Conservationists at the Phoenix Zoo say construction on two different stretches of the Arizona-Mexico border puts several animal species at risk.
The projects cut through areas that are critical for animal movement and populations of endangered species that exist nowhere else in the wild, Zoo experts say.
“We’re very concerned about what this will mean for wildlife populations,” said Kinley Ragan, who manages field research for the Phoenix Zoo.
The Trump administration has allocated billions of dollars and waived environmental restrictions for border wall construction, which is now underway on many parts of the U.S.-Mexico border.
That includes a more than $600 million dollar project to construct a secondary border wall parallel to the existing wall for nearly 23 miles in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument area.
Experts at the Phoenix Zoo say that project endangers three important animal species found in and around Quitobaquito Pond and Quitobaquito Springs in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Two of those species exist nowhere else on Earth, said Phoenix Zoo conservation director Tara Harris.
Arizona Sonora Desert Museum
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The Quitobaquito pupfish is a species that can only be found in Quitobaquito Pond, just 200 feet from the existing border wall.
In the wild, the sesame-seed-sized Quitabaquito tryonia, or Quitobaquito springsnail, exists only in an area about the size of three parking spaces, Harris said. Similarly, the endangered, two-inch-long Quitobaquito pupfish exists only in Quitobaquito Pond, a body of water whose edge is just around 200 feet north of the existing border wall.
The Phoenix Zoo has the only population of Quitobaquito tryonia in human care. In the wild, the sesame-seed-sized springsnail only exists in Quitobaquito Springs.
Harris fears construction for a secondary border wall could wipe the species from the wild. The Phoenix Zoo’s population of 4,000 Quitobaquito springsnails are the only others to exist on the planet, Harris said.
“We stand to lose these really important endangered species and a really culturally important place,” Harris said. “Both these species and people have inhabited this area for millenia, and we feel that’s irreplaceable.”
Quitobaquito Pond and the area around it are also a critical habitat for the Sonoyta mud turtle, the only place it exists in the United States and where the secondary border wall would go, Harris said.
Arizona Sonora Desert Museum
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The population of Sonoyta mud turtles in Quitobaquito is the only known population in the United States.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection was not able to confirm if a secondary barrier is currently under construction between Quitobaquito Pond and the current border wall, but said that construction will not impact the springs. According to CBP, construction will not use groundwater within five miles of Quitobaquito Springs.
The Phoenix Zoo also fears the effects of another border wall project about 200 miles west of Quitobaquito Springs in the Pajarito Mountains, west of Nogales. CBP confirmed wall construction has begun in that region.
The Zoo has, for years, used cameras to study the movement of mammals, including jaguars and black bears, in the mountainous area. Being able to move around that region unimpeded is critical to survival and adaptability for many of those populations, especially when survival is challenged by weather, development or a changing climate, Ragan said.
“Providing connective landscapes for species to have more resilience to respond to those challenges is vital for their survival,” Ragan said.
A steel bollard wall currently runs part of the way into the Phoenix Zoo’s study area in the Pajarito Mountains, Ragan said. An ongoing project to lengthen the wall would expand the barrier through the entire area, majorly restricting movement for the animals they study, Ragan said. That construction also threatens pools of water that exist in that area year-round, Ragan says, and are critical for animal survival.
During Trump’s second term, miles of border wall have already gone up and miles more are under construction east of Nogales, in the San Rafael Valley. Environmental advocates say that work similarly restricts movement for important species, including jaguars.
The border wall has, for years, included wildlife passages in many areas, and CBP says their use will continue in new sections of wall. Conservationists say many animals use the small holes to move from either side of the wall, but that some species are too big or end up getting stuck in the printer-paper-sized passages.
Migration to the southern border has fallen significantly, and CBP encounters at the border remain at record low numbers.