Conservationists: Jaguar Recovery Abandoned in Favor of Border Wall

"The decision also seeks to circumvent the Endangered Species Act from slowing Bush administration plans to build thousands of miles of wall on the U.S.-Mexico border without environmental review. The wall will short-circuit current efforts by jaguars to recolonize the United States," said Michael Robinson of the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity.

The jaguar was listed as an endangered species throughout its range in 1997, requiring that the Fish and Wildlife Service develop a recovery plan and designate critical habitat. Because the agency did neither, the Center for Biological Diversity filed suit. The lawsuit is active at this time.

In his decision, Hall wrote, "The recovery of the species as a whole depends on conservation efforts in Mexico and Central and South America and we believe that formal recovery planning for the jaguar should be exempted..."

The United States contains a small fraction of the individuals and available habitat of the jaguar, Hall reasoned. "The vast majority of the jaguar's geographic distribution occurs south of the United States. Recovery of the jaguar must be focused on its core range outside of the United States jurisdiction."

Robinson counters, "If the U.S. can work across borders to develop an international recovery plan for the whooping crane, why can't it do so for the jaguar? Perhaps it's because the Bush administration is dead set on walling off the U.S.-Mexico border."

Further, Hall wrote, "Substantial protection for the northern Mexico population of jaguars, which extends within the borders of the United States, can be gained through supporting the existing voluntary approach of the JAGCT [Jaguar Conservation Team] and other programs, and by fostering incentive-based approaches to conservation."

A jaguar, nicknamed Macho B, caught in a camera trap in the United States by the Borderland Jaguar Detection Project. (Photo courtesy Phoenix Zoo)

In June 2007, more than 500 members of the American Society of Mammalogists met in Albuquerque and unanimously passed a resolution calling on the Fish and Wildlife Service to develop a recovery plan for the jaguar. The resolution concluded that "Habitats for the jaguar in the United States, including Arizona and New Mexico, are vital to the long-term resilience and survival of the species, especially in response to ongoing climate change."

Dr. Joe Cook, professor of biology at the University of New Mexico and board member of the American Society of Mammalogists, pointed out that historically, the United States has taken a leadership role in international conservation. "Unfortunately, this decision is consistent with an abdication of leadership in the field of conservation of wildlife over the past seven years," he said.

The Fish and Wildlife Service decision invoked a 2004 policy stating that recovery plans need not be prepared for species whose "historic and current ranges occur entirely under the jurisdiction of other countries." The jaguar, however, historically ranged from Monterey Bay, California, to the Appalachian Mountains, and currently occurs in southern Arizona and New Mexico.

Hall's decision also asserts that "actions taken within the United States are likely to benefit a small number of individual jaguars peripheral to the species, with little potential to affect recovery of the species as a whole" and that conservation plans outside the United States are adequate to recover the species.

"If this same logic had applied previously, there would never have been a recovery plan written that resulted in reintroduction of gray wolves to the Yellowstone National Park or the Southwest," said Robinson.

He argues that Hall's rationale is contradicted by the decision's statement that conservation plans outside the United States "have thus far fallen short in stemming the decline of the jaguar."

"If the U.S. cannot make a genuine effort to conserve the jaguar within our borders than how can we ask developing countries to step up to the plate to support this vital part of their fauna?" asked Dr. Cook.

Four jaguars, all presumed to be male and migrants from Mexico, have been photographed in southern Arizona and New Mexico since 1996, Robinson says.

One of them, nicknamed Macho B, identifiable by the unique pattern of rosettes on his fur, has been photographed multiple times over a period extending for more than 10 years in the United States. Many other unconfirmed accounts of jaguars have also been reported.

The last female jaguar confirmed in the United States was shot by a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service predator control agent in the Apache National Forest in 1963.

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