Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Conserv. Sci.
Sec. Human-Wildlife Interactions
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fcosc.2024.1355997

A spatial analysis of border "security" and jaguars in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands

Provisionally accepted
Heidi Hausermann Heidi Hausermann *Eliot Hutchinson Eliot Hutchinson Zoey Walder-Hoge Zoey Walder-Hoge
  • Colorado State University, Fort Collins, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    a jaguar (Panthera onca) named Border King was seen in Arizona's Peloncillo Mountains, followed by a sighting of a second male, Macho B, in September. The cats had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and quickly came to symbolize a conservation success story in complicated geopolitical terrain. Two decades later, the Trump Administration's increased militarization of the borderlands prompted concerns about the deleterious impacts of border wall expansion for jaguar movement and survival. This study examines the expansion of border barriers, and potential impact on jaguar habitat. Using geospatial technologies and public data, we measure border barrier expansion between 2005 and 2021. We found that of the suitable jaguar habitat that touched the border in the study area (155 km), 86% (or 133 km) had been cut off by border barrier by 2021. We distinguish "wall" from other barriers, including vehicle barriers, using aerial imagery. Our results show although barriers built from 2006 to 2015 were triple the length of those built under Trump, the majority consisted of vehicle barriers, which animals may be able to cross. Trump era construction shifted vehicle barriers to restrictive walls limiting animal movement. We argue examining the type of barrier is crucial in understanding the potential for border "security" disruption to jaguar movement and futures in the borderlands.

    Keywords: Jaguar (Panthera onca), border, White settler colonialism, geospatial, political ecology

    Received: 14 Dec 2023; Accepted: 05 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Hausermann, Hutchinson and Walder-Hoge. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Heidi Hausermann, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.