The Phoenix Zoo’s Atascosa Complex Wildlife Study captures video of a new ocelot in Southern Arizona in June 2024.
A Phoenix Zoo wildlife study recorded the video in the Atascosa Mountains in the Coronado National Forest.
Laiken Jordahl with the Center for Biological Diversity says it is encouraging to know that the ocelot in this region can still find their way across the border, despite lots of border walls in the area.
“This mountain range where the cat was documented, it's been seen a lot of border wall construction, especially over the last 10 years," he said. "We are seeing the cross-border wildlife corridors in this region be slowly shut. So if we want to see more cats in Arizona, if we want to see them recolonize their native range, we have to ensure that new sections of border wall are not built and don’t seal off these mountains.”
He said more border barriers would shut out breeding populations of ocelots on the southern side of the border.
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