Conservationists in Arizona are excited about a highly rare sighting. An endangered ocelot was caught by a wildlife camera in the Atascosa Highlands region—the first in the area in more than 50 years. After analyzing the animal’s spots, researchers confirmed it had never been recorded before.
Ocelots are small neotropical cats, about the size of a bobcat. They can also be found in places such as Mexico and South America, but have been listed as endangered in the United States since 1972. Their U.S. population is thought to be fewer than 100 individuals, with the only known breeding population located in Texas. They depend on small rodents, rabbits, lizards, and birds that live in these forests and grasslands for food.
In Arizona, there are only two known ocelots in the entire state—the one just spotted by the camera, seen at a lower elevation than most historical records show, and another seen many times throughout 2023 in a different mountain range 50 miles away. The sighting of the latest ocelot took place in Atascosa Highlands, which includes the Atascosa, Tumacácori, and Pajarito mountains—a key wildlife corridor that’s relatively understudied, according to the zoo.
The sighting was a result of a wildlife monitoring project run by researchers with the Phoenix Zoo. The team deployed about 50 cameras in April around the Coronado National Forest near Arizona’s border with Mexico. It wasn’t until a routine change of SD cards and batteries that they checked the footage. The researchers then saw the cat crossing the frame and standing on a rock for a few seconds.
“It’s [a] very rare record,” Kinley Ragan, field research project manager for the Phoenix Zoo, tells Shannon Handy of CBS8. “However, more research is needed to further understand the full extent of these populations, and for our record, is this individual passing through? Are they staying year-round? Are there others with it? This is all kind of questions that we’re really excited to explore.”
In addition to the thrill of the rare sighting, the researchers hope it’ll help them understand ocelots’ behavior to take better care of them.
“They used to historically be here, and so because of changing climates, because of lack of habitat and connectivity, they’re not here anymore,” Ragan shares. “And so to be able to have this record just gives us more information of how to better protect these ecosystems for species, so that we can ensure that they’re here in the future.”
An endangered ocelot was caught by a wildlife camera in the Atascosa Highlands region of Arizona—the first in the area in more than 50 years.
Exciting news! The Phoenix Zoo’s Atascosa Complex Wildlife Study recorded a video of a new ocelot in southern Arizona in June. It is the first confirmed ocelot sighting in the Atascosa Highlands region in at least 50 years.
Read more here: https://t.co/gxX5U45SjZ pic.twitter.com/mzQSSGqpac
— Phoenix Zoo (@phoenixzoo) August 13, 2024
h/t: [Smithsonian Magazine]
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