A breeding population of ocelots discovered just 30 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border is likely a source of the handful of cats that have been photographed in southeastern Arizona mountains over the past decade, researchers who conducted a new study of the animals said.

The study, published Monday in the scientific journal PeerJ, used data from eight years of camera trapping at a cattle and conservation ranch about 35 miles southeast of Nogales in the Mexican state of Sonora. Using remote cameras, the researchers photographed 18 ocelots in this mountainous region, including eight males, five females and five of an undetermined gender, the study said.

The ocelots, endangered in both the U.S. and Mexico, were photographed from 2007 through 2011 and from 2015 through 2018. In 2011, a female with a 1- to 2-year-old kitten trailing behind it was photographed.

“That’s the first evidence of ocelots actually breeding this close to the border,” said Jessica Moreno, a biologist and one of the co-authors of the study. “It makes very logical sense that from this population they’d be moving up to the Huachuca Mountains and northwards.”

The study is an example of successful binational conservation efforts, said the researchers, whose work led a local rancher to set aside some of his land for the benefit of the ocelots.

But researchers said the findings are also a reminder of how a proposed border wall could further imperil the endangered spotted cat and other migrating wildlife. If ocelots can’t move through habitats north of the border, they will likely go extinct in the United States.

Since 2009, five male ocelots have been documented in southern Arizona. The wide-ranging cats are found from southern Texas and Arizona to northern Argentina and the Caribbean islands of Margarita and Trinidad.

In this part of the borderlands, ocelots seem to prefer traveling along riparian areas, relying on perennial surface water, said the study’s lead author, Jim Rorabaugh, a retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wildlife biologist. The cats were photographed in a tree-lined stretch of the Ri?o Coco?spera, similar to the San Pedro River, and a large arroyo in the Sierra Azul mountains.

Ocelots, jaguars and other subtropical animals are found in the Sky Islands, a series of isolated mountain ranges that run north to south across southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico and northern Mexico. The region is unique for its biodiversity and confluence of subtropical and temperate flora and fauna. This “melting pot” of ecosystems is why such a diverse range of species are found in this region.

“There’s no other place in the world where you’re going to find black bears and jaguars together in the same canyons,” said Moreno. “There’s no other place where you’re going to get canyon grapes and chiltepin peppers growing side by side. If we’re going to continue to have species like ocelots, or possum or coati or javelina in Arizona, they need that movement across the border.”

MORE:Rare ocelots try to survive in a world that barely knows they exist

Border wall construction a threat

Though funding has not yet been allotted for construction, Customs and Border Protection has proposed building new bollard-style, pedestrian fencing along 26 miles of the border directly north of the ranch, abutting the Coronado National Memorial, near Hereford.

In 2011, a young healthy male ocelot was spotted on a ranch in the Huachuca mountains within Coronado National Forest. That same year, a camera trap set up by Moreno and Sergio Avila, another co-author of the study and wildlife biologist with the Sierra Club, captured the first ever image of an ocelot in Arizona even further north, in the Whetstone mountains.

Currently, the border infrastructure in that remote area consists of vehicle barriers, which wildlife can cross through relatively easily.

“They can probably negotiate a vehicle barrier, but probably not a wall if a wall is built there,” said Rorabaugh. “Traffic along the border, clearing for building a wall, lights, vehicles, that sort of thing would be a deterrent. They appear to be fairly sensitive to human forms of disturbance, based on our study.”

The study showed that ocelots avoided areas with or near human activity, circumventing a paved road on the ranch and places dominated by cattle. A 2017 study by the Center for Biological Diversity said the border wall could drive the ocelot to extinction in the United States.

“Our study proves what scientists and conservationists have been saying for the last 15 years that a border wall is a bad idea for wildlife, that all wildlife are affected,” Avila said. “Ocelots are one of the victims of these kinds of policies.”

“It’s a question of whether we value other species. Do we feel an obligation to conserve imperiled species that we’re really the reason for why they’re imperiled, which is true in the case of the ocelot?” Rorabaugh asked. “Some people would say we don’t have a responsibility to do that, but I think most people would say we do have a responsibility to the ocelot, to imperiled species in general, and to the ecosystem that we are a part of.”

READ MORE: How a border wall could drive the jaguar extinct in America

Rancher works with researchers

Rancho El Aribabi, where the ocelots in the new study were found, is a 30,000-acre ranch run by Carlos Robles Elias and his family, longtime ranchers in the area. Avila spent two years building a trusting relationship with Elias, who at first was skeptical of the researchers.

In 2006, Elias allowed Avila to place six cameras on his ranch. Within a month, an ocelot was photographed in a river canyon on the ranch. In the kitchen of Elias’ ranch house, Avila showed him the picture of the beautiful spotted cat. Elias was amazed. He raised a glass for a toast.

“A la salud del jaguar y el ocelote,” he said. “To the health of the jaguar and the ocelot.” From then on, Elias kept 100 head of cattle out of that river corridor, except for a brief time in between the two research efforts because of the economic recession, said Elias’ son, Germán.

“My father has always loved wildlife,” Germán Robles wrote in an email to The Arizona Republic. “We have been making a big effort to preserve the areas where these populations are thriving. When land is preserved, animals can thrive and survive while they live through a changing world.”

Despite cattle ranching being their main source of income, the family stopped grazing in certain riparian areas where ocelots were photographed. They hosted and supported the researchers as they worked on the study.

“We were not paying him money, he was not doing this for fame,” Avila said. “And yet he was willing to remove activities he does for profit, he was willing to sacrifice a little bit of that for the ocelot.”

Elias worked with the Mexican government to establish about one-third of his ranch as a private reserve to protect species like ocelots and jaguars. In 2011, the Mexican government designated sections of the ranch a Protected Natural Area, the highest level of environmental protection possible on private lands in Mexico.

Soon, Elias was inviting local high school and middle school children to his ranch to learn about wildlife, Avila said.

“That kind of relationship on the ground, a personal relationship, is what maintains our binational conservation and connection,” Avila said. “It’s what allows us to continue adapting to climate change, adapting to drought, and working on other things. We might be divided in terms of politics, but we are not divided in terms of the land and our love for the land and our interest in wildlife.”

Erin Stone covers the environment for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Send her story tips and ideas at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @Erstone7.

Environmental coverage on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. Follow The Republic environmental reporting team at environment.azcentral.com and at OurGrandAZ on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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