Big-cat search turns up marks high up on tree

By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui Bureau

OLINDA, Maui — With big-cat expert Bill Van Pelt leading the way, teams of wildlife workers yesterday discovered more evidence pointing to the likelihood that a jaguar, leopard or mountain lion is roaming about this rural neighborhood.

Crews searching a rugged and dense area the size of two football fields found "deep and hefty" scratch marks high on a guava tree, which led Van Pelt to speculate that the big cat had been jumping into the trees to hunt rats feeding on fruit.

State wildlife workers previously found deep scratches on guava trees in a neighboring gulch. All told, 20 trees show the marks, they said.

Wind and a bit of rain Monday night foiled Van Pelt's plan to get the creature to respond to a recording of jaguar sounds. The megaphone-amplified audiotape — played in various locations near the Upcountry community — carried perhaps only a couple hundred yards, with the sound muffled at times by wind rustling the brush. While dogs barked, no cat was seen or heard.

Van Pelt, an expert on loan from the Arizona Game and Fish Department, reported during a press briefing yesterday morning that a "camera trap" set up Sunday had not produced any photos. That's not surprising, he said, because human scent is probably lingering on the trap.

Prospects of getting a photo will improve over time as the scent fades, he said. The camera, which snaps a flash picture when an animal breaks its infrared beam, is designed to operate for six weeks unattended. Two more such traps are expected to be deployed in a 1-by-3-mile area where the animal is believed to be roaming.

Van Pelt said he also plans to help state wildlife crews set up eight more "hair-snare" stations that could identify the elusive animal. All told, the crews are deploying 20 such stations scented with the urine of a serval, an African wild cat, and designed to snag fur.

Monday night's audio session was intended to get some kind of response from the cat, and officials were ready with night-vision gear and recording equipment.

Van Pelt did see an owl, an endangered bat and a rare moonbow. But no big cat. The operation was over by 11:10 p.m.

"All cats are territorial. What this cat is doing is trying to establish a territory," he said. "Last night we wanted it to go, 'There's a challenger. I'm here to challenge you.'"

Van Pelt said officials will have to get a bigger megaphone and try again on a calmer night — but not last night.

Van Pelt was hoping to get some rest after working overtime since arriving late Saturday night.

"I'm running on adrenaline," he said yesterday morning.

His last day is today, when he will present his findings and recommendations to Olinda residents at an 11 a.m. meeting at Seabury Hall.

Sightings and other reports of a large, catlike creature in the area began in mid-December.

The goal of yesterday's team search was to find a physical clue that would help identify the animal, said Van Pelt, who tracks jaguars in Arizona and is a member of the region's Jaguar Conservation Team and Ocelot Recovery Team.

The site of the search is near where an axis deer was mauled nearly a month ago in a manner consistent with a big-cat attack, the expert said. The deer's tongue was eaten, much as a jaguar would with its prey, and some hair was removed, another sign of a big cat.

Large paw prints were found near the carcass and their size dwarfed the prints of the property owner's Labrador retriever, officials said.

Van Pelt said yesterday that judging from eyewitness accounts and evidence compiled by state wildlife officials, he believes that some catlike animal is prowling around the area, possibly a leopard, jaguar or mountain lion.

With Van Pelt's five-day assignment approaching its conclusion, hopes of a capture while he is here are waning. But officials noted that his priority was to help identify the creature. His training and knowledge were invaluable, they said.

Van Pelt said that on his trip back to Arizona, he will take along a fur sample collected in Olinda from a barbed-wire fence after a sighting in June. He said the fur would be analyzed either by a geneticist working with the Ocelot Recovery Team or by a Northern Arizona University laboratory.

Reach Timothy Hurley at thurley@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.