Jaguar's ESA Listing
Still On The Table

SANTA FE — While the New Mexico Department of Agriculture pushes to remove the jaguar from the federal endangered species list, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the jaguars reported in the state may not qualify under the Endangered Species Act as a distinct population segment.

Bill Moore, a wildlife specialist with the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, says the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity, now the Center for Biological Diversity, would probably stop such a move in court.

"However," he says, "this does not mean that the proposal for delisting the jaguar is dead. It is simply another step in the process which will have to be addressed."

There is data available from researchers that jaguar populations in northern Mexico are not in danger. If a line can be drawn between northern Mexican jaguars and those in the south, it may give New Mexico officials the needed information to substantiate their claim that the jaguar is not in trouble and the New Mexico and Arizona jaguars are a distinct population segment.

"A proposal for delisting could then be commenced," Moore says.