Jaguar Loses Head to Hunter’s Machete

In an almost unbelievable case of animal cruelty for personal gain, the owner of Belize River Lodge near Manatee Lookout on the Philip Goldson Highway this morning came upon the headless carcass of a young male jaguar floating in the Belize River.  The jaguar stood about two feet tall and nearly two feet around in girth and the body was observed with apparent gunshot wounds to the left shoulder and left leg.  According to Mike Heusner who spoke with News Five this evening, the condition of the body and particularly the decapitation of the young big cat left no doubt what the likely human predator wanted.

Mike Heusner

On the Phone: Mike Heusner, Belize River Lodge

“I got in the boat with two guys and went down the river. We went all the way down the south side of the river to the mouth of the river and turned back, and then on the way back up we found it on the road side of the Belize River, just about half a mile below Manatee Lookout. And it was caught up in some bushes. It was a young adult jaguar, fairly certain it’s a jaguar – I can’t guarantee it but I think it is – but the head was cut off, it looks pretty obvious that it was cut because it was a clean cut through the skin. Then I saw several pellet holes in the left shoulder and left forearm, and I think that’s probably what killed it; they probably shot it and then cut the head off. The rumors that people are collecting heads and teeth, that’s just hearsay. But I picked it up and brought it back to the Lodge; I put it in a garbage bag and put it in a cooler with some ice, and I’m just waiting for the experts to come and pick it up so they can do an autopsy on it. The skin is intact; and the meat and everything is there, just the head is missing. So that indicates maybe that they wanted the head for the teeth or skull or whatever. It’s definitely not cut off by a crocodile because they tend to rip stuff; and this is fairly firm and it looks like a nice cut that went all around the neck.”