the Last American Jaguars

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Center for Biological Diversity Published March 3, 2008 10:11 AM Bush Administration Refuses to Protect the Last American Jaguars, Driving Conservation Group to Court

 

 

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SILVER CITY, N.M.— The Center for Biological Diversity issued a 60-day notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Friday over the agency’s decision not to recover an endangered species native to the United States, the jaguar, in violation of the Endangered Species Act. The notice is required to allow the federal agency one last chance to comply with the law.

'Jaguars evolved in North America, and their recovery in our country is part of recovering our damaged ecosystems,' said Michael Robinson of the Center. 'They are beautiful animals that help keep the balance of nature, and preventing their extinction involves helping them reclaim the homelands from which our government exterminated them.'

 

 

On January 7, 2008, in response to an active Center for Biological Diversity lawsuit seeking a recovery plan and critical habitat for the jaguar, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director H. Dale Hall signed a 'determination' that developing a recovery plan for the jaguar — as required by the Endangered Species Act — would not promote the conservation of the species. This decision effectively mooted a recovery-plan claim in an ongoing, two-part suit by the Center based on the fact that the government has unreasonably delayed recovery planning and protection of critical habitat. The 'unreasonable delay' claim will shortly be replaced by a new lawsuit that specifically takes issue with the Bush administration’s decision not just to delay a recovery plan but to abandon its responsibility to recover the majestic, shy cat.

The government’s January decision awkwardly and inappropriately attempts to fit a narrow loophole in regulations under the Endangered Species Act that permit the agency not to develop a recovery plan for species whose 'historic and current ranges occur entirely under the jurisdiction of other countries'.

Jaguars’ historic range in the United States has been extensively documented in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Jaguar sightings and physical remains have also been reported in Colorado, Louisiana, Florida, Tennessee, and the Carolinas. In addition, American Indian artifacts depicting jaguars have been found in Alabama and Missouri. The jaguar’s current range comprises a small portion of southern Arizona and New Mexico.

In June 2007, more than 500 members of the American Society of Mammalogists met in Albuquerque and unanimously passed a resolution calling on the Fish and Wildlife Service to develop a recovery plan for the jaguar. The resolution concluded that 'Habitats for the jaguar in the United States, including Arizona and New Mexico, are vital to the long-term resilience and survival of the species, especially in response to ongoing climate change.'

The Bush administration decision also claims that 'actions taken within the United States are likely to benefit a small number of individual jaguars peripheral to the species, with little potential to affect recovery of the species as a whole' and that conservation plans outside the United States are adequate to recover the species.

'If this same logic had applied historically, there never would have been a recovery plan bringing gray wolves back to Yellowstone or the Gila wilderness,' said Robinson.

The rationale is also contradicted by the decision’s own admission that conservation plans outside the United States 'have thus far fallen short in stemming the decline of the jaguar.' Directly undermining its own assertion that a recovery plan cannot facilitate conservation of an international species is the fact that the Fish and Wildlife Service issued an international recovery plan for the whooping crane in March 2007.

Contact Info: Contact: Michael Robinson, (575) 534-0360

Website : Center for Biological Diversity