Omar Figueroa | |
---|---|
Member of the Belize House of Representatives for Cayo North | |
Assumed office 5 January 2015 | |
Preceded by | Joseph Mahmud |
Personal details | |
Nationality | Belizean |
Political party | United Democratic Party |
Omar Figueroa is a Belizean politician and a member of the United Democratic Party (UDP). He was elected in January 2015 as Area Representative for the Cayo North constituency in the Cayo District. Figueroa is also a biologist and conservationist. [1] [2] Prior to his political career,Figueroa studied jaguars in the Maya Forest Corridor. As of 2020,Figueroa serves as the Minister for Fisheries,Forestry,the Environment,and Sustainable Development.
In the early 2000s,Figueroa studied jaguars in the Maya Forest Corridor for his PhD project. He spent several years collaring and tracking jaguars in order to better understand their movements. [3] In 2013,Figueroa published his dissertation,The Ecology and Conservation of Jaguars (Panthera onca) in Central Belize:Conservation Status,Diet,Movement Patterns and Habitat Use. [4]
In November 2014,Figueroa's predecessor,Joseph Mahmud,unexpectedly resigned from the House of Representatives. A by-election in Cayo North to determine Mahmud's successor was held on January 5,2015. [5] Figueroa won the by-election by a nearly 2-to-1 margin,increasing the UDP's overall majority in the House. [6] On January 12,2015,Figueroa was sworn in to his first cabinet position,Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister. [7]
Figueroa was re-elected in the 2015 general election by a 3% margin. [8] After re-election,Figueroa was appointed Minister of State for the Ministry of Fisheries,Forestry,the Environment and Sustainable Development. [9] [10] On February 20,2020,Figueroa was promoted to substantive Minister for Fisheries,Forestry,the Environment,and Sustainable Development. [11]
After the resignation of John Saldivar as UDP party leader on February 12,2020,Figueroa stood as a candidate to replace him as UDP party leader,but later withdrew from the race. [12]
The jaguar is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus Panthera native to the Americas. With a body length of up to 1.85 m and a weight of up to 96 kg (212 lb),it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the third largest in the world. Its distinctively marked coat features pale yellow to tan colored fur covered by spots that transition to rosettes on the sides,although a melanistic black coat appears in some individuals. The jaguar's powerful bite allows it to pierce the carapaces of turtles and tortoises,and to employ an unusual killing method:it bites directly through the skull of mammalian prey between the ears to deliver a fatal blow to the brain.
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The North American jaguar is a jaguar population in North America,ranging from the southwestern United States to Central America. This population has declined over decades and almost eliminated by 1960.
The South American jaguar is a jaguar population in South America. Though a number of subspecies of jaguar have been proposed for South America,morphological and genetic research did not reveal any evidence for subspecific differentiation.