Rare, endangered ocelot caught on camera

For the first time in half a century, an ocelot has been spotted in the Atascosa Highlands region of southern Arizona. The endangered wild cat was caught on cameras installed by The Phoenix Zoo’s Atascosa Complex Wildlife Study in June. A multi-agency review of the 50 cameras in Arizona’s Coronado National Forest’s Nogales Ranger District confirmed that it was a new cat and not one that has not been seen elsewhere in the state. 

The cameras were first installed back in April. In July, the Phoenix Zoo’s Field Research Project Manager, Kinley Ragan, and volunteer Ali Lofti went to the study area to ensure that the cameras were working. The team visited 23 of the 50 cameras, refreshing batteries and SD cards so that they would last through the sweltering desert summer. While on these checks, it is standard procedure to take a look through the video to see if the cameras need to be adjusted in any way. This scan resulted in a big burst of excitement.

“This particular location required a 40 minute hike to the site as the temperature was reaching 95 degrees,” Ragan said in a statement. “The ocelot video was one of the last videos I reviewed and sent full chills through my body at the excitement and pride in what we had recorded. I was in disbelief at first, watching the video over and over again, but soon a big smile spread across my face as the full impact of this discovery for the important region set in.”

Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) Regional Nongame Specialist, Tracy McCarthey, confirmed the finding.

“AZGFD has conducted a pelage spot analysis comparing this ocelot with the current known ocelot in the state, as well as previous ocelots and concludes that this is indeed a new ocelot,” said McCarthey.

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Since 1972, ocelots have been listed as endangered in the United States. There are less than 100 left in the wild in the entire US These carnivores primarily eat birds, rabbits, rodents, and lizards. The primary threats to their survival include habitat loss and fragmentation. The spotted cats primarily depend on dense forest and grasslands for shelter and safe movement across the landscape. 

The cats are about two to three feet long and are only intermittently observed in Arizona. This particular ocelot was spotted in desert scrub and at lower elevation than most historical records of the cats in the Grand Canyon State. A separate ocelot has consistently been recorded in the last year on camera footage from southern Arizona’s Huachuca mountain range, more than 50 miles away from the new sighting. 

[Related: Connecting national parks could help generations of wildlife thrive.]

The Atascosa Highlands, where this new sighting was recorded, includes the Atascosa, Tumacácori, and Pajarito mountains. While it is a well-known wildlife corridor, it is relatively understudied. Using 30 field cameras, the Phoenix Zoo’s Field Conservation Research team conducted a pilot study in 2023. They recorded 21 species of mammals in the area, but did not see any ocelots or jaguars. They expanded the study the year to include more cameras and habitat types due to the large number and diversity of species recorded in the pilot study. Data from the University of Arizona Jaguar and Ocelot Monitoring Project also provided additional context to the significance of this new sighting. 

Later this month and in October, Phoenix Zoo staff and volunteers plan to return to the field to retrieve additional camera data. They also plan to collect environmental DNA samples from the waterways in the area to get a richer understanding of the mammal ecology in this understudied corridor.