Movement triggers a trail camera in a wildlife preserve in northern Sonora, Mexico, two miles south of the border with the United States. It captures two adult jaguars winding through oak thickets and tall grasses. The cats look relaxed, softly vocalizing to each other.
It’s remarkable to see any jaguars in these borderlands. But to observe two together is unheard-of, said Ganesh Marín, a researcher with the environmental group Borderlands Restoration Network. Even more jaw-dropping is that one of the big cats looks to be a female. “When I saw it, I was excited,” Dr. Marín said of watching the video in 2023. “I thought, This is fantastic.”
No native female jaguars have been seen in the United States, or anywhere particularly close, for over 70 years. So Dr. Marín waited for more evidence before he went public. He collected several more sightings of the cat, which he and his adviser named Adela. Then, this year, a camera-trap video surfaced that gave a clear view of another jaguar’s rear end, proving, according to Dr. Marín and other cat experts, that the individual in question is a female.
“It’s a game changer,” said Eamon Harrity, a researcher with Sky Island Alliance, a conservation science group.
Including Adela, five or six jaguars have been recorded at the wildlife preserve, Cuenca Los Ojos, since 2020, suggesting that the jaguar is closer than previously thought to re-establishing a population on the doorstep of the United States. “It totally deflates the narrative that female jaguars are over 100 miles to the south,” Mr. Harrity said. “They could be a day away from the U.S., or already here.” At the same time, the only known jaguar in the United States, a male named Cinco, has been roaming throughout southern Arizona. He has everything he needs — except a mate.
And geopolitics might get in the way of his acquiring one. Since 2025, contractors working for the Department of Homeland Security have finished 56 miles of new wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and 48 miles of secondary fencing. In Arizona, many areas of the border will soon have two 30-foot walls right next to each other. This barrier is poised to cut off three of the four most important remaining wildlife corridors between Mexico and Arizona, threatening the jaguar’s re-expansion despite all the positive recent signs. The wall, Mr. Harrity said, would make it “very unlikely the jaguars can come back on their own to the U.S. — at least for now.”
