A trail camera from the Phoenix Zoo’s Atascosa Complex Wildlife Study spotted an ocelot in a region near Arizona’s southern border. The Arizona Game and Fish Department confirmed the finding.
The discovery came as a surprise for one of the researchers.
Kinley Ragan is the zoo’s field research project manager.
“So this is the first record of an ocelot west of I-19 in over 50 years. So it's a region that we knew to be viable habitat for ocelot, but there was no official record. So this is that first official record,” she said.
The ocelot has been listed as endangered since 1972. Phoenix Zoo researchers will continue to use their equipment for further research.
Ragan also shared her reaction at the finding.
“So I was shocked in a good way. We had, I've been hiking for a couple days at this point, and this was my fourth camera of the morning and temperatures were getting quite high. And so we'd already been hiking for about 40 minutes to just this site,” she said.
While the discovery helps researchers understand where the species might likely be in Arizona, Ragan says many more questions still need answering, like if the spotting is a rare occurrence.
One of the last ocelot sightings was in the Huachuca Mountains.
