Page "Jaguar" Paragraph 36

Legal action by the Center for Biological Diversity led to federal listing of the cat on the endangered species list in 1997.

However, on January 7, 2008, George W. Bush appointee H. Dale Hall, Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service ( USFWS ), signed a recommendation to abandon jaguar recovery as a federal goal under the Endangered Species Act.

Critics, including the Center of Biological Diversity and New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, were concerned the jaguar was being sacrificed for the government's new border fence, which is to be built along many of the cat's typical crossings between the United States and Mexico.

In 2010, the Obama Administration reversed the Bush Administration policy and pledged to protect " critical habitat " and draft a recovery plan for the species.

The USFWS was ultimately ordered by the court to develop a jaguar recovery plan and designate critical habitat for the cats.

On August 20, 2012 USFWS proposed setting aside 838, 232 acres in Arizona and New Mexico — an area larger than Rhode Island — as critical jaguar habitat.