Sweetwater Wetlands

12/02/22 - 02/02/23

Sweetwater Wetlands is one of my favorite places to go for a walk and photograph wildlife. Unfortunately, this winter wasn't the best for the wildlife photography. Many of the ponds were dry, so there weren't many waterfowl around. Most of my visits ended up with only a handfull of photographs taken.

The wetlands were also a great place to see bobcats. There was one in particular tht the locals called "mama" since she had raised many litters of kits in the wetlands. She also was very tolerant of people and I've had her walk within a few feet of me on multiple occasions. But when I got here this winter, the locals were up in arms because some researchers had come in and put a radio collar on her. Then, a few weeks later, she was hit by a car and died a few days later. The researchers are getting a lot of flak since it came out that 10 of the 31 bobcats they've collared in the Tucson area have died. Is that a normal mortality rate? Or are they causing the bobcats to chamge their behavior and/or home territory which causes new dangers to them?