Jaguar Management and Policy

Defenders' long-term goal is to return jaguars to a significant portion of their historic range by expanding the population in Mexico and preserving habitat and migratory routes. To accomplish this Defenders of Wildlife has developed a conservation strategy guided by the following goals:

  • Protecting the northernmost jaguar breeding population in Sonora, Mexico
  • Protecting migratory routes from northern Mexico into the United States
  • Protecting suitable habitat in the United States and building support among ranchers and private landowners

Protecting the Northernmost Jaguar Population

Few realize that jaguars once lived throughout the southwestern United States.  Though they have been eradicated from most of their former U.S. range, individuals jaguars continue to live in the remote mountains of southern Arizona and New Mexico and, fortunately, a breeding population remains nearby in Sonora, Mexico. If the jaguar is to reclaim its historic home in the United States, this northernmost breeding population must immediately be protected from killing and allowed to expand.  This is an essential part of Defenders’ jaguar conservation strategy.  

Defenders’ protection programs include the establishment of a Northern Jaguar Reserve in cooperation with the Northern Jaguar Project and Naturalia, as well education and outreach with key landowners and livestock producers. Defenders’ goal is to work with local residents to nurture an understanding that the jaguar can become an economic and cultural asset that brings wealth to the communities through ecotourism and other conservation incentives such as the Landowner Camera Contest. Defenders has also established the  Jaguar Guardian Program to work with ranchers in the scientific study area to minimize conflicts with livestock and to build both the relationships and understanding necessary to foster community acceptance of jaguars. This program also includes projects funded by The Bailey Wildlife Foundation Proactive Carnivore Conservation Fund to assist with jaguar-compatible husbandry practices in Mexico.

Protecting Migratory Routes

The second element of Defenders conservation strategy is the identification and protection of migratory routes from northern Mexico into the United States. Recolonization of the jaguar’s former range in the United States is dependent upon northward migration from Mexico. Maintaining uninterrupted habitat linkages from northern Mexico across the border is vital to ensuring the jaguar’s return to the U.S. 

Identifying habitat and mapping corridors, identifying landowners and land uses and developing projects to address activities which may impede jaguars use of the corridors.

The biggest obstacle to maintaining these critical linkages is the current immigration crisis along the US-Mexico border. Previous enforcement efforts in heavily populated areas have shifted undocumented immigration into more remote and less populated areas, especially the borderlands of Arizona . This has, in turn, resulted in significant environmental degradation in some of the most pristine and valuable wildlife habitats in the nation.

The extensive environmental degradation caused by undocumented immigration and other illegal activities along Arizona’s borderlands has been compounded by the environmental consequences of Border Patrol enforcement actions, including road and wall construction, lighting projects, and off-road vehicle and low-level helicopter patrols.

This shifting of undocumented migration and border law enforcement activities has already impacted vast areas of the borderland region, and threatens to compromise the jaguar’s ability to return to the U.S. Fencing and road projects recently proposed by the Border Patrol on several portions of the Coronado National Forest now threaten to cut off migratory corridors that the jaguar is depending upon to reach the United States.

Defenders is fighting these measures and working to ensure that the needs of species such as the jaguar are considered by agencies and lawmakers as the complex issues of immigration and border policy are addressed. See Defenders report “On the Line."

Protecting Suitable Habitat in the United States

The final aspect of this conservation strategy is to protecting suitable habitat in the U.S. and working with land management agencies and private landowners to remove barriers to dispersal and recolonization.

Defenders is focusing on furthering scientific understanding of the jaguar through field research efforts with Northern Jaguar Project and Naturalia, as directed by jaguar researcher Dr. Carlos Lopez-Gonzalez. As areas suitable for recolonization in the U.S. are identified, Defenders is striving to build collaborative relationships with ranchers and private landowners in these regions.

Defenders has also expanded the Imperiled Predator Fund to protect jaguars as they disperse north of the border. The Imperiled Predator Fund works in cooperation with U.S. state and federal agencies to uncover information in incidents involving a variety of species, including jaguars, that may occur in the United States. Illegal killing of this imperiled species could potentially cripple recovery efforts. Such kills pose a significant challenge to recovery efforts in nearly all regions that have imperiled species. Rewards, such as those offered by the Imperiled Predator Fund, have proven to be an important incentive to uncover important information regarding illegal killings of imperiled species. Defenders of Wildlife’s rewards have brought criminals to justice and act as a deterrent to further illegal acts.