnificent; powerful and intelligent creatures. And as an apex predator their survival in an area means that the ecosystem is in decent shape.