Thread: Feds to Set Aside Habitat for Jaguar Recovery (U.S./Mexico)

Jan 12, 7:41 PM EST

Feds to set aside habitat for jaguar recovery

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN
Associated Press Writer

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday it will set aside critical habitat for the endangered jaguar and develop a recovery plan for the elusive animal once thought to have disappeared from the United States.

The agency said it will review which lands the big cats need to survive and will put together a plan by early next year to help the species recover.

Conservationists had been anxiously awaiting the decisions on the recovery plan and critical habitat since last Friday, when a federal court had imposed a deadline for the agency. The court granted a last-minute extension, giving the Fish and Wildlife Service until the end of Tuesday.

"This is a huge boost for recovery because it means the best scientists and best minds on how to conserve jaguars will come together and figure out how to restore them onto our landscapes," said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups that has been seeking critical habitat for the jaguar for more than a decade.

Robinson and other conservationists saw the case as a test of whether the Obama administration would take extra steps to protect animals whose ranges stretch beyond the nation's borders.

The largest cats native to the Western hemisphere, jaguars live primarily in Mexico, Central and South America. They once inhabited an extensive area that spanned California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Louisiana.

The cats were considered eliminated from the country until two were spotted in 1996 near the Arizona-New Mexico border.

Most recently, a snare captured a jaguar last year in southern Arizona. Nicknamed Macho B, the cat was eventually euthanized after falling ill, sparking criticism over jaguar recovery efforts.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday that it decided to set aside critical habitat for the jaguar based on new information it received over the last three years. It acknowledged that there are "physical and biological features" in the Southwest that can be used by jaguars.

While the boundaries of the critical habitat have yet to be set, Eva Sargent of Defenders of Wildlife said protecting an animal's range is key to recovery.

"What the jaguar really needs is protected corridors where it can move between Mexico and the U.S. That's the ticket," she said, adding there is some concern over how construction of a wall between Mexico and the U.S. could impact the jaguar population.

Some landowners in southern New Mexico and Arizona also voiced concerns about how critical habitat may impact grazing permits and recreation in the area.

Caren Cowan, executive director of the New Mexico Cattle Growers' Association, questioned why critical habitat was being established at the fringe of where the animal might survive. She said if the goal is to recover the species, more effort should be focused on populations in Mexico and further south.

Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Tom Buckley said it will be a long process for establishing the habitat boundaries and developing a recovery plan and the effort will include opportunities for public participation.

The agency said it has no plans to reintroduce jaguars into the United States. Any cats that might be found north of the border will be those that wander up from Mexico.

From 1996 through 2009, four or possibly five jaguars have been documented in the United States. All the sightings have been limited to southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/ ... TE=DEFAULT

If you object to having "protected corridors" opened up between Mexico and the United States to try to establish a permanent U.S. Southwestern "habitat" for the four to five jaguars which wandered across the border from Mexico into Arizona and New Mexico during a period of 13 years:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency
Divison of Policy and Directives Management
Link to "Feedback/Contact PDM" email form:
http://www.fws.gov/policy/

The point of this clearly is to establish a legal precedent, and far more drug dealers, human traffickers, and illegal aliens are going to use these "protected corridors" than lost jaguars, because I'm sure the U.S. Border Patrol will not be allowed to patrol them.

Oh, No: because "Macho B" was intentionally snared by the Arizona Fish and Game Dept., this one incident will be blown up by environmental activist professionals to make the U.S. "the enemy" of protected jaguars, and U.S. taxpayers will be required to pay and pay and pay....

Report: Last US Jaguar Died After Illegal Trapping

Updated: 56 minutes ago

Dave Thier (sic) Contributor

(Jan. 26) -- The United States' last resident jaguar was euthanized last February by the Arizona Fish and Game Department after being caught in a trap intended for mountain lions and bears – or so it seemed at the time.

Now comes a report from the U.S. Interior Department's inspector general stating that the jaguar, a 118-pound male named Macho B, was in fact intentionally and illegally snared by employees of the Arizona Game and Fish Department, contrary to their earlier claims that the capture was accidental.

The jaguar seemed to be in good health when he was caught in a leg snare last February. Arizona Fish and Game employees tranquilized him, equipped him with a radio collar and released him. A few days later Macho B wasn't moving. He was brought to the Phoenix Zoo where he was diagnosed with irreversible kidney failure and euthanized, ending the long history of the United States' wild jaguar population with a whimper.


Arizona Game & Fish Dept
Macho B was collared and tracked by the Arizona Game & Fish Department before the incident that led to his death.

The biggest cat in the Western Hemisphere used to occupy a swath of territory from California to Tierra Del Fuego, but today it is limited mostly to northern and central South America – only one female jaguar with a cub has been sighted in the United States since the 1900's. Like other top predators, the jaguar is especially vulnerable to habitat loss, and has been on the endangered list since 1997.

The investigation of Macho B's death comes shortly after the Obama administration gave the jaguar federal protection by announcing plans for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to establish a critical habitat for the recovery of the species in the Southwestern desert. While some hailed this decision as a step forward for the protection of an endangered species, others believed that the jaguars have left the U.S. because the climate is no longer right for them, and an attempt to bring them back would be misguided and expensive, drawing attention away from better ways to help jaguars.

According to a New York Times op-ed by author and jaguar biologist Alan Rabinowitz, Macho B's extensive travels indicated that he was having a rough time surviving in the rugged desert.

Following Macho B's capture in February 2009 but before his death a few days later, Arizona biologist John M. Lynch blogged about how the opportunity to study this strange animal was a boon to desert jaguar researchers – and it likely could have provided good information about the jaguar's place in the United States. Now, the efforts of the Fish and Wildlife Service will help to determine whether jaguars belong here.

http://www.sphere.com/article/last-wild ... g/19330987