Onca
The Prelude:
The setting for today’s story is an old California Spanish Land Grant tract of land known as Rancho Guejito [wah-hee’-tah] in east San Diego County. I believe the actual incident related here occurred somewhere between the late 1940’s to mid 1950’s. The account was told to me by my father when I was a very young boy. My father heard the narrative directly from the rancher who actually experienced the event. The tale made a lasting impression on my youthful, fertile mind and I often thought what a great experience it would be to see a Jaguar in a truly wild setting. The seed of a dream was planted many years ago and it began with this story.
The Narrative:
A heavy brume blanketed the rolling topography hiding secrets within its murky mist. This was an often-recurring early morning manifestation that happens in the Engleman Oak forest and chaparral-laced place known as Rancho Guejito … and a cattleman on his steady steed came to pause while in search of the herd.
During the respite the rancher adjusted the wide brim of his lofty-crowned hat and rearranged the oversized white kerchief masking the prodigious goiter bulging from his neck. And then it happened.
A loud, single slapping noise echoed out of the eerie fog and was immediately followed by a blood-curdling, guttural growl. The hair on the man’s nape bristled and his horse nickered nervously.
Reaching toward his scabbard, he extracted his .30-.30 rifle and quickly racked a round into the chamber. His mount whinnied anxiously.
A second slapping report filled the air and once again a devil’s vocalization reverberated from somewhere within the thinning fog. Cautiously riding to the top of an incline, the man halted his horse and both peered with deep trepidation into a cleared hollow.
There, sitting on their haunches facing each other with ears laid flat, were two magnificent feline beasts. One was as pitch-black as a moonless night, the other was reddish-yellow and liberally pocked with dark spots. Both possessed eyes reflecting the fury of hell. Each continued cuffing and snarling until eventually the two Jaguar both turned away and melted into the nearby brush.
Blinking in disbelief, the rancher moved his nervous horse to where the sparring cats had been. There, in the soft soil, were the spore of the two Jaguar.
Professional trackers were quickly summoned and when the cats’ trail was picked up, the two predators were pursued for many days from the Guejito Ranch south into Mexico and back to the ranch over hundreds of miles of rough, primitive terrain.
Then, just as suddenly as the big cats appeared, their presence mysteriously vanished and they were never again to be seen.
The Postscript:
The seed planted in a childhood dream was brought to fruition in 2016 in a wild Brazilian setting known as the Pantanal. There I met “Onca”.
~ Story and Jaguar capture, Onca © Jerry L. Ferrara. Capture made in the Brazilian Pantanal.