There has been a lot happening with jaguars in the southwest United States. The jaguar is the largest cat in the western hemisphere and the third largest cat in the world (Panthera Jaguar, 2020; WWF Top 10 Jaguar, 2020). Jaguars used to roam from the southern western United States all the way down to almost the tip of Argentina. They have been eradicated from 40% of historic range and are extinct in two countries; Uruguay and El Salvador (Panthera Panthera onca, 2020). It is believed that there has not been a breeding jaguar population in the United States in over 50 years (Panthera Jaguar, 2020).
On Wednesday January 27, 2021 a federal judge ruled that two sections of native jaguar habitat in New Mexico should no longer be designated as critical habitat for jaguars (Prieskop, 2021). The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) designated six native jaguar habitat areas as critical habitat in 2014 in Arizona and New Mexico (Prieskop, 2021). The New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau, New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association and New Mexico Federal Lands Council sued the Department of Interior and the USFWS in 2015 claiming that since there are no proven jaguar breeding populations in the United States the land should be open for grazing (Prieskop, 2021). In May 2020 a lawsuit was filed claiming the planned U.S. - Mexico border wall would completely kill off the jaguar population in the United States (Prieskop, 2021). This could damage the potential jaguar population in New Mexico, but there is some exciting news to celebrate.
A jaguar has been spotted on a trail camera in southeast Arizona (Price, 2021). Exciting for our small cats, an ocelot was also spotted on a trail camera in Arizona (Price, 2021). On January 6th the jaguar was spotted on camera and it seems to be the same jaguar who was seen in November 2016 (Price, 2021). Since 1996 there have only been seven male jaguars seen in the United States, all in southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico (Price, 2021). Conservation CATalyst has more information on the jaguar and ocelot that were spotted in Arizona earlier this month.
Jaguars are currently listed as near threatened with a decreasing population trend, on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List (IUCN Jaguar, 2020). Visit our jaguar page to learn more. You can help jaguars by ensuring they have sufficient native habitat.
Literature Cited:
Conservation CATalyst. (2016, September 14). Exclusive video of El Jefe Americas only known
wild jaguar by conservation catalyst [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/dK9e2eXf904
Panthera. (2020). Jaguar. https://www.panthera.org/cat/jaguar
Panthera. (2020). Jaguar: Panthera onca.
file:///C:/Users/reedt/Downloads/Jaguar%20Fact%20Sheet%20(4).pdf
Price, M. (2021, January 29). Rarely seen jaguar reported in 2016 shows up again in southeast
Arizona. The Sacramento Bee. https://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article248863799.html
Prieskop, V. (2021, January 27). Jaguars no longer have protected land in New Mexico.
Courthouse News Service. https://www.courthousenews.com/jaguars-no-longer-have-protected-land-in-new-mexico/
Reed, T. (2020, August 6). [Jaguar at the San Diego Zoo] [Photograph].
World Wildlife Fund. (2020). Top 10 facts about jaguars.
Comments