ABQjournal: Feds Decline Jaguar Habitat Journal Staff and Wire Report

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday it will not designate critical habitat for the endangered jaguar in the Southwest.

U.S. habitat for the animal makes up less than 1 percent of the species’ range and is not critical to conserve it, the agency said. Thus, it doesn’t meet the requirements of the Endangered Species Act for designating critical habitat.

But the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity disagreed and announced it intends to sue the agency over the decision.

Jaguars are occasionally seen in southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona, but Fish and Wildlife officials believe those jaguars come from a population 130 miles south of the border in Mexico. …

[A] report by the interagency Jaguar Conservation Team identified more than 62 million acres of suitable habitat for jaguars in Arizona and New Mexico.

The jaguars were listed as an endangered species in the United States in 1997…. [T]he species’ range in the last century was as far north as Springer in New Mexico and the Grand Canyon in Arizona.