Rare, endangered ocelot spotted in Arizona mountains: ‘I was in disbelief’

A rare, wild cat was spotted on film in Arizona — the first known sighting in the area in 50 years.

The ocelot — an endangered animal twice the size of a typical house cat — was seen creeping in front of a field camera in the Atascosa Mountains, pausing and looking right into the camera with shining eyes.

The spot-covered big cat was filmed in June — but it was only discovered last month when staff with Phoenix Zoo’s Atascosa Complex Wildlife Study reviewed all its footage.

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“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,” recalled field research project manager Kinley Ragan.

“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.”

It was the first sighting of that specific feline, and the “first confirmed ocelot sighting in the Atascosa Highlands region in at least 50 years,” the study team said in a statement.

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An Arizona Game and Fish Department Regional Nongame specialist confirmed the finding.

Ocelots have been endangered in the US since 1972 and are only intermittently recorded in Arizona, according to zoo officials.

Major threats to their survival include habitat fragmentation and loss, experts say. Ocelots depend on dense forest and grassland habitat for shelter.

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Zoo staff and volunteers will return to the field this month to retrieve additional footage from the spring and summer, and again in October to gather records of fall wildlife movement.

“The team initially planned to remove the cameras in October, but with this new finding, we hope to extend the study for another full year,” the researchers said.

“Finding evidence of a new ocelot in southern Arizona reinforces our commitment to collaborative efforts to conserve wildlife and their habitats in the region,” Phoenix Zoo president and CEO Bert Castro said.

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