Conservation groups say their trail cameras have captured new footage of an ocelot in southern Arizona. It’s a rare signing of an endangered species with habitat in the U.S. and Mexico.
There are thought to be less than 100 ocelots left in the U.S. — mostly in southern Texas. The big cat’s range in southern Arizona is mostly focused on a series of sprawling, rugged mountain ranges known as Sky Islands.
Russ McSpadden is a southwest conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, the group that captured the footage this summer. He says analysis done between this latest footage and another clip captured east of Nogales in June indicates it’s the same animal that has moved through some 30 miles of Arizona.
“This is the area where this ocelot is moving around in, it’s moving really far, from the west side of I-19 to the east side of I-19, which is an incredible feat for an animal to cross an interstate,” he said.
That path includes a stretch of the Santa Cruz River south of Tucson where advocates are asking for a national wildlife refuge to be set up.
There have been six ocelots spotted in Arizona since 2009, according to Arizona Game and Fish data given to the Arizona Daily Star. McSpadden says the ocelot captured in this latest footage is believed to be a young adult, but they aren’t sure yet whether the animal is a male or female. It’s one of two ocelots believed to be in Arizona currently — the other is an older male last spotted near Sierra Vista.
He says it’s an encouraging sign, but the animal also faces threats.
“At the same time, there are a lot of threats to ocelot habitat in the Sky Islands,” he said. “The area where this cat moved through is surrounded by two proposed mines — the Hermosa mine in Patagonias and the Copper World project in the Santa Ritas,”
Meanwhile, he says, a railway project in Sonora is cutting into the ocelot's Mexico territory, and a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border could complicate cross-border migration.
