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Reintroducing the Jaguar to the United States

956 Worldwide

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956 Worldwide

956 Worldwide 34909

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Some conservation groups are calling to reintroduce jaguars into Arizona and New Mexico.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/groups-call-reintroduction-jaguars-us-152052748.html

Put me down as hoping it happens.  I grew up in the Valley, which was one of the jaguar’s last hideouts in the U.S. They still prowled as late as the World War II era, which means that as a kid I knew old timers who had memories of them and would talk about them.  As a kid I badly wanted to believe that they were still lurking around the Laguna Atascosa NWR and when a ranger told me it just wasn’t possible I was crestfallen.  The RGV now could never host even a few, but I imagine the Big Bend could.

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TKthunder2

TKthunder2 5016

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Groups call for reintroduction of jaguars in US Southwest

Environmental groups and scientists with two universities want U.S. wildlife managers to consider reintroducing jaguars to the American Southwest

By

 SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press

May 16, 2021, 11:40 AM ET

• 4 min read

FILE - This Dec. 1, 2016 file image from video provided by Fort Huachuca shows a wild jaguar in southern Arizona. Environmental groups and scientists with two universities are suggesting that U.S. wildlife managers consider reintroducing jaguars to the American Southwest. In a recently published paper, they say habitat destruction, highways and existing segments of the border wall mean that natural reestablishment of the large cats north of the U.S.-Mexico boundary would be unlikely over the next century without human intervention. (Fort Huachuca via AP, File)The Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Environmental groups and scientists with two universities want U.S. wildlife managers to consider reintroducing jaguars to the American Southwest.

In a recently published paper, they say habitat destruction, highways and existing segments of the border wall mean that natural reestablishment of the large cats north of the U.S.-Mexico boundary would be unlikely over the next century without human intervention.

Jaguars are currently found in 19 countries, but biologists have said the animals have lost more than half of their historic range from South and Central America into the southwestern United States largely due to hunting and habitat loss.

Several individual male jaguars have been spotted in Arizona and New Mexicoover the last two decades but there’s no evidence of breeding pairs establishing territories beyond northern Mexico. Most recently, a male jaguar was spotted just south of the border and another was seen in Arizona in January.

Scientists and experts with the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Center for Landscape Conservation, Defenders of Wildlife, the Center for Biological Diversity and other organizations are pointing to about 3,125 square miles (nearly 8,100 square kilometers) of suitable habitat in the mountains of central Arizona and New Mexico that could potentially support anywhere from 90 to 150 jaguars.

They contend that reintroducing the cats is essential to species conservation and restoration of the region's ecosystem.

“We are attempting to start a new conversation around jaguar recovery, and this would be a project that would be decades in the making,” Sharon Wilcox of Defenders of Wildlife, one of the study’s authors, said in an interview. “There are ecological dimensions, human dimensions that would need to be addressed in a truly collaborative manner. There would need to be a number of stakeholders who would want to be at the table in order to see this project move forward.”

Under a recovery plan finalized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Mexico as well as countries in Central and South America are primarily responsible for monitoring jaguar movements within their territory. The agency has noted that the Southwestern U.S. represents just one-tenth of 1% of the jaguar's historic range.

Environmentalists have criticized the plan, saying the U.S. government overlooked opportunities for recovery north of the international border.

While the recovery plan doesn't call for reintroductions in the U.S., federal officials have said efforts will continue to focus on sustaining habitat, eliminating poaching and improving social acceptance to accommodate those cats that find their way across the border.

The habitat highlighted by the conservation groups is rugged and made up mostly of federally managed land. They say it includes water sources, suitable cover and prey.

Fish and Wildlife Service biologists have yet to review the latest study, but such a proposal would likely face fierce opposition from ranchers and some rural residents who have been at odds with environmentalists and the Fish and Wildlife Service over the reintroduction of Mexican gray wolves. That program has faced numerous challenges over the past two decades and while wolf numbers are trending upward, ranchers say so are livestock deaths.

Jaguar advocates said losses could be mitigated through compensation programs like those established as a result of the wolf program.

Then there's the question of where the jaguars would come from. Advocates say a captive breeding program could be developed over time and jaguars from existing wild populations could be relocated.

Wilcox said there are many factors — some understood and others still being studied — that influence the movement of jaguars.

