Our Turn: Feds have no clue how to save Arizona jaguars (but we do)
Our Turn: Feds have no clue how to save Arizona jaguars (but we do)
Rob Peters and Tony Povilitis, AZ We See It 6:00 p.m. MT April 26, 2017
Our Turn: Arizona needs female jaguars to sustain the population. But the feds continue to drag their feet without explanation.
In Teddy Roosevelt’s day jaguars roamed from the rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona to New Mexico’s Rio Grande and across much of southern Texas. But following decades of persecution by hunters and government predator control agents, native jaguars vanished from the United States.
In recent years, a handful of intrepid male jaguars like “Macho B” and “El Jefe” have returned to the U.S., traveling north from Mexico and settling in southern Arizona. Their presence shows there is ample natural prey like white-tailed deer and peccary.
But to recover this icon of the Southwest, male jaguars need female mates to have jaguar cubs on U.S. soil again.
The last female was killed in 1963
The last known female was killed in the White Mountains of Arizona in 1963. The long journey to the U.S., while possible for some males, seems to present a difficult obstacle for females, who by nature are less willing to cross the risky terrain of the borderlands.
More:
http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2017/04/26/arizona-jaguars/100653620/
Environment & Energy:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1127109929
