Perhaps it was the recent discovery of a crocodile in the forest that inspired Karina Aguilar, Bosque de la Primavera’s director of fauna, to take seriously the rumors that in these woods so close to Mexico’s second-most-populous city, lurks one of the most elusive felines in the Americas: Puma concolor, the puma or cougar, also known as the mountain lion.
And when naturalist Jose Luis ‘Pepe’ Leyva insisted he had seen puma tracks in the Sierra del Tule in April 2009,” Aguilar really began to take notice.
The last solid documentation of a puma’s presence in the Primavera Forest was in 1974 when the animal killed a hunter. During the following 35 years, there were numerous claims of sightings but no solid proof.
Aguilar and Leyva discussed the matter together and decided the time had come to settle the question once and for all. Out of their own pockets, the pair purchased five motion-activated wildlife cameras and set them up around a watering trough popular with many forest animals.
“At first, all we got were pictures of stray dogs from ranches at the edge of the forest, plus a few choice shots of wandering burros and cows,” says Aguilar. “But we kept on trying and one day were amazed to find we had a photo of five collared peccaries or javalinas (Tayassu Tajacu), the only wild pig in North America. Everyone had told us that peccaries were long gone from these hills, but there they were, alive and well … and we had a photo to prove it.”
The big prize, however, came after six months of effort.
“Last month,” Aguilar relates with a broad smile,” our cameras captured an adult male puma, maybe five or six years old and in good health. This was the solid proof we had been looking for.
The puma or cougar is the second-heaviest cat in the Americas (after the jaguar) and has the greatest range of any wild terrestrial mammal in the western hemisphere. It can be found from the Canadian Yukon to the southern tip of the Andes. Adult males are around 2.4 meters long and in some rare cases can weigh as much as 120 kilograms (264 pounds). Pumas are great jumpers and one is recorded as having leaped 5.4 meters high. They can also run up to 72 kilometers per hour.
The puma photographed in the Primavera Forest appears to be in excellent physical condition. According to Aguilar, this demonstrates that the forest known as Guadalajara’s “lung” is a healthy ecosystem. “You could say this puma is a symbol that our efforts to rehabilitate, maintain and protect the Primavera Forest have been successful. Tapatios should be proud of this fact and of this superb creature.”
Aguilar mentions that the future good health of the forest now depends on “biological corridors” linking it to other verdant areas such as the hills around Tequila Volcano and the slopes of the Santiago River Barranca (canyon). If roads and housing developments eventually cut the forest off from the rest of the world, says Aguilar, it will die in the same way that we would die if our arteries were cut.
Aguilar, Leyva and their collaborators hope local authorities on the perimeters of the forest will make wise decisions so that pumas, peccories and other seldom seen creatures will prosper. As their budget does not include money for more wildlife cameras to monitor the fauna, they invite the public to lend them a hand in maintaining the wildlife population of the Primavera Forest.
In case you would like to go for a hike atop Cerro El Tule in search of puma tracks, here are the directions for reaching this hill, one of the most pristine spots in the Primavera Forest.
How to get to Cerro El Tule
Take Mariano Otero west to the Periferico. Otero continues on the other side, but eventually becomes a dirt road. Cross the highway, check your odometer and keep going straight on this extension of Otero, bearing left when the road divides. At five kilometers you pass through the entrance gate to the Primavera Forest. Follow the twisting, climbing road until, about nine km from the Periferico, you see a field of blue-grey tequila agaves on your left, property of Rancho La Mezcalera. Here, turn right onto a road which may be marked with a sign saying Mirador de la Cuesta. Follow this road 2.5 km until you come to a former quarry created by the Federal Electricity Commission) now hidden behind trees planted by ecologists.
Turn left and drive downhill to a small concrete bridge over a little arroyo. Either park here or, if your car can do it, drive a little farther to a flat area bordered by a row of nopales and the flattened remains of a barbed‑wire fence. Now follow the fence west and cross a small arroyo. As you continue to follow the fence, you’ll find yourself in a long valley between parallel ridges. Climb up onto the ridge on your left and proceed uphill in a west‑southwesterly direction. When you can’t get up any higher, you are at the top of Cerro El Tule. This may be a 90-minute hike at a leisurely pace. Total time from the Periferico to the former quarry: about 22 minutes.