Enviros: northern Arizona could be home to jaguars
By CYNDY COLE
Sun Staff Reporter
Thursday, August 30, 2007
The federal government should help the largest cat that ever roamed this continent thrive again, an environmental group contends, and possibly bring the species to Flagstaff.
The endangered jaguar, or Panthera onca, once lived from California and the Grand Canyon to the Carolinas and Florida before declining due to hunting and other human activities, the Center for Biological Diversity stated.
Federally listed as endangered in 1997 after an 18-year legal battle, only four individual animals have been spotted in the last decade, near the Arizona-Mexico border.
The group has proposed designating land on the Navajo Nation, Grand Canyon and around Flagstaff as special habitat for the cats.
This could allow the jaguar to migrate north from Mexico, or be a basis for reintroduction efforts.
The cats, known for their tan spots ringed by black circles, can reach up to 300 pounds.
"Jaguars are powerful but shy," said Michael Robinson, of the center. "They are retiring, elusive animals with exquisite camouflage for hiding in dappled sunlight or foliage. After more than a century of persecution, a few still survive in southern Arizona and New Mexico."
Jaguars are larger than cougars and have been known to fight with cougars, though the species share some of the same territory in Mexico.
"We're not talking about replacing mountain lions with jaguars," Robinson said.
The Center for Biological Diversity sued the Interior Department and Fish and Wildlife Service earlier this month, asking the group to designate up to 62 million acres of habitat in Arizona and New Mexico and to take other actions to restore the species a decade after the cat was first listed as endangered.
The Interior Department has repeatedly declined to designate this habitat, saying it isn't prudent. In one instance the department said the cats would more likely be illegally hunted and killed if poachers knew where to find them.
Earlier this year the Fish and Wildlife Service again said it wasn't working on any plan to boost jaguar populations.
The last known female jaguar in the United States was killed on the Mogollon Rim in 1963, Robinson said.
The American Society of Mammologists, a group of about 600 biologists from around the country, also called for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to write a plan to bring jaguars back to the Southwest, saying more northerly territory could be vital in their survival due to global warming.
"Habitats for jaguars 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," the group said.
Fossils from the state of Washington, Nebraska and Maryland indicate that the jaguar evolved in North America, spread south to colonize Central and South America, then moved out of its far northernmost range, perhaps as recently as 15,000 years ago.
In historic times jaguars ranged from California, as far north as Monterey Bay, east all the way to the Carolinas.
Other groups have proposed reintroducing wolves near the Grand Canyon.
Cyndy Cole can be reached at 913-8607 or at ccole@azdailysun.com.
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