Jaguars' protection does not extend into the Gila

Federal wildlife officials last week set aside nearly 1,200 square miles along the U.S.-Mexico border as habitat essential for the conservation of the jaguar, according to the Associated Press. That area includes neighboring Hidalgo County, but U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stopped short of designating the Gila National Forest as part of the endangered species' protected area, according to Pinos Altos-based Michael Robinson, a conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity. "While we're disappointed that the protection omits the best U.S. habitat for jaguars — the rugged Gila headwaters in New Mexico and the pine-clad Mogollon Rim in Arizona — this decision is a milestone that protects much of the borderlands that the first generation of returning jaguars is exploring and inhabiting," Robinson said through a news release. The critical habitat designation consists of six units, each containing one or more mountain ranges in which jaguars have been recorded in recent years or through which they are thought to have traveled. The designation includes the Baboquivari, Pajarito, Atascosa, Tumacacori, Patagonia, Santa Rita and Huachuca mountain ranges in Arizona; the Peloncillo Mountains that straddle the Arizona/New Mexico border; and the northern tip of the San Luis Mountains in New Mexico's bootheel region, according to a news release...more