So, tonight, residents of Central Belize are on high alert - because a killer cat is on the loose. The Police and the Forestry departments have been deployed to find the cat before it harms anyone else.
The Forestry Department called on conservation biologist Omar Figueroa - who's worked extensively with big cats in that area. He's trapped and tracked over 40 jaguars and pumas in what's known as the central corridor and has now set 6 traps for this one.
He told us that the event of a jaguar attacking and killing a man is not typical of a wild cat - but it has happened before with jaguars kept in captivity.:….
Omar Figueroa, Conservation Biologist
"The incident that we have here is extraordinary. I think there is only been like 2 attacks on a human before that has been recorded and this had occurred in a zoo, so you have this sort of behavior happening when you have a jaguar in captivity and then somehow they manage to escape. A cat that have been in captivity loses that fear of humans, so that's why this particular needs to be recaptured and it needs to be taken care of."
Jules Vasquez
"You have any idea how this cat will be moving? What he will be looking for?"
Omar Figueroa, Conservation Biologist
"I don't think that this cat will move far away from where it was held in captivity and there are signs already that the cat is in the neighborhood of where the incident occurred so that is where I am right now trying to lure him back to some traps that we have set. I don't think the cat will go into the nearby village and roam in that area. These cats are very elusive, very cryptic, they will move away from that kind of confrontation, I believe. Where the incident occurred I think there is only 1 other individual, one other couple that lives right next the house where it occurred. The nearest village I believe is a few kilometers away and so like I said I don't this cat will be roaming out there near the village, he will stay right here. There are signs through traps, I have scouted the area and have seen a couple of fresh tracks that tell me the cat is in the area."
Jules Vasquez
"Should this animal be put down?"
Omar Figueroa, Conservation Biologist
"I believe it should Jules and for precisely the same reason that you mentioned: once this confrontation occurs I mean at the end of the day I might be a conservation biologist but we always put the human welfare first and foremost."
Up to this news time, the jaguar had not been sighted.
Figueroa says that jaguars in the wild who have not been raised by humans strictly avoid human settlements.
Of note also is that Figueroa says that if this cat comes into contact with the home range of the other jaguars who live in the area - he will doubtlessly be killed by the jaguar whose space he has entered.
He says there is no chance the cat can survive in the wild and so he has set all 6 of his traps within 500 meters of the jaguar's former home.
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