Elusive jaguar seen on trail camera in southern Arizona is 'good news,' experts say
The image is the latest of five jaguar sightings documented this summer by the University of Arizona's Wild Cat Research and Conservation Center and their team of citizen scientists. Researchers said all of the images are of the same male jaguar, which was last seen in the same area over a year and a half ago.
'We're really excited that it's on the landscape again, because it speaks volumes about the biodiversity of the ecosystem,' said Susan Malusa, a biogeographer and co-coordinator for the researcher center. 'It's good news to see that an ecosystem is healthy for tiny little herbivores up to these apex predators.'
The University of Arizona's jaguar and ocelot monitoring program has been operating for almost 15 years, collecting over 200 detections (which include photo, video and DNA samples) of four jaguars documented in the region for scientific research. The program also contributes to the research of dozens of other species, including protected ocelots, gray wolves and golden eagles.
The camera traps are almost entirely maintained by citizen scientists, who are volunteers trained by the center.
'We really do want people to recognize the community-driven science here,' said Malusa, who has managed the project since 2011. 'This is a wonderful group of people, and their commitment has made this happen.'
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Border wall, mining challenge jaguar recovery in Arizona
Jaguars are the largest cats in the Western Hemisphere, and are best characterized by their distinctive spots, known as rosettes, which form a unique pattern specific to each jaguar and help researchers identify individual jaguars from photos.
There have been eight jaguars photographed in the United States since 1996. The cats were listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 1997.
The long-term datasets collected by the university's monitoring project help researchers understand the species' habitat range and contribute to the conservation and recovery of the binational population.
Primary threats to jaguars in the United States include habitat loss and fragmentation, which have been highlighted in recent years by controversial mining projects and border wall construction in southern Arizona.
For more stories about Arizona wildlife: Sign up for AZ Climate, The Republic's weekly environment newsletter.
In 2014, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated over 750,000 acres of critical habitat for the species along the border in southern Arizona and New Mexico, but that area was reduced by about 65,000 acres in 2024 after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, hearing a lawsuit filed by mining company Rosemont Copper, a subsidiary of the Canadian Hudbay Minerals, found the federal government didn't prove the acreage was essential to the species' survival.
In July, conservation groups sued the Trump administration over plans to construct a border wall across the San Rafael Valley, one of the last stretches of untouched borderlands where jaguars and ocelots have been documented crossing into the United States from Mexico.
John Leos covers environmental issues for The Arizona Republic and azcentral. Send tips or questions to john.leos@arizonarepublic.com.
Environmental coverage on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.
Follow The Republic environmental reporting team at environment.azcentral.com and @azcenvironment on Facebook and Instagram.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Male jaguar shows up on trail cameras in southern Arizona
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