MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexico's jaguar population has increased significantly in recent years but the largest feline in the Americas is still in danger of extinction, said a Mexican advocacy group that released a national census of the animals on Wednesday.
The 2024 population stood at 5,326 jaguars, 30% more than in 2010, when Mexico labeled them an endangered species, according to the National Alliance for Jaguar Conservation (ANCJ).
Since the last census in 2018, the population has grown 11%, a "surprising and encouraging" result, the group said in a report.
Humberto Pena, a state strategy coordinator at the ANCJ, said larger protected areas have helped jaguars move around more freely, spurring population growth.
However, jaguar populations will still require 15 to 30 years of steady growth to be out of danger of extinction, he said. The report said it would take more than three decades to bring the population to 8,000.
Habitat destruction, illegal hunting, trafficking and rancher conflicts have contributed to the decline of the species, Panthera onca, which is found from the southern tip of the United States to northern Argentina.
The Mexican census documented the highest number of jaguars - 1,699 - in the Yucatan Peninsula region, followed by the South Pacific with 1,541, Northeast and Central Mexico with 813, North Pacific with 733 and Central Pacific Coast with 540.
The ANCJ surveyed the populations through photos and videos from 920 motion-sensor cameras set up across 15 states for 90 days.
The association urged incentives to conserve more jaguar corridors, and called on the government and social media platforms to crack down on the sales of jaguar parts. Skins, skulls, claws and fangs are being illegally trafficked, it noted.
"We want to make everyone aware that ... jaguar protection is a shared responsibility," Pena said.
(Reporting by Alberto Fajardo and Diego Delgado; Writing by Ana Isabel Martinez and Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
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