No. 1328, December 18, 2025

Tell the Feds: Jaguars Belong Here

Jaguars are returning to the U.S. Southwest — or trying to, anyway. 
 
Earlier this year two of these endangered cats crossed from Sonora, Mexico, into their ancient home of southern Arizona to explore, hunt, and expand their territory. 
 
But now, using a sweeping waiver bypassing dozens of laws, U.S. Customs and Border Protection plans to install new border barriers, roads, surveillance infrastructure, and high-intensity artificial lighting along up to 222 miles of the Arizona-Mexico border — including federally designated jaguar critical habitat.  
 
The plan would permanently block jaguars’ last U.S.-Mexico migration corridors — and the species’ recovery — while disrupting rivers and floodplains; fragmenting habitat for all kinds of wildlife; and disorienting bats and migratory birds who rely on dark skies. 
 
There’s still time to change course and give these beautiful cats the comeback they deserve. 
If you live in the United States: Tell Customs and Border Protection to stop border-wall construction in their critical habitat and prevent irreversible harm to precious borderlands.

Oregon Asked to Stop Whale Deaths From Crab Gear

This year off the Oregon coast, four humpback whales were entangled in commercial fishing gear set for Dungeness crabs. So the Center and partners just petitioned the state’s Fish and Wildlife Commission to take steps to reduce whales’ risk.

“This year’s horrific entanglements show that humpbacks are in a lot of danger from Oregon crab gear,” said the Center’s Ben Grundy. “If state officials don’t move to adopt whale-safe fishing gear, like pop-up buoys for Dungeness crab pots, endangered whales will continue to suffer and die preventable deaths.”

Our petition urges Oregon to reduce the amount of gear used during feeding and migration seasons and open a pathway for fishers to use pop-up gear.

Help us help humpbacks with a gift to the Center’s Future for the Wild Fund. Do it now and your donation will be doubled.

California Mountain Lions Near Final Protection

Thanks to a petition by the Center and Mountain Lion Foundation, California wildlife officials have declared that mountain lions ranging from the Central Coast to Southern California deserve protection under the state’s Endangered Species Act. We expect a final decision in February.

California’s majestic pumas are struggling in the face of diminishing and increasingly fragmented habitat — along with deadly car collisions and rodenticide poisoning.

“This is wonderful news for pumas who desperately need our help,” said Center scientist Sofia Prado-Irwin.

Head to Facebook, Instagram, or Bluesky to watch glowing-eyed mountain lions in the rain.

Win: Massive Logging Beside Yellowstone Blocked

In response to a suit by the Center and allies, a federal court has struck down a U.S. Forest Service plan to log more than 16,500 acres in the Custer Gallatin National Forest, outside Yellowstone National Park.

The decision found the agency had violated multiple major laws and requires the Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to redo key environmental analyses.

“The court saw right through the Forest Service’s vague plans,” said the Center’s Northern Rockies Director Kristine Akland. “This is a great ruling for grizzlies, Canada lynx, and the entire Yellowstone ecosystem.”

We’re Proud to Be a Top-Rated Great Nonprofit

Thanks to supporters sharing their love for the Center, our profile page on the charity-reviewing site GreatNonprofits.org now has more than 1,500 reviews. You helped us earn a spot on the exclusive 2025 Top-Rated Nonprofits list.

Calling us “unwavering,” “inspirational,” “extremely effective,” and “the true guard dogs of the natural world,” this year’s reviewers made it clear they see our work as crucial — “even more necessary with the current regime and their push to ignore regulations.” Our superior use of funds is oft mentioned as well, with comments like, “I never worry about how my monthly donation is spent” and “I know that every penny I give actually makes an impact.”

We appreciate you too, friends.

Read our reviews at GreatNonprofits (and you can still add your own).

Revelator: Piping Plover Protectors

Proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act and park staffing cuts are putting endangered piping plovers in danger — on top of all the other threats to their survival. Volunteer conservationists are stepping in to help.

Read more in The Revelator.

And if you haven’t yet, subscribe to The Revelator’s free weekly e-newsletter for more wildlife and conservation news.

That’s Wild: An Ant Colony 3,700 Miles Long

Many ant species build palatial complexes in which to live and work: Leafcutters, for example, construct sprawling compounds with fungus-cultivation gardens, storage silos, and waste facilities, and some of these can be the size of a tennis court.
 
But Argentine ants, whose Latin name is Linepithema humile, have most other ants beat for the sheer size of their megacities. Having spread beyond South America — as far as Japan, South Africa, and Australia — these ants build sprawling supercolonies: Along the coasts of Portugal, Spain, France, and Italy, a single colony ranges for thousands of miles.

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Photo credits: Jaguar by MauMirror/Wikimedia Commons; humpback whale by Kaitlin Thoresen/NPS; screenshot of mountain lion video courtesy NPS; grizzly bear by Eric Johnston/NPS, lynx courtesy NPS; polar bear by Brett Hartl/Center for Biological Diversity; piping plover by Nick Athana; ants by Davefoc/Wikimedia Commons.

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