Yet another jaguar spotted in Arizona? Trail camera captures 8th seen in US since 1996

A new jaguar is roaming southern Arizona after a trail camera documented one of the state’s most elusive predators.

On Dec. 20, Jason Miller’s trail camera in the Huachuca Mountains detected motion at 8:27 p.m. He was shocked to discover a jaguar at the bottom of the frame.

“Five years ago I started running trail cameras for wildlife footage here in southern Arizona, hoping one day maybe I’d get a jaguar,” Miller said in a video posted on YouTube after checking his cameras on Dec. 30. “I got lots of wildlife, including my first jaguar.”

Miller is a hobbyist wildlife videographer who posts trail camera footage to his YouTube channel. He previously captured a rare endangered ocelot on camera and has recorded more common wildlife like bears, mountain lions and javelinas.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department has authenticated Miller's footage, according to public information officer Mark Hart. The agency has confirmed this is a new jaguar to the United States.

Jaguars can be identified by their unique spots, similar to human fingerprints. Miller's mystery cat has different spots compared to images of other jaguars previously in the U.S.

It is the eighth jaguar photographed in the country since 1996, as the species is largely extinct in the U.S. and avoids human interactions. The majority of jaguars live in the Amazon rainforest.

“Anytime I see detection of a jaguar in Arizona, I’m incredibly elated,” said Russ McSpadden, a Southwest conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity. “I’m certain this is a new jaguar, previously unknown to the United States.”

McSpadden considers this latest sighting as further evidence that jaguars are moving north and reestablishing themselves in America despite the U.S.-Mexico border wall and other threats to the species.

Is there a new jaguar in Arizona? Trail cameras detect a cat in the Huachuca Mountains

Rare jaguar sightings in the US

Jaguars evolved in North America, eventually moving south to Central and South America. Today there are an estimated 173,000 jaguars in the wild in 19 countries, extending as far south as Argentina.

Their historic range included parts of Arizona, California, Louisiana, New Mexico and Texas, but jaguars were extirpated from the United States by the mid-20th century due to loss of habitat and hunting.

Jaguars were protected under the Endangered Species Act in 1997, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has designated about 750,000 acres of critical protected habitat along the border in southern Arizona and New Mexico.

This newest arrival to the U.S. joins three other jaguars who have roamed the Southwest in the last decade: El Jefe or “The Boss”, Yo’ko which is the Yaqui word for jaguar and Sombra which means “Shadow” in Spanish.

El Jefe famously roamed the Santa Rita Mountains with multiple spottings between 2012 and 2015. He was most recently detected in 2022 over 100 miles south in Mexico.

Yo’ko was discovered in the Huachuca Mountains in 2016 but was killed by a rancher in 2018 after crossing into Sonora.

Sombra is still believed to be in the U.S. and has been photographed multiple times around the Chiricahua Mountains since 2016.

“We’re seeing these animals more frequently in the borderlands,” said Ganesh Marin, a University of Arizona doctoral candidate who studies wildlife in the borderlands using motion-activated cameras. “We’re witnessing a natural comeback of a species that was eradicated.”

Marin attributes more sightings to the success of conservation efforts in Mexico, where an estimated 4,800 jaguars live and traverse the region.

Is this a new jaguar?

Jaguars can be identified using their unique spot patterns, also known as rosettes. By comparing images of the mystery cat with previously identified jaguars, officials can distinguish whether this is a new arrival to the U.S.

"This is clearly not El Jefe or Sombra, which would be the only two possibilities if the cat were not a new cat," McSpadden said. "Based on analysis we've done at the Center for Biological Diversity we're certain this is a new jaguar."

An unidentified male jaguar was also seen roaming near the southern Arizona border in 2023 on cameras operated by Customs and Border Protection, but photos were too blurry to identify the cat.

“It’s possible this is the same mystery jaguar,” McSpadden said.

Jaguars could reestablish themselves in America

Conservation biologists believe these sightings indicate jaguars are finding suitable habitat in Arizona. They could be dispersing north to find more prey and habitat and to avoid human conflict.

“It’s evidence that jaguars are tenacious and they are moving north, and they continue to reestablish territory here,” McSpadden said. “It’s also promising because they’re doing that despite a lot of threats. There’s a border wall, there’s habitat loss, new mines, roads and other developments.”

However, a significant jaguar population in the U.S. is still a ways off, as only male cats have traveled into the country.

McSpadden could not identify the sex of the jaguar in Miller’s footage, but believes it is likely male based on jaguars’ roaming behavior.

Females tend to stay closer to their original territory, and a female jaguar has not been seen in America since 1949. Males travel more widely, sometimes wandering hundreds of miles, which is why McSpadden believes the mystery jaguar is a male who traveled from Mexico.

According to Marin, the northernmost breeding population is in the Northern Jaguar Reserve in Sonora, about 120 miles south of the border. He’s optimistic that females could slowly expand farther north.

“We’re going to continue to see more jaguars in the borderlands, hopefully soon a female in the United States,” Marin said. “It’s important to keep the corridors open, not just for jaguars, but for all the other species that share the ecosystem with them.”

Hayleigh Evans covers environmental issues for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Send tips or questions to hayleigh.evans@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona trail camera captures 8th jaguar seen in US since 1996