The United States Fish and Wildlife Service designated critical habitat for jaguars (Panthera onca) in April 2014, in southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. Ranchers in the region have expressed concern and apprehension toward the designation. Our objective was to understand what specifically ranchers are concerned about, and investigate the larger political setting of federally designated critical habitat for jaguars. We conducted semi-structured, key informant interviews with nine leaders in the ranching community. To address our objective, we investigated the interviewees’ attitudes of wildlife conservation in general, perceived impacts that jaguar critical habitat designation could have on their operation, and opinions of the government’s role in managing resources for wildlife. The interviewees were fully supportive of wildlife conservation and felt they were intrinsically important to providing habitat for wildlife. All interviewees agreed jaguars were a unique, rare species, but they were all against federally designated jaguar critical habitat. Their concerns fell out into three categories: direct impacts to ranching operations, political concerns, and concerns resulting from larger, overriding issues in the region. We found that interviewees’ concerns are likely a reflection of deeper-seated values pertaining to centralized government. The issue is more complex and nuanced, and moves beyond concerns about limitations on range management. To best work with this population for jaguar conservation, the role of adaptive management and conservation incentives should be explored as possible remedies. This work contributed to a thesis and a publication in Rangelands.
