A federal judge in New Mexico has sided with ranchers and miners in ruling that 765,00 acres of land could no longer be protected as critical habitat for the jaguar. The US Fish & Wildlife Service designated the area in southeaswtern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico in 2914 in the hopes that Mexican jaguars in search of territory would migrate north across the border. At least six males have been documented in the US borderlands in the last two decades. No females have been recorded in the US range since 1963. Consequently the legal decision agreed with conservation opponents that the protections were "arbitrary and capricious". For years ranchers complained that the protections made it harded to obtain grazing permits and build infrastructure such as corrals and fencing.
Panathera onca is now primarily a tropical species. About 4,000 of the 15,000 estimated number are thought to remain in Mexico's southernmost states. But once jaguars roamed as far north as the Grand Canyon and Arizona's Gila Wilderness. Today, the closest breeding population in Sonora's Sierra Madre about 125 miles south of Douglas, Arizona. A non-profit, the Northern Jaguar Project, has been successful in creating a reserve with the cooperation of surrounding ranches. As many as 120 jaguars roam there. Going north is perilous--fraught with dangers from drug smuggling and habitat destruction. The impact of a partially built human immigration barrier will also have an adverse effect on any northward migrations. The terrain is difficult with little water, and jaguar females tend to state close to their mother's territory. Still, the males have showed up across the border. It may be a only a matter of time before and intrepid female crosses the line in search of a home. A female black bear did the same thing in Texas' Big Bend in the seventies. Now there is a breeding population of bears in Texas once again. If a female bear can do this, so can a female jaguar. For northward jaguar migration to happen naturally may take 60-85 years. Consideration should be given to relocating several females from the Sonoran group to suitable habitat across the boarder. Relocation would make it more difficult to oppose any future critical habitat designation as well as improve genetic diversity.
The Arizona Game & Fish Department opposed the critical habitat designation, claiming the presence of males in the state was incidental, not worthy of a conservation response. Conservationists think otherwise. The federal wildlife agency lost three lawsuits, forcing it to formulate a recovery plan and designate critical habitat, despite the opinion of conservationist Alan Rabinowitz, former CEO of Panthera, who expressed in a 2010 essay, that funds were better spent preserving the species in Latin America. The Center for Biological Diversity said it will ask the Biden Administration to "carefully redesignate the jaguar's critical habitat so it can withstand the livestock industry's cynical lawsuits."Because after all, jaguar lives matter.
[photo credit: Northern Jaguar Project; Sonoran female named Ali Lopes]
