Borderlands: Endangered Wildlife Linkage

 

(Note: How much do these groups care about national sovereignty or national security, when they whine about "border fences" bothering animals that are adroitly getting across said international border easily. Notice the way they conveniently say nothing about the flotsam and jetsam littering the entire border area, left by illegal swarms of 'immigrants,' also bent on the demise of America and her Constitutional Republic.)

Location: southern Arizona, New Mexico, northern Sonora and Chihuahua, Mexico

Border fencing and other security infrastructure -- access roads, 24-hour security lighting, and noise from aircraft patrols -- have become a major threat to wildlife movement between Mexico and the Sky Islands region of southern Arizona and New Mexico. With proposals to greatly expand fencing, the border is becoming an impervious barrier to wide-ranging species such as jaguars, ocelots, mountain lions, and pronghorn. Without such landscape connections, there is no chance for natives like Mexican wolves and jaguars to return to their historic ranges.

 

 

Threats: Border fencing and infrastructure, border patrol activities.

Fence photo credit given to "Border Action Network." (Jaguar photo credit: Oscar Moctezuma; I did not wish to use this photo but could not separate it from the international border fence photo.)

Key Natural Areas: (U.S.) Peloncillo Mountains, San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area, Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, Patagonia Mountains, and Pajarita Wilderness Area—all contiguous with the Mexican border; (Mexico) Sierra San Antonio, Sierra San Luis, and El Berrendo regions, identified as priority areas for conservation.

Solutions: Transboundary conservation planning, international cooperation, wildlife-friendly security practices.

http://www.wildlandsproject.org/roomtoroam/endangered/borderlands.php

Main website for The Wildlands Project: http://www.wildlandsproject.org/