JAGUAR DRAFT RECOVERY PLAN (Panthera Onca)

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JAGUAR DRAFT RECOVERY PLAN (Panthera Onca) JAGUAR DRAFT RECOVERY PLAN (Panthera onca) Southwest Region U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Albuquerque, New Mexico December 20, 2016 Approved: _________ DRAFT_________________ Date: ________________________ Regional Director, Region 2 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service JAGUAR DRAFT RECOVERY PLAN (Panthera onca) Prepared by: The Technical Subgroup of the Jaguar Recovery Team in conjunction with the Implementation Subgroup of the Jaguar Recovery Team and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Prepared for: Region 2, Southwest Region U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Albuquerque, New Mexico DRAFT December 20, 2016 2 Table of Contents DISCLAIMER ................................................................................................................................ v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................ vii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................... ix PART 1: BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Introduction and Recovery Planning ................................................................................... 1 1.2 Legal Status of the Species .................................................................................................. 3 1.2.1 Rangewide ..................................................................................................................... 3 1.2.2 Mexico ........................................................................................................................... 4 1.2.3 United States ................................................................................................................. 4 1.3 Evolutionary History, Description, and Taxonomy ............................................................. 4 1.4 Distribution, Connectivity, Abundance, and Population Trends ......................................... 7 1.4.1 Rangewide ..................................................................................................................... 7 1.4.2 Mexico ........................................................................................................................... 8 1.4.3 United States ............................................................................................................... 10 1.5 Life History and Ecology ................................................................................................... 12 1.5.1 Reproduction and Lifespan ......................................................................................... 12 1.5.2 Diel Activity Patterns .................................................................................................. 12 1.5.2 Diet .............................................................................................................................. 12 1.5.3 Genetic Fitness ............................................................................................................. 14 1.5.4 Disease and Epizootics ................................................................................................. 15 1.5.5 Home Range ................................................................................................................ 16 1.5.6 Movement and Dispersal Distances ............................................................................. 17 1.5.7 Density ......................................................................................................................... 21 1.6 Habitat Characteristics and Use ......................................................................................... 30 1.6.1 Habitat Modeling ........................................................................................................ 33 1.7 Critical Habitat ................................................................................................................... 40 1.8 Population Modeling .......................................................................................................... 41 1.9 Reasons for Listing/Threats Assessment ........................................................................... 45 1.9.1 Factor A. The present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of its habitat or range .................................................................................................................... 45 i 1.9.2 Factor B. Overutilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes ................................................................................................................................ 47 1.9.2 Factor C. Disease or predation .................................................................................. 47 1.9.4 Factor D. The inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms .................................. 47 1.9.5 Factor E. Other natural or manmade factors affecting its continued existence ......... 51 1.10 Conservation Efforts ........................................................................................................ 57 1.10.1 Rangewide ................................................................................................................. 57 1.10.2 Mexico ....................................................................................................................... 59 1.10.3 United States ............................................................................................................. 65 1.11 Biological Constraints and Needs .................................................................................... 69 1.12 Jaguar As an Umbrella Species........................................................................................ 70 PART 2: RECOVERY STRATEGY ........................................................................................... 71 2.1 Recovery Units................................................................................................................... 72 2.1.1 Northwestern Recovery Unit ....................................................................................... 73 2.1.2 Pan American Recovery Unit...................................................................................... 74 2.1.3 Core, Secondary, and Peripheral Areas ..................................................................... 75 PART 3: RECOVERY GOAL, OBJECTIVES, AND CRITERIA ............................................. 78 3.1. Recovery Goal .................................................................................................................. 78 3.2. Recovery Objectives ......................................................................................................... 78 3.3. Recovery Criteria .............................................................................................................. 79 3.3.1 Downlisting Criteria ................................................................................................... 79 3.3.2 Delisting Criteria ........................................................................................................ 81 3.3.3 Recovery Criteria with Justifications.......................................................................... 82 PART 4: RECOVERY PROGRAM ............................................................................................ 91 4.1. Threats Tracking Table ...................................................................................................... 91 4.2. Recovery Action Outline and Narrative ............................................................................ 94 PART 5: IMPLEMENTATION SCHEDULE........................................................................... 115 5.1 Responsible Parties and Cost Estimates ........................................................................... 115 5.2 Recovery action priorities and abbreviations .................................................................... 116 PART 6: LITERATURE CITED ............................................................................................... 158 ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................. 194 APPENDICES ........................................................................................................................... 197 ii Table of Figures Figure 1. Map of the extent of the Northwestern Jaguar Recovery Unit (NRU), as updated by Sanderson and Fisher (2013). ......................................................................................... 184 Figure 2. Map of the extent of the Pan American Jaguar Recovery Unit (PARU) in relation to the Northwestern Recovery Unit, modified from Rabinowitz and Zeller (2010). .......... 185 Figure 3. Map of potential jaguar carrying capacity in the Northwestern Recovery Unit using jaguar habitat model version 13 (Sanderson and Fisher 2013). ...................................... 186 Figure 4. Map of habitat connectivity and roadways of interest in the Borderlands Secondary Area as modeled by Stoner et al. (2015). ........................................................................ 187 Figure 5. Map of habitat connectivity and a roadway of interest through the Sonora Core Area of the Northwestern Jaguar Recovery Unit as modeled by Stoner et al. (2015). ................ 188 Figure 6. Map of habitat connectivity and roadways of interest in the Sinaloa Secondary Area
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