On last day of court-ordered deadline, USFWS does not announce plan, but asks for an extension-
U.S. Fish and Wildlife misses deadline on jaguar recovery plan. By Susan Montoya Bryan. Associated Press.
Author
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan’s Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of “Hiking Idaho.” He also wrote “Beyond the Tetons” and “Backpacking Wyoming’s Teton and Washakie Wilderness.” He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
Comments
Ralph, I would love to see jaguars back. They are amazing big cats with the strongest jaws of any big cat living today.
March 09 issue of National Georaphic has an article “Path of the Jaguar” under the leadership of Alan Rabinowitz is working with various countries to establish preserves and travel corridors. The closest know population to US, w/50 or so Jaguars, is about 100 miles south of New Mexico. The conservation stragey is to indentify habitat with 50 or more animals and then attempt to link these places together with travel corridors. Several South American & central American counmtries have agreed support this effort.
Alan Rabinowitz, 20 plus years ago, radio collared Jaguars in Beliz and the end product was that Beliz set aside a 200 thousand acres for “watershed protection” with a by product of protecting habitat for about 200 Jaguars. Rabinowitz has also worked in Burma attempting to protect tiger habitat.
Costa Rica, a very progressive small country, is also doing more than their fair share in protecting Jaguar habitat. They discovered that Jaguars, from Mexico to Argentina, are genetically a single species, not a collection of subspecies. Rabinowitz, who I believe is dealing with cancer, has spent his life trying to save both the tiger & Jaguar.
I would also love to see jaguars back. This has the double whammy of being a large carnivore being protected as well as something on the border, which of course will get opinions on immigration into the mix.
Honestly, can the sky island ranges in the Southwest truly support these cats? Enough habitat? Enough tolerance?
I saw where the cats used to go all the way to the Gila; hard to believe. There is a good book called Borderlands Jaguars if you have an interest in the cats.
Rabinowitz has written 2 books about his experience w/Jaguars, I forget the name of his 1st book that documented his 3 plus years in Beliz but his newest book is “Jaguar”.
Vielfress, your question about habitat was briefly addressed in the Geographic article in that Jaguars are very good at utilizing narrow travel corridors that provide temporary security and a limited amount of prey that allows them to reach the larger more secure areas. The key is,of course, to have larger secure areas like the Big Bend NP and state park complex in Texas. Currently there are two major Jaguar areas south of the border without travel corridors linking the cat to Big Bend or Arizona.
Today’s NYT reports that the usfws has reversed their Bush policy on the jaguar. I was always puzzled by the position that a once common animal on the U.S landscape was denied protection because they don’t exist here any longer. With no protection and poachers, ranchers, and biologists all interfering they have no chance at survival here, and there is no guarantee that protecting them now will help them to survive.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/science/earth/13jaguar.html
Protecting the jaguar’s habitat will be a complicated challenge. The cats can range over hundreds of square miles to hunt prey, and ranchers have fiercely opposed protection.