Reintroduction of Jaguars in Southwest US Petition Underway to Boost Dwindling Populations

Environmentalists are requesting that jaguars be reintroduced to the southwest US. The goal is to increase the species' declining populations.

The jaguar once roamed the Southwest for several hundred thousand years before it was reduced to just one of the big cats still living there, according to a petition submitted to the US Fish and Wildlife Service on Monday.

Since being first seen in a wildlife video taken in the Dos Cabezas Mountains in 2016, the male jaguar known as Sombra, or "shadow" in Spanish, has been spotted several times in southern Arizona, including in a 2017 video by the Center for Biological Diversity. The Mexican state of Sonora is home to a small number of jaguars that are known to exist.

The center is asking the government to support the creation of an experimental population in the Gila National Forest in New Mexico near the Arizona border and the expansion of crucial jaguar habitat in isolated areas.

North American Native Species: Jaguar

Michael J. Robinson, a Center for Biological Diversity senior conservation advocate, wrote to Deb Haaland, secretary of the interior, and Martha Williams, head of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Robinson said that there is no need to consider the possibility that this single jaguar in Arizona might be the last since it has been more than 50 years since the jaguar was listed as an endangered species.

Robinson said This might be a fantastic chance to bring back a native species that has been absent for hundreds of thousands of years but deserves to do so.

Before being hunted to near-extinction for their beautiful spotted pelts and to protect livestock, jaguars once roamed all of North America.

According to National Geographic, threats to jaguars include habitat fragmentation and unlawful killing. The high rates of deforestation in South and Central America for agriculture, grazing land, and other purposes have not only destroyed but also fragmented the jaguars' habitat. Because of fragmented forests, cats are confined to small areas of forest and are unable to move far in search of a mate. Inbreeding as well as local extinctions can result from that kind of isolation.

In addition to poaching, ranchers' reprisal killings pose a threat to jaguars.

Reintroduction and Genetic Diversity

Robinson stated that if nothing is done, efforts to save the declining jaguar population in Mexico, which depends on mating with a new population of big cats in the north, could also be negatively impacted.

Jaguar populations are declining across many continents, from South America to Mexico. Through a program that involves breeding them in captivity and releasing them, they are being returned to their historic range in Argentina.

Robinson said that people often overlook or are unaware that the jaguar originated in North America, spanning from the Pacific to the Atlantic, before moving south, FOX10 reports.

A letter the center sent to Arizona Governor Doug Ducey on October 19 expressed concerns about the future of the jaguar and gave his administration a 60-day notice of its intention to sue to stop the ongoing set-up of shipping containers following the US-Mexico border.

According to the letter, one of the last defined corridors for jaguars and ocelots in between the countries is the San Rafael Valley in southeast Arizona, Yahoo News reports.