AUGUST 30, 2007 The great American cat fi ght

BY MORGAN HEIM single male patrolling an area of up to on more than 60 different occasions, 50 square miles. Sometimes females either through remote photography, Phantom cat of forest and desert, and their kittens will share a male’s scat or paw-print identifi cation. the slinks through its habitat, but other trespassing cats surroundings, an optical illusion of tend to face fi erce punishment. This But the jaguar’s numbers are too tawny, sun-dappled fur. It manifests sizeable cat, the world’s third largest low to warrant recovery, according and evaporates with hardly a trace after the and tiger, remains to the Fish and Wildlife Service. amid the darkness of South American largely a mystery, but one thing is In 2003, the Center for Biological rainforests and the shattered canyons certain: It has a bite to die for. The Diversity sued the agency after of the arid Southwest. jaguar’s jaws are so strong that it can offi cials determined that conservation crush an animal’s skull with a single of the animal’s habitat was “not By the 1980s, however, a century of well-placed chomp, and it’s a virtual prudent.” The courts ordered Fish predator control, hunting and habitat “omni-cat”, hunting anything from and Wildlife to review the issue. The loss had virtually wiped out the cat in fi sh to deer and even the occasional agency did so, returning with the “too the . The Southwestern crocodile. Unfortunately, however, few to conserve” reasoning. “A lot jaguar became just a legend until its menu also sometimes includes of people cloud the issue,” says Bill 1996, when Warren Glenn spotted livestock. Van Pelt, non-game bird and mammal one while hunting in the program manager for Arizona Game backcountry. Six months later, Jack As cattle ranching spread West, and Fish, “because they start looking Childs and his hounds chased another the federal government ramped up at individuals versus the population up a tree. Those discoveries earned predator control, shooting, trapping of the species.” the cat endangered species status a and poisoning and other year later, but with that listing came carnivores. Between 1885 and 1959, Establishing habitat in the United little real protection. records for the Southern United States States will not ensure the cat’s show 45 jaguars killed, with at least survival, says Van Pelt, because no Then this June, nearly 600 biologists, 13 more by the turn of the millenium. viable breeding population exists members of the American Society of The fur trade also contributed to the here. The fi ve U.S. jaguars are part Mammalogists, signed a resolution wild cat’s decline, and more recently, of the Northern population, which calling for the designation of critical spreading development has fractured occurs mostly in Mexico. About jaguar habitat and a plan for the cat’s its habitat. 100 more live in the central Sonoran recovery. And earlier this month, Desert, some 130 miles south of the the nonprofi t Center for Biological The jaguar’s small numbers and border. “The evidence that we ever Diversity sued the U.S. Fish and solitary life make studying the animal had (a breeding population in the Wildlife Service, demanding the diffi cult. Since its rediscovery, only U.S.) is anecdotal at best,” he says. agency designate habitat and develop fi ve individuals, all male, have been “Conservation efforts need to be a recovery plan. spotted in New Mexico and Arizona. focused in Mexico.” However, every year, as survey Historically, jaguars ranged from methods improve, researchers report That kind of thinking is “deliberate South America to the Grand Canyon more sightings. Those fi ve known amnesia,” says Michael Robinson of and from California to the Carolinas. jaguars have so far been recorded the Center for Biological Diversity. They roam broad territories, with a “The government spent untold amounts of money trapping and New Mexico appointed a volunteer- representative Craig Miller, the killing jaguars in the U.S., and now based Jaguar Conservation Team to contest has ranchers joking that the can’t remember they were native.” assess the cat’s status and oversee cats are more valuable than their conservation. Critics say the team has livestock. Other endangered species such as squabbled with private organizations the and the aplomado over how best to manage jaguars Last summer, the Jaguar Conservation falcon once shared the American and has done little to save the cats Team presented an outline for saving jaguar’s dilemma, but both have from threats like an impassable the jaguar that supports the work received greater protection under border fence. In response, several of other groups and focuses on the Endangered Species Act. Thanks independent organizations have habitat conservation in Mexico. But to reintroduction programs, lynx in begun their own recovery efforts. concentrating only on Mexico would Colorado now number about 200, The Defenders of Wildlife helped be a mistake, warns Robinson: “By and two self-sustaining populations set up the international Jaguar doing this, we’re writing off our own of aplomado falcon live in Texas, Guardian Program to monitor jaguar ecosystems.” with another population on its way populations, conserve habitat, and to independence in New Mexico. But educate ranchers. The program’s wildlife offi cials say they have no wildcat photo contest, in Sonora, plans to reintroduce jaguars. Mexico, pays ranchers for shooting jaguars with a camera rather than When the jaguar was rediscovered a gun. According to Defenders in the United States, Arizona and