The only known wild jaguar in the United States is about to get named.
The Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity will start an online-based “name the jaguar” contest Tuesday, Sept. 22.
The same day, a Tucson middle school whose nickname is the jaguar will hold its own contest — to name its costumed jaguar mascot who appears at school sporting events. Valencia Middle School on the southwest side will also hold voting that day to name the wild jaguar.
At a pep assembly that day, Valencia students and faculty will also run a relay race to show the struggles the big cat faces in seeking food, water and shelter.
There will be a likeness of the U.S.-Mexican border wall and a photo of the proposed Rosemont Mine, which the Center for Biological Diversity view as threats to the jaguar. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has concluded the mine’s construction southeast of Tucson wouldn’t illegally destroy prime jaguar habitat, but some service biologists and the center disagree.
Another jaguar, then believed to be the last known wild jaguar in the United States, was named Macho B and roamed across much of Southern Arizona until it was captured in an unathorized trap and eventually euthanized in a 2009 case that remains controversial.
The current jaguar was first photographed in the Whetstone Mountains in November 2011. It has been repeatedly photographed in the Santa Rita Mountains near the mine site for the past three years, including last month.
The center, whose petitions and lawsuits helped get the jaguar listed as endangered and about 764,000 acres of its prime habitat protected, hopes the naming contest will cause people to be proud that a jaguar lives in their backyard, said Randy Serraglio, a conservation advocate for the center.
“It helps people take better care of wildlife and be more considerate of it. By giving this animal a name we can help publicize the fact it’s out there and encourage people to care about it,” Serraglio said.
School officials hope the event and naming contest will generate pride in the school and awareness of the Southwest’s natural environment, said Patricia Acosta, Valencia’s principal. “It’s an honor to be a part of something that’s considered of the earth and we want to raise children who think about that,” Acosta said.
“We had a presentation to the faculty first. They loved it,” she said. “Then, our science teachers taught ... in the classroom that the jaguar is an apex predator, how it used to be more plentiful, and how it’s not. And that we have to work to preserve that.”
