Jaguars may be quietly reclaiming their old range in the Southwest, but a 30-foot barrier could stop them cold. Trail cameras in a private preserve in northern Sonora, Mexico—just two miles from Arizona—have recorded at least five or six jaguars since 2020, including a confirmed female dubbed Adela and possibly a second. That's a big shift, reports the New York Times: no native female jaguar has been documented anywhere near the US border in more than 70 years. Researchers say the sightings suggest breeding cats now roam much farther north than previously believed, potentially putting them within a day's walk of the United States.
Yet the very corridor those cats would likely use is being sealed. Since 2025, contractors for the Department of Homeland Security have added 56 miles of new primary wall and 48 miles of secondary fencing, much of it 30 feet high and impassable to large wildlife. Planned sections in Arizona could block three of the four key remaining routes between Sonora and the state. Small wildlife openings are being added, but at 8.5 by 11 inches, they're too tiny for a jaguar. The Adela development could be a big deal: The only known US jaguar, a male called Cinco, is wandering southern Arizona without a mate. "Each new video of Cinco is a glaring reminder that jaguars need to move freely between the US and Mexico and that Trump's border wall is a deadly threat to their continued existence in Arizona," Russ McSpadden, of the Center for Biological Diversity, tells the Arizona Republic.
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