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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) and the Jaguar Recovery Team have completed a Jaguar Recovery Outline to provide a preliminary strategy for jaguar conservation until a full recovery plan is completed. The recovery outline will be used to develop a full jaguar recovery plan (scheduled for completion in December 2013) and is being used, together with other information, to inform the Service’s critical habitat proposal that is under development and due this summer. In response to a Court determination, in January 2010 the Service gave notice that it would propose critical habitat for the jaguar in January 2011. However, upon reconsideration, it became apparent that having a recovery plan or outline in place would help to inform a critical habitat designation, making it more accurate and effective for conservation. The Service assembled a Jaguar Recovery Team composed of big-cat biologists and conservation scientists and charged them with initially developing a recovery outline for immediate reference and eventually a complete plan for jaguar recovery.

The bi-national (Mexico and U.S.) Jaguar Recovery Team’s outline considers the jaguar throughout its range and includes two global recovery units: the Pan American Recovery Unit which extends to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina; and the Northwestern Unit which extends from Colima, Mexico, northward into southeastern Arizona, and extreme southwestern New Mexico. Both of these units are believed necessary for the recovery of the jaguar. The outline focuses on the Northwestern Recovery Unit, which encompasses much of the Sierra Madre Occidental in western Mexico including a management unit in Sonora, Mexico, southeastern Arizona, and extreme southwestern New Mexico. It identifies the recovery needs of the jaguar throughout its range, but focuses on the role that the northwestern population plays in the conservation of the whole species. It also identifies research needs, habitat types used by the jaguar, and threats to the northwestern population, and initiates discussions on the importance of habitat connectivity.

“We’re grateful for the insight the recovery team has provided,� said Steve Spangle, the Service’s Arizona Field Supervisor. “They’ve begun to distill what’s known about the animal and initiated a thoughtful discussion on the importance of the Northwestern jaguar population to the species� survival and the roles that the U.S. and Mexico can play in its recovery.�

The full recovery team, including technical and implementation groups, is tasked with completing a full draft recovery plan for public review by December 2012 and a final by December 2013. The Service will publish a proposed critical habitat designation for the jaguar in the U.S. and seek public input later this summer. The Service does not designate critical habitat in foreign countries.

America’s fish, wildlife and plant resources belong to all of us, and ensuring the health of imperiled species is a shared responsibility. We’re working to actively engage conservation partners and the public in the search for improved and innovative ways to conserve and recover imperiled species. The Jaguar Recovery Outline is available online at: http://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/arizona/ or by request from the Field Supervisor, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2321 W. Royal Palm Rd., Suite 103, Phoenix, AZ 85021-4951; phone 602/242-0210 or fax 602/242-2513.