Ecological Context

The Northern Jaguar Reserve is at the center of the Aros-Yaqui Conservation Area in a remote, inaccessible portion of the Sierra Madre foothills of northeastern Sonora. The Reserve encompasses a rich mixture of biotic communities and ecosystems - including tropical deciduous forest, Sinaloan thornscrub, oak woodlands, desert riparian found in canyon bottoms with two species of palm and an oak, riverine riparian, Sonoran and Chihuahuan desert, and Apachean savanna species. This unique biotic mix results from the overlapping of neotropical and neartic realms, as well as from a rugged topography that gives rise to a diversity of environmental conditions — including two plant associations not reported in the scientific literature. The recent addition of Rancho Zetasora more than doubles the Reserve's frontage along the Río Aros, and it provides protection for more than six miles of watercourse and riparian habitat. The Río Aros is the last free-flowing river in northern México, and it is the source of jaguar aquatic prey (fish and turtles).

Although exploration has just begun, Northern Jaguar Project has already recorded 179 species of terrestrial vertebrates (7 amphibians, 15 reptiles, 128 birds, and 29 mammals). More than 20 of these are protected under Mexican laws as endangered, threatened, or having special protection. We have now inventoried more than 100 species of butterfly, including an owl butterfly (probably a new species to science), and more than 100 species of invertebrates found in the clear waters of the Río Aros. The reserve also represents the northernmost region of the Americas where four large feline species, jaguar, puma, ocelot, and bobcat are known to interact.

The Northern Jaguar Reserve comprises a crucial link between protected areas and jaguar populations both north and south. Along the U.S. border, national forests, wildlife refuges, and private ranches with conservation agreements that prohibit shooting of jaguars provide more than 800,000 acres of protected habitat. In México, more than 250,000 acres of permanently protected land, the Ajos-Bavispe National Forest Reserve and Wildlife Refuge, lie to the north of the reserve. Almost equidistant to the south and southwest, the Sierra Bacatete, protected by the Yaqui Tribe, and the Area for the Protection of Flora and Fauna Sierra de Álamos-Río Cuchujaqui provide habitat for jaguars and other endangered species. The Northern Jaguar Reserve provides the crucial link for these cats, which may travel up to 200 miles each year.

The addition of Rancho Zetasora greatly increases the probability of obtaining Mexican governmental protective status (Natural Protected Area) for a much larger area within the region, with the Northern Jaguar Reserve providing the core area for such protection. Negotiations and discussions to this effect, between Naturalia and the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP), have been ongoing since the purchase of Rancho Los Pavos. Protected status will provide government oversight and regional protection for wildlife conservation, and it will inhibit development projects, such as dams and mines.