Jaguars Along the Borderlands

Jaguars Along the Borderlands
by William E. Van Pelt, Nongame Mammals Program Manager
Arizona Fish and Game Department
In March 1996, on the fourth
day of what was a planned 10-day
mountain lion hunt, hunting guide
Warner Glenn took what is believed
to be the first photograph of a live
jaguar in the wild in the United
States. Jack Childs, another Arizona
houndsman, accomplished a
similar feat in the
Baboquivari
mountains
five
months later, except Childs
also obtained a video tape.
When people first heard
about jaguars being photographed in Arizona they did
not believe it. They would call
my office asking if a jaguar
actually was running free in
Arizona. Many thought it was
Like many large predators at the
turn of the century, jaguars were
relentlessly pursued and controlled to
protect livestock. Being a top
predator, jaguars were described as
fearless. They were susceptible to
hunting with dogs, trapping, and
© 2004 Emil McCain
© 2004 Emil McCain
a hoax or a staged event in order to
gain notoriety. These people, unfamiliar with Arizona wildlife, thought
the jaguar was a captive animal and
was turned loose. It certainly came as
a surprise to many of them when I
said that jaguars actually occur naturally here in Arizona. Even today, I
still hear the skepticism in their voice
about my answer.
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poisoning. Because of
the low numbers associated with a species at
the fringe of its range,
resident populations of
jaguars proved to be
quite simple to eliminate from the United
States. Jaguars have
been killed in the
United
States
as
recently as 1986, when a male jaguar
was shot in the Dos Cabeza Mountains in southeastern Arizona.
For example, since 1848, the
total number of jaguar records
(known specimens, killings reported,
and credible sight records) from
Arizona is in the neighborhood of 84.
This number includes adult females
and groups of animals, which
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suggests a resident population.
However, the more recent records
(post 1960) are largely, if not entirely,
of young males, suggesting dispersal
from a core population that is persisting somewhere in Sonora, Mexico.
With numbers so low, it was
assumed the jaguar would
be included on the list of
endangered species when
the Endangered Species
Act was first drafted in
1973. However, due to an
administrative oversight,
the jaguar and six other
endangered species were
not included on the list.
Although the United States
Fish and Wildlife Service
attempted to remedy this
error in 1979, the jaguar
once again was not listed
because the Service could not complete the listing as required by the
Act. It would take another 10 years
and a petition from the American
Southwest Sierra Institute/Lifenet,
before the Service looked at federally
listing the species again. However,
while the jaguar was moving through
the listing process, Congress enacted
a moratorium prohibiting work on
listing actions in April 1995. It was
not until the spring of 1996, that
presidential waiver lifted the moratorium.
While the Federal government
was again starting up the listing
process for the jaguar, the states of
Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas
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Jaguars Along the Borderlands
(Continued from Page 4)
began discussing the need for a traveled to Brazil to collect information on jaguar depredation on
conservation agreement for jaguars,
but before drafting an agreement, livestock and published a book on
jaguar sign. Working group members
Texas decided not to continue with
are also monitoring remote-census
this effort. In 1997, Arizona and New
cameras in mountain ranges recently
Mexico held nine public meetings to
occupied by jaguars. This has
solicit comments and support for an
agreement. In March 1997, along allowed for the documentation of
two, possibly three, individual
with 17 federal, state, and local
jaguars using parts of Arizona from
governments, the Arizona and New
December 2001 to January 2005.
Mexico Game and Fish Departments
Other activities that have been
submitted a final agreement for the
Service to consider while making a initiated for jaguar conservation
include Malpai Borderland Groupʼs
determination for the jaguar listing.
depredation fund and Arizona
At the heart of the Jaguar
Houndsmanʼs $5,000 reward for
Conservation Agreement is the
development of strong
public-private partnerships using innovative
and adaptive management to conserve the
jaguar in Arizona and
New Mexico. The Conservation
Agreement
established a Conservation Team and Working
Group to initiate conservation activities. Members of these groups –
some of which were
nemeses of the jaguar,
© 2004 Emil McCain
such as the livestock and
hunting interest groups –
information leading to the arrest and
were brought in to help conserve the
conviction of any person who
species. This has proven to be a valuintentionally kills a jaguar. These
able enterprise.
cooperators were also crucial in
Early on, the Jaguar Conservation Team recognized the lack of lobbying for state laws that would
protect the jaguar once it is taken off
information about these cats and has
the Endangered Species list. The
been aggressive at collecting sound
continued cooperation exhibited by
scientific data about jaguars. In 1998,
this team demonstrates that individumembers from the working group
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www.cougarnet.org
als with different agendas can work
together for the common good.
These conservation efforts in
Arizona are actually contributing a
larger Pan-American initiative that
was initiated by the Wildlife Conservation Society. In March 1999, a
workshop was held in Morelos,
Mexico, to discuss research and problems facing jaguar conservation both
on a national and international level.
Here, jaguar researchers identified
and prioritized jaguar research and
conservation needs to assure the
survival of the species into the new
millennium.
For the continued
existence of the jaguar
in the United States,
conservation must begin
in Mexico. One of the
highest priorities identified at the workshop
was determining the
source population for
dispersing animals that
are periodically showing up in Arizona and
New Mexico. Once this
is accomplished, protection for the habitat and
travel corridors needs to
be implemented. This is
no small feat considering a jaguar
may need to occupy 500 square miles
of habitat, can travel great distances
in short periods of time, and will
crisscross an international border at
will. Continued collaboration with
our Mexican counterparts is necessary if we hope to have jaguars roaming the borderlands.
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