Scouting Border Passages for Jaguar
Senior Southwest Representative Rob Peters and I spent several days recently scouting the Arizona-Mexico borderlands for jaguar passages. On April 12, Rob and I joined staff from the Wildlands Network to reconnoiter the Coronado National Forest where it meets the international border about 60 miles south of Tucson, Arizona. Driving the infamous Ruby Road across the southwestern half of the Atascosa and Tumacacori Mountains, we recalled the many historical jaguar records in the area. These mountains are sky islands in the Madrean Archipelago, technically considered Madrean Pine-Oak Woodlands and are blessed with some perennial waters. More than 7,000 species of plants and animals–including over half of the birds in North America–can be found here.
The entire area is swarming with Border Patrol agents and just about every 2 -3 miles is a surveillance vehicle linking advanced cameras to high powered radar that can scan many miles across the landscape and use infrared technology at night to spot humans as well as animals traversing the landscape. The agent on-duty was less than pleased to see us stop for a chat, but the young man abided our questions amicably. Several photos are of the landscape in Mexico just across the border, which here is only guarded with old barbed-wire. On both sides we saw mule deer. These landscapes are rugged and remote and validate the obstacles to border security, not-to-mention wall construction.
After lunch, we parked at a row of vertical steel pipes, about 12 inches in diameter, sunk into the ground and hiked down into Sycamore Canyon. The canyon is the gateway to the Pajarito Wilderness Area which directly abuts the border with Mexico. Not only is the canyon a fairly well-used route for migrants, but also the site of the capture in 2009 of the jaguar Macho B by a biologist on contract with the Arizona Game and Fish Department. Sadly, shortly after, Macho B was recaptured and euthanized after he was found to be suffering from kidney failure; the animal was thought to be 16 years old, older than any known wild jaguar. Sycamore Canyon is breathtaking with towering rock walls, white oaks, walnuts and velvet ash trees as well as running water. As we trailed down the canyon several miles we came across humanitarian caches of water and canned food that had been consumed. There were phainopeplas, flycatchers, small fish in the minnow family Cyprinidae and we even spotted a canyon tree frog.
Later in the week, I visited Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument further west to document the international border and its existing barriers. This is the ancestral home of the Tohono O’Odham people and their vast reservation lands lie to the east. The monument and biosphere reserve protect classic Sonoran Desert ecosystems and plant associations as well as the famous endemic Quitobaquito pupfish, found nowhere else in the world. This desert ecosystem is so dry and unforgiving that rescue stations are located at points in the monument. These stations have a flashing blue light rising above the vegetation and people in crisis can contact first responders at the strategically-placed stations.
The international border here is lined only with vehicle fence that can be seen in the photos. The Lukeville port of entry is inside the monument and pedestrian fence extends a mile or so on either side. After that it is just “Normandy-style” barriers which block vehicles but not human and animal passage, including dogs and chickens on the day I was there. The busy Mexican Highway 2 is located just a matter of yards on the other side and trucks can be seen whizzing by at high speed. Border Patrol uses four-wheel drive vehicles to patrol this vast monument. This is not country one would want to spend many hours or days on foot unprepared.
The Arizona borderlands are a special and wild place with superlative biodiversity. There are still places where jaguars, Sonoran pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep and Mexican gray wolves can cross and we want these places to remain open. There are not many and they are extremely rugged which explains partly why they remain free of walls.
- Bryan
