A Home on the Range; July 2012; Scientific American Magazine; by Susan H. Greenberg; 1 Page(s)

Jaguars, the third-largest cats after lions and tigers and the biggest in the Western Hemisphere, used to live here. In the 1700s and 1800s people spotted them in Arizona, New Mexico, California and Texas. Sometimes the cats roamed as far east as North Carolina and as far north as Colorado.

As humans have encroached on their territory, the endangered cats' range has shifted south. Today it stretches from northern Argentina into Mexico's Sonoran Desert. But they cross into the American Southwest frequently enough for some conservationists to argue that they deserve critical habitat protection. Now, after years of legal wrangling, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has agreed. We do plan on proposing to designate some critical habitat, says Steve Spangle, field supervisor for FWS in Phoenix. But we don't know yet where or how much. The agency plans to announce its decision in July.