Tonight the Forest Department is trying to track another conflict cat - this time in Crooked Tree. This cat has been killing and eating livestock.
The Crooked Tree residents are hoping that, like the jaguar called "Anri", this cat can also be captured before they lose any more of their animals.
Currently "Anri" is still being assessed and his injuries - including his screwworm infestation - are being tended to. Where he will go next is still unknown at this point.
However, there has been contradictory information coming out of the Forest Department and the village. Courtney Menzies took a deeper look at both sides of the story.
There's a lot of misinformation and miscommunication surrounding the recapturing of Anri the jaguar.
According to the Lemonal resident, whose yard the cage was placed in, the jaguar was trapped early Sunday morning.
She says she immediately contacted the authorities.
Voice of: Nicole Anthony, Resident, Lemonal
"Around 5am Sunday morning I heard the dog barking ferociously and it didn't want to stop."
"When I spot it properly, direct on the cage, I saw it eating the dead calf and I got my phone and called the man out of Corozal first because I wanted it to move instant."
"I notified the villagers in the village group chat, the chairlady came and saw it and after that the villagers started to come because everyone wants to see what was causing them distress and the Jaguar while it was in that trap it was quite content, only if someone was looking at it too close it would get angry."
This video, captured at 5:30 am reflects that, the cat was calm and not agitated.
But it would be at least another two hours before the CSFI team got to the location - and by then, Anri was antsy.
John Pinelo, Chief Forest Officer
"This one happened so quickly that, the CSFI team was in Lemonal by 7:00. I wasn't even awake yet and they were already there reacting to the situation."
But, villagers tell us it was actually after 10:00 am when CSFI got there - which would mean the cat was caged for 5 hours. By this time the trap was hot and surrounded by villagers.
However, Pinelo praised the team for capturing the jaguar within two days of laying the trap.
John Pinelo, Chief Forest Officer
"We put the cameras and we found out. Yes, it was a Jaguar. We also had pictures from the community, showing us that it was a Jaguar. And so what we did then was deployed the camera in that time where we got the reports and we put the cage. Yes. There might have been a delay in the time, but, we when we when we did take the cage, there was not much as I said, there was only two days, in terms of when we put it there and when we catch we caught it."
But aside from being stuck in a cage for hours, he was also injured. And he may have hurt himself in the small cage. But Pinelo also put some blame on the residents.
John Pinelo, Chief Forest Officer
"When we got the animal, its entire face was was bleeding, its nose was bleeding, and I was made to understand that people who were hitting it put bars in his face. So that might have been one of the reasons for the break as well. I can't blame anybody. Like I said, any of those two options might be the reason why, but we realize that it does have a canine missing that would need to be extracted Because if it is left like that, they get infected, it can kill the animal."
According to Anthony, however, she did not see the villagers being violent towards the jaguar. And she clarified that the trap was there much longer than Pinelo said.
Nicole Anthony, Resident, Lemonal
"I believe it was when it first got in the cage that it hurt itself because when I was out there no one was hitting or poking it, I didn't see anyone doing that but I believe if that happened, because they said that occurred, I believe that was when I went upstairs because I didn't want to see it anymore, I just wanted it to go from out of the yard."
"We didn't get any disclosure about this animal because they tracked it, they knew where it was, whenever they came in the village, they could have told us where the jaguar was situated. Also because on the lovefm morning show, I heard Mr Pinelo say the trap was set there one or two days before but the trap was in the yard from February 25th. I would just like to clarify that because I don't want anyone believing it was a quick catch, the jaguar refused to go in the cage for quite a period of time."
But Pinelo added that while they can set up the cage and monitor the jaguar, they can't force it to go inside.
John Pinelo, Chief Forest Officer
"In rating the situation I will say we could have reacted faster in terms of trying to catch the animal but I will also put a caveat in there that I cannot force the jaguar to go into the cage. We can see it on the GPS tracker moving around but that does not mean we can tell it to get in the cage."
But, the community remains concerned that Forestry isn't being on the level with them - and when a community meeting on Sunday afternoon was cancelled without notice after villagers waited an hour for it to start - their misgivings deepened:
Nicole Anthony, Resident, Lemonal
"I believe that we weren't respected enough and that's what is upsetting because they could have notified us that there would not have been a meeting yesterday because the jaguar has been caught but they could have come and highlighted the do's and don't's but not only that, they could have given us more information about it, it already gave us hell so we just wanted to know but yes they chose not to have the meeting again but they could have informed the chairlady."
John Pinelo, Chief Forest Officer
"The meeting that was called was for us to explain to them what we were going to do to try and catch the animal. Understand me when I say the animal was caught before the meeting and so while it is yes a slip up on us to call and say we don't want to do the meeting again because we're dealing with the cat right now, all of us were scrambling to try and get this cat out and to try and get the health assessment for it so it might have slipped us in informing the chairlady that we would not have the meeting again, at least on that date."
