Jaguar kills American National, Bruce Cullerton

In another tragic story, Bruce Cullerton, an American National who was to have travelled to the United States today. It didn’t happen because on Monday night, Bruce was sadly killed by Max, the Jaguar that was being kept in captivity by Richard and Carol Foster, film makers who have produced the best documentaries for the National Geographic.  Max fled his cage during Hurricane Richard, but why he attacked Bruce is still unknown. News Five’s Jose Sanchez reports.

Jose Sanchez, Reporting

When the eye of Hurricane Richard passed over the Western Highway on Monday night, it uprooted trees at mile twenty-eight, one of which destroyed part of a cage that housed Max, the jaguar. Twenty four hours later, Max would kill Bruce Cullerton, the next door neighbor of the Foster family.

Richard Foster

“Bruce Cullerton has lived next door to us for the last fifteen years. He was a very skilled mechanic and was a great asset to this whole place. We all went to him with our vehicles. He was a great guy and we all liked him a lot so this is a sad day.”

Jose Sanchez

“If you could just go through what happened when the hurricane came and first crashed down into the cat cage.”

richard foster

Richard Foster

“Well this is the worst hurricane that hit this place in the last twenty-five years. We had hurricane Greta in 1980 and there have not been none as bad as this. We had winds, we were right next to the eye of the hurricane, and we had winds over a hundred miles an hour here and it took down all the trees on the property. One of the large mango trees came down over the jaguar enclosure and ripped a whole and the jaguar in panic during the hurricane escaped.”

Jose Sanchez

“Bruce normally come s over. What was he doing here that night?”

Richard Foster

bruce cullerton

“After the hurricane, Bruce normally comes over here to use our WIFI and we warned him that the jaguar was out. At that time we had no proof that the jaguar was anywhere near here it could well have been twenty miles away as far as we’re concerned. But that night I went out looking around for the eye shine and as he knows me pretty good he would not run away from me. So I would get a good chance to see if he was there. At about ten we heard Bruce’s dogs barking.”

At that moment on Monday night, Foster had no idea that the jaguar had just bitten one of Cullerton’s three dogs and killed Bruce in the process.

Jose SAnchez

Jose Sanchez

“The jaguar attacked Mister Cullerton underneath his own home exactly where we see the paw print. It then drags his living body pass this dodge ram. On to this bushy area we have a lot of broken shrubs and through the undergrowth here while still alive and still very, very afraid it brought him right here into this clearing and this is where Mister Cullerton was mauled to death. This is exactly where the police found his body when he was killed by the animal.”

Dr. Isabelle Paquet-Durand, Veterinarian

“The dog is in shock, his injuries are not too bad, but it looks like he actually got a bite. He has one puncture hole and he has one mark on collar and he is very depressed, but I think that most of his damage is psychological for seeing what he likely saw.”

Jose Sanchez

“I notice none of the three dogs are barking.”

Dr. Isabelle Paquet-Durand

isabelle paquet-durand

“No they are in shock.”

Jose Sanchez

“Do you think maybe that dog went to help his master?”

Dr. Isabelle Paquet-Durand

“I don’t know of course but what has me startled is that he has a bite wound on his neck which usually for jaguars that’s what they do to kill, they grab right here. So I’m not sure if the jaguar got the dog first and the owner came upon that. And it went that way around or if the dog tried to defend him. I would imagine if the dog came after he first attacked the human he would have different injuries. But we will not know for sure.”

The Fosters are well known for their videos in the wild that are used in National Geographic documentaries. Richard almost became part of the story as before his eyes, on Monday night, the jaguar appeared.

Richard Foster

“I saw the jaguar in the middle of the road looking at the dogs. It looked at me and saw my light and started to gallop up the road towards me. So I moved fairly quickly back up here and cause I didn’t want to be caught by him in the open without any defense. Went into the house, he came into the carport, had a drink of water from the dog bowl and proceeded to come down the back here from the cage.  So he was still around most of the night and the dogs were a little uneasy.”

To aid in its capture, the Fosters and the Forest Department are being assisted by Omar Figueroa, a PHD candidate at the University of Florida, who has been researching the environment of Belize’s Jaguars.

Omar Figueroa, Jaguar Researcher

“I’m trying to build habitat models to show how these jaguars use the landscape across Belize and try to develop conservation models to help protect certain areas in Belize right.”

Jose Sanchez

“I know you can’t speak to this accident, but when it comes to jaguars and people, is this the sort of thing that happens?”

Omar Figueroa

“The jaguars range from northern Mexico to northern Argentina. They are essentially across the Americas, I have never heard of an incident of a wild jaguar attacking someone. I think there are perhaps one or two incidents in the past of a jaguar attacking someone, but it’s all been related to captive cats. When you have cats in captivity there is always the risk of something like this happening. I have captured in the past couple of years about thirty-six jaguars and pumas. So I use a special type of leg hold traps. And that’s what I am called upon to assist in to see if I can play a role in trying to capture this cat and just to9 ensure it’s not out there.”

Jose Sanchez

“Mister Foster said he saw the cat last night, it came back. So you do believe its still in the area and it won’t go.”

Omar Figueroa

omar Figueroa

“It probably won’t go because it’s not a wild cat—it doesn’t have an established home range out inside the wild. If that cat is to go back further into the forest behind us, there is other cats that are more established there and the cat wouldn’t stand a chance. So more than likely it will come back to the place it knows where it was before and that increases our chance of being able to capture this cat.”

The hunt for Max the jaguar begins tonight. Reporting for News Five, Jose Sanchez.

The Fosters took Max into their care from the Forestry Department since he became an unwanted attraction of the zip line tours in the area.