“But this is a vast area with suitable vegetation,” she said. “It’s populated with the right kind of prey for these cats and given its elevation and its latitude, it might provide an important climate refugium for the species in the future.”

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956 Worldwide

956 Worldwide 34909

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42 minutes ago, fattyflattie said:

Why is that?  There are mountain lions in the area, that seem to do fine?   Apologies if it’s in the link, it wasn’t opening for me. 

They’re just bigger, stronger, more secretive animals than mountain lions and really can’t adapt to be near people like we’ve seen mountain lions do. And the Valley has a lot less uninterrupted wilderness. The brush country of north Cameron, Willacy, and Kleberg might have enough room to roam but they’d be eating cattle.

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Johnny Sack

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You would need to compensate ranchers for live stock losses.  But I’m a fan of all big cats.  I had a mountain lion in my sights at about 100 yards once in south Texas. I passed.  I think they are awesome creatures.  Only one I’ve ever seen in the wild. Wish I’d had a camera because the cat was broadside at 100 yards for a couple minutes.  
 

Only thing as surreal was seeing a Japanese Snow Monkey in Frio County eating corn under my feeder back in November of 1992.  

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deadshank

deadshank 24653

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Jaguars are big, very big, step up from mountain lions.   3rd biggest cat in the world and at the extreme top of the food chain in this hemisphere.  
 

Local Karen worry warts are at wits end over coyotes and an occasional bobcat.  Having a real live jaguar showing up in a neighborhood would be worth it for the shear pandelirium and Nextdoor posts alone. 

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32 minutes ago, deadshank said:

Jaguars are big, very big, step up from mountain lions.   3rd biggest cat in the world and at the extreme top of the food chain in this hemisphere.  
 

Local Karen worry warts are at wits end over coyotes and an occasional bobcat.  Having a real live jaguar showing up in a neighborhood would be worth it for the shear pandelirium and Nextdoor posts alone. 

Rick Perry shopping for laser-sighted LAWS rocket to go with his jogging togs. 

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fattyflattie

fattyflattie 4639

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3 hours ago, gsoda3 said:


 

 


Was it a pet?

 

Probably at some point they were. There was a video on this site not long ago about the monkeys in south Texas.    Everglades has a solid monkey population too, I’ve read. 

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El Diablo

El Diablo 4232

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16 hours ago, deadshank said:

Jaguars are big, very big, step up from mountain lions.   3rd biggest cat in the world and at the extreme top of the food chain in this hemisphere.  
 

Local Karen worry warts are at wits end over coyotes and an occasional bobcat.  Having a real live jaguar showing up in a neighborhood would be worth it for the shear pandelirium and Nextdoor posts alone. 

Spiral staircase salesmen, opportunity knocks. 

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idigTexas

idigTexas 2297

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9 hours ago, fattyflattie said:

Probably at some point they were. There was a video on this site not long ago about the monkeys in south Texas.    Everglades has a solid monkey population too, I’ve read. 

They aren't pets.  There is a sanctuary near Dilley, Texas.  Sometimes they escape. 

https://www.bornfreeusa.org/primate-sanctuary/

 

 

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105569

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What interesting timing.  Just a couple of nights ago, I had a vivid dream that I was out on a hunting trip with friends, and we heard and saw a big cat in the area at night.  Figuring that it was a mountain lion, I had a rifle and a spotlight to shine on it, ready to run it off and shoot if needed.  When the light hit it, I hollered to everyone "don't shoot!" because it was a jaguar.  We tried to get a photo, but it moved too fast into the brush.  But it was vivid and exciting -- to see a jaguar in Texas.  Super-realistic dream, about jaguars returning to the US.  Pretty cool.

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workswithseed

workswithseed 2139

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23 hours ago, Johnny Sack said:

You would need to compensate ranchers for live stock losses.  But I’m a fan of all big cats.  I had a mountain lion in my sights at about 100 yards once in south Texas. I passed.  I think they are awesome creatures.  Only one I’ve ever seen in the wild. Wish I’d had a camera because the cat was broadside at 100 yards for a couple minutes.  
 

Only thing as surreal was seeing a Japanese Snow Monkey in Frio County eating corn under my feeder back in November of 1992.  

https://www.theunticket.com/nolan-ryan-talks-about-snow-monkeys/

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