ARIZONA — A University of Arizona research team has confirmed that a new jaguar, identified as “Jaguar #5,” was photographed by trail cameras in the rugged mountains of southern Arizona this fall. The first previously unrecorded jaguar to appear in the state in several years.
According to the University’s Wild Cat Research and Conservation Center, cameras captured the male jaguar on three separate days in November 2025. The center’s biologists said the animal had not been seen in any of the 15 years of data collected from hundreds of remote cameras across Arizona’s borderlands, making it the fifth unique jaguar documented in the state since 2011.
The new sighting follows years of study showing that, despite roads, mines, and stretches of border wall, parts of the Sky Islands region still serve as functional habitat for large predators. “Each detection tells us these corridors are still alive,” one researcher with the Wild Cat Center said in a statement, noting that the cameras that captured Jaguar #5 are part of a long-running transboundary monitoring effort.
“Jaguars are a keystone species and important indicators of a healthy ecosystem,” said The Wild Cat Research and Conservation Center.
Environmental groups hailed the finding as a sign of resilience in a landscape under pressure. Sky Island Alliance, which collaborates with scientists and volunteers along the border, said the photograph of Jaguar #5 demonstrates how conservation of open space and safe passageways benefits not only jaguars but also dozens of other species that rely on connected mountain ranges.
Even so, experts caution that the presence of a single male jaguar does not indicate a return of a stable population. No female jaguars have been confirmed in the U.S. in decades, and biologists say the species’ long-term survival here depends on maintaining access to Sonoran habitats where breeding still occurs.
