New Jaguar Photographed in Southern Arizona
Celebrity jaguar El Jefe has company -- not exactly next door, but at least this side of the U.S.-Mexican border. A young male jaguar has been photographed in southern Arizona's Huachuca Mountains, near the town of Sierra Vista. The great cat was caught on a Fort Huachuca trail camera, his image posted on Facebook by a Boy Scout troop.
"We've been expecting another jaguar to pop up in southern Arizona," said Randy Serraglio, a conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. "Jaguars belong here, and if we protect the wide-open spaces they need, they'll thrive here again. El Jefe has proven that."
Jaguars roamed throughout the southern United States for thousands of years before being wiped out after European settlement. The Center has been working for years to protect jaguars across the Southwest. Get more from Tucson News Now and check out footage of El Jefe we released earlier this year on Facebook or YouTube.