jaguar Critical habitat champion

Arizona Jaguar Biologists, Tony Povilitis and Dustin Becker explain fully about what USFWS Critical Habitat Designation provides for animals that are threatened/endangered..............in this case the Jaguar. The USFWS has said that they will create Critical habitat for the Jaguar in the USA but Tony and Dustin are concerned that the Service is hedging on the size of the habitat rationalizing that "El Tigre" historically existed in only small patches in Arizona and New Mexico. We now know that within the past 150-200 years, Jaguars bred and  occupied California(up to San Francisco), Colorado and even as far East as Louisiana and Florida ....perhaps as far north as the Southern Appalachian Mountains. To artificially constrain the Jaguars return to the USA would be wrong. Tony and Dustin point out that the Northern Mexico "Jag" population needs an expanding range to breed if they are to remain viable. A USA habitat across the Southern third of our Country gives the Jaguar the needed connective space to keep it's most Northern population healthy and fulfilling it's ecological niche. Critical habitat for large keystone predators helps ensure living space for the whole suite of living organisms that exist in a particular range. The benefit for all creatures including ourselves is that that the land regains its  vigor and vitality. We need USFWS to have foresight, compassion and empathy in optimizing  the scope of wildness(and therefore health) for the Jaguar.

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