BUT WHERE’S THE JUSTIFICATION?
We asked the Director of the US Fish & Wildlife Service not to permit study-related capture of wild jaguars in the United States, given the recent tragic death of “Macho B,” uncertain capture-related risks, and the extreme rarity of the animals. Regional Director Benjamin Tuggle responded by saying that, while the agency currently has no permit applications to capture jaguars, it would nevertheless consider such. He did not provide our requested conservation justification for authorizing wild jaguar captures for research purposes. Read: our letter and the FWS reply .
Controversy heats up…
Should wildlife researchers be allowed to capture Southwest jaguars for study, given the risk of injury or death to the extremely rare animals? After the capture-related death of “Macho B” in Arizona earlier this year, we asked the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to suspend its authorization of the activity.
We applaud The Arizona Daily Star (Tucson) for questioning the practice, and reporting on other recent research-related deaths of jaguars in nearby Mexico.
The capture and handling of Southwest jaguars, a critically endangered species, can be justified only in terms of essential conservation benefits, clearly absent in this case.
We are requesting written justification from the Service for continuing authorization of jaguar captures (Ltr to USFWS_6-17-09).
We challenge the Arizona Game and Fish Department to take the lead, as Arizona’s public wildlife agency, to secure habitat for jaguar in southern Arizona over the next 3-5 years, and to commit to restoring the jaguar as a native species of the Southwest. Read our letters to AGFD and their replies:
The jaguar known as “Macho B” was euthanized less than 2 weeks after he had been captured and radio-collared for study by the Arizona Game and Fish Department (see news story). The news was very hard to take.
Barring a remarkable coincidence, the trauma and handling of capture led to his death. Macho B was an older male (15-16 years) but apparently healthy when captured. He reportedly was caught in a trap set for a study on black bear and mountain lion, an equally remarkable coincidence given that he is one of very few jaguars documented in Arizona over the past decade.
The Jaguar Habitat Campaign opposes capturing jaguars in the U.S. for scientific purposes, given how rare they are today, and given the risk associated with capture (especially for older animals).
In truth, we already know what jaguars need to recover their numbers in the Southwest: safe wild areas to live in and preserved habitat movement corridors across the landscape. In other words, an end to the destruction of what remains of jaguar habitat.
We ask the US Fish and Wildlife Service to suspend authorization to state wildife agencies to capture jaguars letter_3-9-09. The Service needs to get on with a jaguar recovery plan, as required under the US Endangered Species Act.
Less manipulation and more preservation of nature is what the jaguar desparately needs.
We call on Interior Secreatary and President Obama for a federal jaguar recovery program. letter 3-6-09
Captured and radio collared just recently, he’s an older but healthy male (known as Macho B) who has been for years studied by remote trail cameras. Tracking him by satellite every few hours, researchers under the Arizona Game and Fish Department will learn more about this travels and preferred habitat areas. It is, however, disingenuous for the agency to capture (there is always a risk of injury or death) and study jaguars, while ignoring the need to develop a recovery plan and protect habitat for them.
What Macho B will ultimately confirm for us is that he needs safe and secure habitats, and a mate. So why are the Arizona Game and Fish Department and the US Fish and Wildlife Service dragging their heels despite all the urging from us and others to get on with a genuine jaguar recovery program? It’s about time for new attitudes and leadership from these agencies!
A Young Mountain Lion is blocked by the US-Mexico Border Fence
I can't seem to get where I need to go...
It's like some huge monster blocking me from my habitat...
I am hurt and angry. Is this just a bad dream?
For the jaguar it is a nightmare. The border fence could isolate the few animals that currently live along the US-Mexico borderlands and prevent jaguar population recovery. Contact decisionmakers.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) replies to our request not to block jaguar movement between the U.S. and Mexico.
We recently wrote to Michael Chertoff, Secretary of DHS, 
requesting that the agency ensure the movement of jaguars between the U.S. and Mexico by avoiding construction of an impenetrable fence in key wildlife corridors. We received a letter of reply from Gregory Giddens, Executive Director, of DHS’s Secure Border Initiative (click below to read the letter).
The letter argues with rather peculiar logic that because there are few jaguars left in the United States we need not worry about blocking key wildlife travel corridors between the US and Mexico. But how else can jaguars naturally rebuild their numbers in Arizona and New Mexico if the animals are not allowed to disperse into the U.S. from nearby Sonora, Mexico?
Mr. Giddens assures us that DHS will work to minimize impacts to jaguars — but provides no specifics.
In short, the DHS has rejected our request that it allow the movement of jaguars between the U.S. and Mexico by not building a pedestrian-type fence in key wildlife movement corridors along the border.
This means that the decision to go ahead with fencing that will block the jaguar and other wildlife will have to be overturned politically with the arrival of a new president and congress in 2009. You and I, all of us who care about jaguars and other wildlife, indeed have work cut out. Get ready…our voices need to be heard!
Our letter: chertoff_letter6-27-08
DHS reply: dhsreply
See our letters (click below) to the US Department of Homeland Security and to the Governor of Arizona on border fencing that would harm the jaguar.
Please back these up with your own…(and send us a copy or post them to this blog)… Let ‘em hear our collective roar for the jaguar!
Michael Chertoff, Secreatary of the US Department of Homeland Security chertoff_letter6-27-08
US Customs and Border Patrol us-customs_letter6-30-08
Governor Napolitano of Arizona letter-to-az-governor6-27-08
