Part 7
Seven months after the release, during Tom’s final week in uniform, a cluster of recent collar locations brought him and Leah to retrieve a remote camera above a spring the cats had been using.
Monsoon runoff had torn away part of the access trail. Leah crossed the damaged section first, then stopped on the far side while Tom examined it.
“I’m taking the longer way,” he said.
She nodded. She did not offer a hand or tell him the wash was safe. Tom did not pretend her waiting meant she doubted him.
The camera contained forty-six recordings. Most showed deer, javelinas, or reeds moving across an empty frame. Tom sat on a flat stone while Leah transferred the files to a field tablet.
The jaguars appeared in clip forty-one.
The female entered at dusk, broader through the shoulders than Tom remembered. Her collar was almost hidden by the fur around her neck. She lowered her head to drink.
When she turned, the damaged paw touched the mud lightly. The familiar hitch moved through her shoulder, but she stepped over a fallen sycamore limb without hesitation.
The young male arrived a minute later.
At seventeen months, he was nearing the age when he might leave his mother. His black coat absorbed the evening until he turned toward the camera and the last light revealed his rosettes.
He drank downstream from the female. When she continued south, he remained beside the spring, watching the place where she had disappeared.
Then he crossed the fallen limb in her track and followed.
The camera held the empty water for twelve more seconds.
Leah replayed the recording once. Tom watched the female place her imperfect paw beyond the frame. He watched the young male choose the opening after her. Neither collar could tell them what would happen when he finally turned toward country of his own.
“Ready?” Leah asked.
Tom handed her the tablet.
She started up the trail. At the damaged wash, she took the direct route while Tom followed the longer curve through the trees. For several minutes they could not see each other, but they remained close enough to hear the other’s steps.
Below them, the spring continued moving over the stones.