[Federal Register: August 26, 2010 (Volume 75, Number 165)]
[Notices]
[Page 52547-52549]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr26au10-84]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
[FWS-R2-ES-2010-N167; 20124-1113-0000-C2]
Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Draft Ocelot
(Leopardus pardalis) Recovery Plan, First Revision
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of document availability for public review.
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SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce the
availability of the Draft Ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) Recovery Plan,
First Revision. We request review and comment from the public on this
draft revised recovery plan. We will also accept any new information on
the status of the ocelot throughout its range
[[Page 52548]]
to assist in finalizing the revised recovery plan.
DATES: To ensure consideration, we must receive any comments no later
than October 25, 2010.
ADDRESSES: An electronic copy of the recovery plan can be obtained from
our Web site at http://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/Library/. Copies of the
recovery plan are also available by request. To obtain a copy, contact
Jody Mays by U.S. mail at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge,
22817 Ocelot Road, Los Fresnos, TX 78566; by phone at (956) 748-3607;
or by e-mail at Jody_Mays@fws.gov. Written comments and materials on
the draft revised recovery plan may be mailed to Jody Mays at the
address above.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jody Mays (see ADDRESSES).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (Act), as amended (16 U.S.C.
1531 et seq.), requires the development of recovery plans for listed
species unless such a plan would not promote the conservation of a
particular species. Recovery plans help guide the recovery effort by
describing actions considered necessary for the conservation of the
species, and estimating time and costs for implementing the measures
needed for recovery. A recovery plan was originally completed for the
ocelot in 1990 (The Listed Cats of Texas and Arizona Recovery Plan),
but the recommendations contained in that plan are outdated given the
species' current status.
Section 4(f) of the Act requires that we provide public notice and
an opportunity for public review and comment during recovery plan
development. We will consider all information presented during a public
comment period prior to approval of each new or revised recovery plan.
We will also take these comments into account in the course of
implementing recovery actions. In fulfillment of this requirement, we
are making this draft first revision of the recovery plan for the
ocelot available for a 60-day public comment period.
The ocelot was listed as an endangered foreign species in 1972
under the authority of the Endangered Species Conservation Act of 1969
(37 FR 6476; March 30, 1972). Following passage of the Endangered
Species Act in 1973, the ocelot was included on the January 4, 1974 (39
FR 1158; January 4, 1974), list of ``Endangered Foreign Wildlife'' that
``grandfathered'' species from the lists under the 1969 Endangered
Species Conservation Act into a new list under the ESA. Endangered
status was extended to ocelots in the U.S. portion of the species'
range for the first time, with a final rule published July 21, 1982 (47
FR 31670). In that rule, we made a determination that designation of
critical habitat was not prudent, because such a designation would not
be in the best interests of conservation of the species. Currently, the
ocelot is listed as endangered throughout its range, from southern
Texas and southern Arizona through Central and South America into
northern Argentina and Uruguay.
The ocelot requires dense vegetation (more than 75 percent canopy
cover), with 95 percent cover preferred in Texas. Habitats used by the
ocelot throughout its range vary from tropical rainforest, pine forest,
gallery forest, riparian forest, semideciduous forest, and dry tropical
forest, to savanna, shrublands, and marshlands. Contiguous areas of
vegetation are necessary for ocelot dispersal. In south Texas, 2
remaining ocelot populations of less than 25 total known individuals
inhabit dense thornscrub communities on the Lower Rio Grande Valley and
Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuges, as well as on private lands.
Its prey consists primarily of rabbits, rodents, birds, and lizards.
In November 2009, an ocelot was documented in Arizona with the use
of camera traps for the first time since 1964, when the last known
ocelot in Arizona was legally shot. However, a number of ocelots have
been recently documented 30-35 miles south of the Arizona border in
Sonora, Mexico.
Habitat conversion, fragmentation, and loss, comprise the primary
threats to the ocelot today. In Texas, over 95 percent of the dense
thornscrub habitat in the Lower Rio Grande Valley has been converted to
agriculture, rangelands, or urban land uses. Small population sizes in
Texas and isolation from conspecifics in Mexico endanger the ocelot in
Texas with genetic impoverishment and increased susceptibility to
stochastic (random) events. Connectivity among ocelot populations or
colonization of new habitats is discouraged by the proliferation of
highways and increased road mortality among dispersing ocelots. Issues
associated with developing and patrolling the boundary between the
United States and Mexico further exacerbate the isolation of Texas
ocelots from those in Mexico.
While the draft ocelot recovery plan considers the ocelot
throughout its range, its major focus is on two cross-border management
units, the Texas/Tamaulipas Management Unit and the Arizona/Sonora
Management Unit. The draft ocelot recovery plan includes scientific
information about the species and provides objectives and actions
needed for recovery and to ultimately remove it from the list of
threatened and endangered species. Recovery actions include:
Assessment, protection, reconnection, and restoration of
sufficient habitat to support viable populations of the ocelot in the
borderlands of the United States and Mexico;
Reduction of effects of human population growth and
development to ocelot survival and mortality;
Maintenance or improvement of genetic fitness, demographic
conditions, and health of the ocelot;
Assurance of long-term viability of ocelot conservation
through partnerships, the development and application of incentives for
landowners, application of existing regulations, and public education
and outreach;
Use of adaptive management, in which recovery is monitored
and recovery tasks are revised by the Service in coordination with the
Ocelot Recovery Team as new information becomes available; and
Support of international efforts to ascertain the status
of and conserve the ocelot south of Tamaulipas and Sonora.
Public Comments
We are accepting written comments and information during this
comment period on the revised draft recovery plan. All comments
received by the date specified above will be considered prior to
approval of the final recovery plan. Comments and materials we receive
will be available for public inspection, by appointment, during normal
business hours at the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge (see
ADDRESSES).
Before including your address, phone number, e-mail address, or
other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be
aware that your entire comment, including your personal identifying
information, may be made publically available at any time. While you
can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying
information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be
able to do so.
Authority: The authority for this action is section 4(f) of the
Endangered Species Act, 16 U.S.C. 1533(f).
[[Page 52549]]
Dated: August 4, 2010.
Joy E. Nicholopoulos,
Regional Director, Region 2.
[FR Doc. 2010-21249 Filed 8-25-10; 8:45 am]
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