For years, Argentine scientific and green-advocacy groups, alarmed by habitat destruction here, have called on the government to step up wildlife-conservation efforts. But with the killings this year of two jaguars in the northern Argentine province of Misiones, their pleas have received unusually close public attention. The jaguar (Panthera onca), the largest feline in the Americas, was declared a “national natural monument” in Argentina in 2001—the country’s highest wildlife-protection level. Yet the animal’s Argentine habitat, in the northern provinces, has come under increasing pressure on account of illegal hunting and land clearing associated with cropland expansion. Considered a symbol of courage and resistance—its image, for instance, is emblazoned on the uniforms of Argentina’s celebrated national rugby team—the panther is... [Log in to read more]