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Motion-activated trail cameras operated by the University of ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ recorded five images of the state’s only known resident jaguar at three different locations in June and July, including a rare daylight detection, according to researcher Susan Malusa, director of the center.

“It’s an exciting day,â€� she said. “These detections, which occurred in remote regions of Southern ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥, are a powerful reminder that jaguars are still moving through corridors that connect the borderlands.â€�

For the protection of the cat — and the center’s research permits — Malusa declined to release any additional details about where the animal was spotted until she can consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other permitting agencies.

But she did confirm that this is the same adult male that was caught on camera in the Whetstone and Huachuca Mountains between May and December of 2023.

Based on the trajectory of those previous sightings, Malusa and other experts believe the jaguar ventured back into Mexico before returning to ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ sometime during the past 18 months or so.

“That is the likely scenario,� she said.

The probable route for such a crossing includes a 27-mile stretch of the border through the San Rafael Valley, about 80 miles southeast of Tucson, where the Trump administration is now rushing to construct a 30-foot-tall, bollard-style barrier.

That project could trap the wandering male jaguar in the U.S. or keep other cats from dispersing north from the closest breeding populations in Sonora, Mexico, said Emily Burns, program director for , a local environmental nonprofit.

“This cat is telling us that this corridor matters,� Burns said.

Malusa agreed.

“This is a threatened population, and if we’re going to be working toward any kind of long-term recovery, we need to have open corridors,� she said. “Anything — a border wall, a mine — can cause fragmentation of these corridors, further stressing the population.�

Two other Tucson-based environmental nonprofits are now suing the Trump administration over its plans to extend the border wall through the San Rafael Valley. The Center for Biological Diversity and Conservation CATalyst filed early last month, accusing the administration of using unsupported emergency declarations to illegally waive dozens of environmental laws and expedite the wall project.

Burns said contractors for the Department of Homeland Security are also starting construction on a new section of wall, set for completion in February, across another important wildlife corridor where the Santa Cruz River flows back into ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ east of Nogales.

It was Sky Island Alliance that captured the first photos of ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥â€™s newest jaguar in the Whetstones in 2023, though the nonprofit did not release the images until February of last year. By then, the animal had been introduced to the world by Vail wildlife videographer Jason Miller, who caught the cat on one of his trail cameras in the Huachucas in December of 2023 and posted the footage to his YouTube channel.

Miller has since taken to calling the jaguar Cochise, while environmentalists and members of the Tohono O’odham Nation voted last year to name the cat O: had Ñu:kudam, or O-shad for short, which means “jaguar protector.�

Malusa said the Wild Cat Research and Conservation Center simply refers to it as jaguar number 4, since it’s the fourth different jaguar that scientists have recorded since the research effort began 15 years ago.

With these latest trail camera photos, the Wild Cat Center has now racked up a total of 218 different detections from those four cats in ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥, where researchers currently operate about 100 wildlife cameras in about a dozen different mountain ranges.

Malusa credits the center’s dedicated team of more than 40 citizen-science volunteers for placing, monitoring and downloading all those cameras, which have also recorded ocelots, Mexican gray wolves and other rare endangered animals.

“Our volunteers have logged thousands of hours and driven thousands of miles,� she said. “Their dedication directly supports conservation science and inspires broader public awareness.�

The Wild Cat Center is also conducting genetic analysis of jaguars and ocelots in ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ using their scat and, more recently, water and mud samples collected from the landscape at large — part of the emerging science known as environmental DNA, or eDNA for short.

“We probably have the largest data set undoubtedly anywhere in the U.S.,� Malusa said. “Our research provides data for land managers and other decision-makers to respond to the importance of keeping these pathways open, for jaguars and for many other species that rely on them, especially those that are threatened or endangered.�

Sky Island Alliance has a robust research program of its own. The Tucson-based conservation group has almost doubled the size of its trail camera network in recent years to track how wildlife is being impacted by new border barriers and other construction projects along the international boundary.

Burns said they now operate about 130 cameras across Southern ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥. A recent study using some of the footage they have collected showed a dramatic decline in wildlife crossings in areas bisected by the beefed-up border wall, even where special openings have been installed to let some animals pass through.

As far as Burns is concerned, the government should be relying on “technological solutions� to secure the border, not what he called this archaic and expensive push to wall off remote areas that are critical to wildlife but rarely see much human traffic.

ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥â€™s latest wandering jaguar doesn’t need any more obstacles in his path, she said.

“I’m just completely amazed at how far these animals range,� Burns said, “and I shudder to think about all the barriers they already have to cross.