U.S. jaguars threatened by Mexico border fence

By Tim Gaynor

SANTA RITA MOUNTAINS, Arizona (Reuters) - Jaguar biologist Emil McCain stoops over a remote-sensing camera attached to a tree in these rugged mountains a few miles to the north of the Arizona-Mexico border.

The researcher is checking for images of a handful of extremely rare jaguars that prowl up from Mexico over mountain trails in some of the wildest country in the southwest, although they are now under threat.

Scrolling through images of bobcats and deer snapped by the camera, he explains how the habitat for one of the United States' most elusive predators is being pressured by illegal immigration from Mexico and the controversial remedies sought by the U.S. government to curb it: building fences.

In this election year, Washington hopes to complete 670 miles

of pedestrian fencing and vehicle barriers in a bid to seal off some of the most heavily crossed areas of the nearly 2,000-mile border, despite opposition from some landowners and environmentalists.

"The low flat valleys are effectively walled off to wildlife. As a result everything is funneled up through the high mountain ranges that span the border" McCain said, standing by the camera box in an area spotted with trash tossed by illegal immigrants.

"The border barriers are directly linked with the funneling

of people into the last remaining habitats. Jaguars are very solitary animals, they can't move freely where there are a lot of people."

SOLITARY HUNTERS

Jaguars are powerful, solitary hunters that were revered by ancient cultures including the Aztecs and the Maya who believed they had supernatural powers. They roam over a vast habitat ranging from northern Argentina in the south to the rugged, borderland wildernesses of Arizona and New Mexico, although they are rarely seen.

The sturdy, spotted cats -- which are the only roaring felines in the Americas -- were believed to have become extinct in the United States until an Arizona rancher photographed one he encountered while hunting mountain lions in the far southwest corner of New Mexico in 1996.

"It was unforgettable, probably the most exciting day I have had in my life," Warner Glenn said of his brush with the burly, roaring male jaguar, which his hounds briefly brought to bay on a pillar of rock in the Peloncillo Mountains.

Proof positive of their presence in the United States was gained six months later when another Arizona cougar hunter, Jack Childs, treed and photographed a second jaguar in the distant reaches of the Baboquivari Mountains southwest of Tucson.

"They were on the brink of extirpation and to find out they were still here was a really great thing," Childs said of the animal, another male, which his hounds chased up into an alligator juniper tree.

"It was indescribable, a life-changing experience. We tipped our hats to it, thanked it for the experience and it went on its way."