When wildlife videographer Jason Miller checked his trail cameras on Dec. 30, 2023, he never expected to see a jaguar at the bottom of the frame.
One of the most elusive species in Arizona, there have only been eight jaguar sightings since 1996. This footage was captured in the Huachuca Mountain range in southern Arizona.
“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 in January 2024. “I got lots of wildlife, including my first jaguar.”
Miller has previously shared trail camera footage where he’s captured a rare endangered ocelot, as well as 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. This is determined based on each jaguars unique spots, which are similar to human fingerprints.
The largest population of jaguars resides in the Amazon rainforest as is largely extinct in the United States. Their historic range included parts of Arizona, California, Louisiana, New Mexico and Texas. An estimated 4,800 jaguars live in Mexico, and there have been at least three jaguars who have roamed into southern Arizona in the past decades.
Future of jaguars in the United States
Conservation biologists are optimistic that these sightings might someday lead to a breeding population in Arizona.
“It’s evidence that jaguars are tenacious and they are moving north, and they continue to reestablish territory here,” Russ McSpadden, a Southwest conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, told azcentral. “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.”
One major roadblock to population growth in the United States is the lack of female jaguars. The last time a female jaguar was spotted in the US was 1949. Female jaguars don’t typically venture far from their original territory, so expanding north will take time.
Conservation biologists encourage legislatures to keep wildlife corridors between the US and Mexico open so species can grow and flourish within their natural and migratory ranges. Keeping these corridors open would also allow jaguars to reclaim some of their historic territory in Arizona.
