The apparent return of a big cat has recently given us yet another sign of nature's resilience, sparking both hope and trepidation regarding its future.
As detailed by the Guardian, there were five recorded wild jaguar sightings in the United States in 2023 after the creature almost went extinct in the Southwest in the 1960s because of hunting.
"I was equal parts thrilled and shocked that there was a jaguar here," Emily Burns, the program director at the conservation nonprofit Sky Island Alliance, told the news outlet after one of the creatures was spotted in Arizona.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, there are fewer than 200,000 jaguars left in the world today, and most of them live in South America.
Sadly, habitat loss due to human activities has contributed to their decline. In the Amazon, deforestation has been identified as one of the threats to their survival, while construction on the border wall in the U.S. has raised fears that their recovery could be impeded.
"We know the western flank of the Huachuca Mountains and the San Rafael Valley provide one of the last open corridors for the northernmost population of jaguars to move between habitat in the U.S. and Mexico. To recover these cats in the U.S., it's vital that we protect this pathway," Sky Island Alliance executive director Louise Misztal told the Guardian.
Changing global temperatures, mostly driven by the burning of dirty energy, have led to an increase in extreme weather events, like drought, which has made water harder to come by in the Southwest.
Myles Traphagen, a borderlands program coordinator for the Wildlands Network, told the Guardian that human-made disruption of nature's passageways impacts the big cats in a specific way.
"A jaguar is accustomed to going to certain water sources known throughout its life," Traphagen explained. "With the border wall, they must travel much greater distances to find that water."
While building barriers between the U.S. and Mexico began in the mid-1900s, a project to build up a wall significantly picked up steam under the Trump administration and has continued under the leadership of President Biden.
Some companies, like Fresh Del Monte in Costa Rica, have successfully implemented biological corridors to benefit endangered species, though.
The Guardian's discussion with conservationists suggested that this type of solution may be essential to ensure the survival of the jaguar in the U.S.
"It is critical that we actively protect [jaguars'] habitat and habitat connectivity in the Southwest. Freedom to roam across vast territories is written into the DNA of jaguars," Russ McSpadden, an advocate for Arizona's Center for Biological Diversity, told the outlet.
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