Arizona Jaguar “El Jefe” Reappears in Central Sonora

HERMOSILLO, SONORA (August 4, 2022) – A jaguar who roamed Arizona’s Santa Rita Mountains as recently as 2015 was just spotted again in central Sonora, nearly seven years since he was last recorded. The adult male, nicknamed El Jefe, is one of only a handful of jaguars to be seen north of the United States-Mexico border since the species was all but extirpated from the southwestern U.S. more than 50 years ago. His survival has notable implications on the ability of jaguars to repatriate their historic range.

The recent photos of El Jefe were captured by the Mexican non-profit group PROFAUNA (Protección de la Fauna Mexicana A.C.) in November 2021, as part of the Borderlands Linkages Initiative. Led by the international conservation nonprofit Wildlands Network, this collaborative project brings together eight organizations from Mexico and the U.S. to protect the northernmost corridors of jaguar habitat through coordinated landowner outreach and wildlife monitoring.

El Jefe in Arizona’s Santa Rita Mountains in 2015 Photo: University of Arizona/USFWS

El Jefe in central Sonora in 2021 Photo: PROFAUNA/Borderlands Linkages Initiative

The project employs more than 150 motion-sensitive cameras to track wildlife. Given this large number—and thus the volume of incoming data—the identification of El Jefe in the November photos occurred only recently. Dr. Carmina Gutiérrez-González, Research Coordinator for the Northern Jaguar Project, is the lead researcher responsible for analyzing all jaguar photos for the project. “When our software showed a 100% match with El Jefe I was skeptical, but after making a detailed visual revision, skepticism gave way to surprise and then excitement,” she said. “There is no doubt this is the same animal photographed in Arizona that many feared could have died when he stopped showing up in trail cameras almost seven years ago.”

El Jefe was at least two years old when first photographed in 2011 in the Whetstone Mountains southeast of Tucson, making him 12 years old or more—the third longest living male jaguar ever recorded in Sonora[1].

“We are very excited to have obtained a picture of El Jefe,” said Ecologist Mario Cirett-Galán, Coordinator of Priority Ecosystems at PROFAUNA. “It’s great news that jaguars can survive this long and gives us hope for the many individuals that have stopped showing in our monitoring. The work we’ve conducted with the Borderlands Linkages Initiative and with other partners such as Greater Good Charities, has allowed us to identify more accurately the routes used by jaguars in places few people imagined they’d be recorded.”

“The reappearance of El Jefe, more than 120 miles south of where he was last recorded in Arizona, is a sign that large-scale, habitat connectivity persists between Arizona and Sonora, despite growing threats by development, mining and the border wall,” added Juan Carlos Bravo, Conservation Programs Director at Wildlands Network. “Our Borderlands  Linkages Initiative demonstrates that only through international collaboration can we understand and protect wide ranging species like the jaguar. None of the groups involved could have done this on its own but together we can not only provide evidence of El Jefe’s individual feat, we can also help secure the habitat jaguars need, such as the Sierra Azul-El Pinito corridor, a bottleneck for connectivity between our two countries.”

The Borderlands Linkages Initiative relies on willing landowners who partner with conservationists in monitoring wildlife and protecting habitat. Collaborating with ranchers in ways that can protect wildlife and while simultaneously improving their land management is instrumental for preserving viable wildlife habitat cores and open corridors for their dispersal.

[1] After the jaguars nicknamed Macho B (estimated age: 14 + years) and Zapatos, (estimated age 13+ years)

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About

Protección de la Fauna Mexicana, A.C. (PROFAUNA) is a nonprofit group founded in 1988 that seeks to protect Mexican biodiversity by implementing actions such as wildlife and priority ecosystem management and conservation, environmental education, capacity building and strategic partnerships. In 2016 it opened the PROFAUNA-Sonora office to implement conservation actions throughout the whole state, with an emphasis on collaborations in the Sky Islands region.

Northern Jaguar Project is a binational nonprofit established to safeguard jaguars in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands from poaching and habitat destruction. It manages a reserve in Sonora dedicated to jaguar conservation.

Since 1991, Wildlands Network has been committed to reconnecting, restoring and rewilding North America for the benefit of all species. Our work is grounded in science, driven by fieldwork and furthered through strategic policy and partnerships.

The Borderlands Linkages Initiative also includes Rancho El Aribabi, Sky Island Alliance, Cuenca Los Ojos, Naturaleza y Cultura Internacional, and Borderlands Restoration Network. It is supported by the Biophilia Foundation, the Wilburforce Foundation and other donors.

Media Contact

Juan Carlos Bravo, Conservation Programs Director, Wildlands Network, +52 6621 87 38 10, juancarlos@wildlandsnetwork.org