Oops.
The accidental trapping, and then purposeful sedation and collaring by Ariz=
ona Game and Fish, of that jaguar that I reported on last month here for th=
e group, has had unintented consequences. The collar they put on it allowe=
d them to learn that suddenly, after 13 years, it wasn't moving around any =
more. They found it, and discovered that their intervention had now made i=
t critically ill -- with kidney failure, probably from the sedation. They =
euthanized it. The animal, named "Macho B Jaguar," was the only jaguar kno=
wn to exist in the United States. Now are there are none again.
Perhaps this is different sort of "uncertainty principle."
Here is a story and editorial on it in the LA Times:
A federal recovery plan is needed to restore the cats in areas of the U.S.
By James William Gibson
March 18, 2009
They used to roam a wide swath of the Southwest, from California through Te=
xas, but in recent years the known jaguar population of the United States h=
ad dwindled to one: Macho B Jaguar.
In 1996, the large cat was discovered to be living in the mountains of sout=
hern Arizona near the Mexican border by a hunter, who managed to photograph=
him. In the years that followed, Macho B's movements were occasionally cap=
tured by a network of motion-triggered cameras placed in the mountainous ar=
eas he favored.
In February, the cat was accidentally trapped by Arizona Fish and Game Depa=
rtment officials, who fitted him with a radio collar in order to better tra=
ck his movements. By the end of the month, they noticed that Macho B was no=
longer regularly foraging for food, and soon he was recaptured southwest o=
f Tucson. Veterinarians discovered advanced kidney failure -- possibly acce=
lerated by the stress of capture and sedation -- and decided to euthanize h=
im, leaving the country with no known jaguars.
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, naturalists wrote about many enco=
unters with jaguars. In their 1854 book, "The Viviparous Quadrupeds of Nort=
h America," John James Audubon and John Bachman described the patience with=
which a jaguar waited for its prey at a watering hole. And then, "the unsu=
specting creature draws near the dangerous spot; suddenly, with a tremendou=
s leap, the jaguar pounces on him, and with the fury of an incarnate fiend =
fastens upon his neck with his terrible teeth."
But by the middle of the 20th century, the animals, the third-largest speci=
es of cats after lions and tigers, had mostly disappeared. Reduced habitat =
and prey made survival increasingly difficult. And men found glory in killi=
ng them -- part of the long, brutal war against predators that nearly exter=
minated wolves, mountain lions and grizzly bears.
By all rights, the Endangered Species Act, established in 1973, should have=
protected the jaguar. But although the cats were listed, the U.S. Fish and=
Wildlife Service never formulated a recovery plan for them or delineated "=
critical habitat," meaning a designated territory in which development was =
subject to regulation for potential impacts. Indeed, officials have argued =
for 30 years that because only isolated jaguars existed, the species could =
not recover and thus the jaguar had no legal right to critical habitat.
The Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity has repeatedly challenged =
this interpretation, saying it's a wrongheaded reading of the endangered sp=
ecies law. Jaguars would recover in the U.S., the center insisted, if the a=
nimals were fully protected by all the measures the act mandates.
The center's argument -- and it is a good one -- is that jaguars should hav=
e been managed aggressively, as were other animals that had been nearly ext=
irpated from the wild. The California condor, the black ferret, the Rocky M=
ountain and Mexican gray wolves were all brought back through intensive fed=
eral intervention. Now it's time for wildlife officials to create a recover=
y team for the jaguar.
Scientists should assess whether there are ways to encourage "transient" ja=
guars, which are known to move back and forth across the border, to instead=
stay in the U.S. and reproduce, or to deliberately translocate them (the w=
ay gray wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park). A recovery =
plan also could designate crucial habitat, such as the Sky Island region of=
southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico and the Gila National For=
est. They could even recommend U.S. aid to help protect jaguar territory in=
Mexico.
Thirty years ago, in the New York Times, Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson=
wrote that "the one truly irreparable damage we can inflict on ourselves i=
s eliminating a large fraction of the Earth's species. ... Our biophilic de=
scendants will regard species extermination as the greatest possible sin of=
the 20th century." Jaguars are clearly in peril. Whether they recover depe=
nds on decisions made now, decisions that will be remembered for a long, lo=
ng time.
James William Gibson is a professor of sociology at Cal State Long Beach an=
d the author of the forthcoming book, "A Reenchanted World: The Quest for a=
New Kinship with Nature."
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