[3][4] The Gulf Coast jaguarundi ranges from southern Texas in the United States south to Veracruz and San Luis Potosí in eastern Mexico.

[7] It is considered probably locally extinct in Texas and the United States as a whole by most sources, including the IUCN Red List.

Small mammals, birds, frogs, and fish are a few of the wide variety of prey that the jaguarundi feeds on.

[14] The Southwestern Association of Naturalists, an organization of 791 scientists (at time of publication) specializing in the zoology, botany, and ecology of southwestern USA and Mexico, published a resolution in 2008 expressing opposition to the Mexico–United States barrier "based on sound and accurate scientific knowledge" and its negative impact on "many rare, threatened and endangered species", "particularly endangered mammals such as the jaguar, ocelot, jaguarundi, and Sonoran pronghorn" citing literature within their resolution.

[15] Over 2500 scientists from 43 countries (including 1472 from the USA and 616 from Mexico) also published a statement in 2018 stating that the border wall will have "significant consequences for biodiversity" and that "already-built sections of the wall are reducing the area, quality, and connectivity of plant and animal habitats and are compromising more than a century of binational investment in conservation", citing published scientific studies therein.

[16] A few patches of good habitat remain in south Texas, despite having been largely destroyed by the construction of the border fence.

[17] The United States Fish and Wildlife Service listed Gulf Coast jaguarundi as endangered in 1976.