Wildlife advocates want more critical habitat for jaguars

Posted on October 20, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Photo courtesy Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, via Wikipedia and the Creative Commons.

Feds plan to finalize critical habitat designation by the end of the year

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — A federal plan to designate more than 800,000 acres of critical habitat for endangered jaguars in the southwestern U.S. may not go far enough to ensure recovery for the wild cats, according to conservation activists. The USFWS proposal, including comment information, is posted online here.

”The best habitat for American jaguars lies in the vast and rugged Gila National Forest in New Mexico and adjoining pine forests in Arizona,” said Michael Robinson, a wildlife conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, which this week  filed a detailed 55-page comment letter with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week, urging the agency to add more habitat to the designation.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service has a moral duty to protect these special places, where jaguars once lived and which they should be able to call home again. Recovering jaguars in this region, so full of wilderness, will bolster the genetic strength of the struggling jaguar population in northern Mexico, too, helping to ensure that these great cats will always share our country with us,” Robinson said. (more…)

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Biodiversity: Feds propose critical habitat for jaguars

Posted on August 18, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Photo courtesy Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, via Wikipedia and the Creative Commons.

Public comment sought on plan to protect 838,000 acres in Arizona and New Mexico

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — After outlining a vision for a jaguar conservation and recovery plan last month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed designating more than 800,000 acres as critical habitat for the endangered cats.

Jaguars were listed as an endangered species in the U.S. in 1972. Internationally, they are listed as near-threatened on the IUCN Red List.

According to some recent estimates, there may be as many as 30,000 jaguars total across their range in South America and Central America, with between 3,000 and 4,000 in Mexico.

Populations thin out toward the northern end of the range, with populations in the Mexican states of Colima and Jalisco north through Nayarit, Sinaloa, southwestern Chihuahua, and Sonora to the border with the U.S.

Conservation advocates said the critical habitat designation could help restore native jaguar populations to southern Arizona and New Mexico. (more…)

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