SAVING THE JAGUAR

Revered as deities amongst the Mayan and Aztec peoples, jaguars inspire through their grace and power. These agile hunters once roamed from South America through the southern and central United States, but lost habitat and were killed off in the east in the 1800s. They were reduced through Spanish bounties in the southwestern United States, and the last animals were systematically hunted down by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the 20th century, only to reappear sporadically due to migration from Mexico.

Since the jaguar was listed as endangered in the United States in 1997 in response to a Center campaign, we’ve sued the Fish and Wildlife Service to obtain a recovery plan and critical habitat designation, mapped 62 million acres of potential jaguar habitat in Arizona and New Mexico, and advocated for protection from government traps, snares, and poisons. To ensure that jaguars will always have access to the full extent of their range, we’ve opposed walling off the U.S.-Mexico border. In April 2008, we challenged a Fish and Wildlife Service “finding” that a recovery plan wouldn’t benefit the jaguar — signed four months after the Service said a border wall wouldn’t hurt the species.