- Automatic wildlife cameras snapped this photo of a male jaguar on a nightly walk in the Santa Rita Mountains on Oct 25.
That photo of a jaguar released yesterday creates trouble for Rosemont Copper, which is pushing to build a massive open-pit mine in the Santa Rita Mountains, where the big cat was sighted.
Under court order, the U.S. Forest Service has been developing a plan to designate critical habitat for the jaguar in Arizona and New Mexico. You can see the Center for Biological Diversity’s analysis of those efforts here.
The Range asked Center for Biological Diversity Executive Director Kieron Suckling via email what he thought about the photographs yesterday.
Suckling tells us: “It should be the last nail in Rosemont’s highly leveraged coffin. The company has been betting on being able to nullify the Fish and Wildlife Service’s jaguar habitat proposal with political pressure. That avenue is impossible now.”
More jaguar and ocelot images here.
This article appears in Dec 20-26, 2012.
Q: Does jaguar photo doom Rosemont Mine?
A: Let’s hope so!
I REALLY hope so!!!!
Wow – this photo is amazing – they are so beautiful and the Center for Biological Diversity Rocks!
AZ/DC, you beat me to a ditto comment. Let’s hope so is RIGHT! Check out Cyanide Beach on Utube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPALNtyFmHY. There are many, many more reasons than endangered species habitat destruction to deny Rosemont Open Pit Copper Mine a permit to dump overburden on Coronado National Forest land.