Arizona Daily Star: Camera network will focus on jaguars

[Patricia M. McBride]

We have the money to do this, but we don't have the money to close the border.  This is a total outrage and misuse of limited dollars.  Many believe this study will limit ranges for cattle farmers and also think it would be wise to do the study where there are larger numbers of the cats ( Up to five jaguars have been photographed in the region in the past 15 years, and those doing the study aren't sure if the cats are migrating rather than roaming their own territory).

Arizona-New Mexico project aims to learn more about imperiled cats

November 25, 2011

Starting next year, jaguars will be the target of an extensive network of remote cameras placed across Southern Arizona and southwest New Mexico.

In a three-year, $771,000 project that has been greeted warmly by environmentalists but warily by cattle growers, University of Arizona researchers will try to learn more about the status and presence of the endangered animal.

Fifteen years after the jaguar was listed as endangered in the U.S., this project will try to determine how often it roams from Mexico to the United States and back, said Melanie Culver, the project's principal investigator and a geneticist for the U.S. Geological Survey and the UA's School of Natural Resources.

Referring to the adult male jaguar photographed in Cochise County Saturday, Culver added that the project will try to learn, "Is this the only one?"

The research project has brought on a UA professor with a history of mediation work, Kirk Emerson, to reach out to environmental groups, ranchers, private landowners and others in an effort to minimize potential conflicts over the research.

There has long been tension among ranchers, environmentalists and government officials over how to conserve and study jaguars.

The cameras will be placed at 120 locations on public and possibly private lands in mountainous terrain - two cameras per site - and checked regularly, said Lisa Haynes, the research project manager and coordinator of the UA's Wild Cat Research and Conservation Center. They'll be located from the Baboquivari Mountains in south-central Arizona on the west to the Animas Mountains in the "boot heel" of New Mexico on the east.

Funding is from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Up to five jaguars have been photographed in the region in the past 15 years. Researchers say the new camera work could help determine if this area actually has a resident jaguar population or if the jaguars that roam here are transient migrants into their range's northern fringe from a larger population in Mexico.

Read more: http://azstarnet.com/news/local/camera-network-will-focus-on-jaguar...