Video: Endangered Ocelot Captured on Camera in Rare Spotting

In the United States, ocelots used to roam in great numbers across the Southwest , but their numbers have dwindled in some parts of their habitat over the years, leading to the species to be categorized as endangered in the U.S. in 1982. Footage from a hidden camera in Arizona, however, showed that they could be returning to parts of their range that they'd been believed to have abandoned.

Phoenix Zoo's ongoing Atascosa Complex Wildlife Study captured video of a never-before-seen ocelot in southern Arizona earlier this summer, which the organization detailed in a recent statement . It was caught on candid camera in the Coronado National Forest's Nogales Ranger District, where the zoo has had field cameras installed since April under a U.S. Forest Service research permit.

The zoo shared in a statement that it was the "first confirmed ocelot sighting in the Atascosa Highlands region in at least 50 years." Unsurprisingly, it wasn't exactly in an area easily accessible to humans.

"This particular location required a 40 minute hike to the site as the temperature was reaching 95 degrees,” Phoenix Zoo’s field research project manager Kinley Ragan said. "The ocelot video was one of the last videos I reviewed and sent full chills through my body at the excitement and pride in what we had recorded. I was in disbelief at first, watching the video over and over again, but soon a big smile spread across my face as the full impact of this discovery for the important region set in."

"Finding evidence of a new ocelot in southern Arizona reinforces our commitment to collaborative efforts to conserve wildlife and their habitats in the region,” zoo president and CEO Bert Castro added. "We’re eager to review additional camera data from this study to see what else we can learn about species of conservation concern in the borderlands and what they need for their continued survival."

Time will tell if this is a sign of a growing ocelot population in an area they used to call home.