Batter Up: The Jaguar is today’s Endangered All-Star, thanks to the US Fish & Wildlife Service’s latest failure to respond to a court-ordered decision on establishing a critical habitat and recovery plan for the species. Listed as “Near Threatened” on the IUCN’s Red List, the jaguar is certainly endangered in the American southwest, due to habitat loss, hunting, and the proliferation of border fences and infrastructure, yet the government continues to drag its feet. So far, the Obama administration’s record on listing endangered species is an embarrassment and a grave concern to environmental supporters: Only two species have made the ESA list during the past year, a Hawaiian vine and the reticulated flatwoods salamander. Notoriously, Ken Salazar, Obama’s Interior secretary, refused to back down from the Bush decision to delist the wolf, with predictably serious consequences for the recovering population.
SAVE THEM ALL: While the Obama administration dithers, making decisions about species based on politics, not science—a violation of campaign promises—the jaguar’s recovery rests on luck, which has been running out. Last year, the Arizona Fish and Game agency deliberately snared “Macho B,” one of the few male jaguars caught on camera traps in the U.S. Collared and released, the animal was recaptured weeks later and euthanized, causing an outcry against the state and federal agencies and their failure to develop responsible plans. Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity told the AP: “The jaguar has suffered from delay after delay, year after year, and even decade after decade to get real on-the-ground protection that it should have received back in the 1970s.” This is not change we can believe in.
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