The US' determination to halt illegal immigration across its border with Mexico is set to claim an unusual victim -- the jaguar.
The US government has just vetoed a plan to save the species, Panthera onca, one of the world's most endangered, and beautiful, large cats -- and activists blame the Bush administration for its determination to cut illegal immigration from Mexico.
"The US is building a wall along the border to keep out immigrants. But that would stop jaguars crossing the border and entering the US. We wanted to set up refuges over here and create breeding populations that might save the species, but the government has said `no way.' It doesn't want anything interfering with that wall," said Kieran Suckling, of the US Center for Biological Diversity.
"Yet the US is the animals' best hope of avoiding extinction. Its numbers are declining alarmingly today. But now that chance has been blocked -- for political reasons," he said.
Jaguars were once common across the southern US -- as well as in Central and South America -- but were wiped out in the US in the 1960s. The last animal was shot in 1963. In other countries it has clung on, but numbers have begun to decline dramatically in recent years.
However, conservationists were recently delighted to discover several jaguars had been returning to New Mexico and Arizona from Mexico -- probably because global warming was changing their habitat.
Suckling and his colleagues then prepared plans to use these stray jaguars as the core for a breeding population, but have just been told by the US Fish and Wildlife Service their plan will not be adopted.
"The Bush administration doesn't like the idea of reintroducing species and it doesn't want anything getting in the way of its Mexican wall," he said. "Our jaguar scheme would have needed gaps in the wall, and that was deemed unacceptable."
Yet the US, although it killed off its jaguars, is the animals' best chance for survival, say biologists. The US has wild places, is now ecology-conscious, and has organisations that could protect the animal.
"Other countries don't have the resources to save the jaguar. We do and have done so with other species, like the grey wolf, but are now being blocked for political reasons," Suckling said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese