How many jaguars are there in the United States?
A. The exact number of jaguars that travel within the Arizona-New Mexico borderlands is unknown. Since 1996, four individual male jaguars have been identified in the Arizona-New Mexico borderlands. Photographs suggest, but do not conclusively document, that one or two other male jaguars have also been present in that same area since 1996. But it is unknown how much time any of these animals have spent north of the Mexico border. Biologists believe these individuals are from a population that is centered about 140 miles south of Arizona, in Sonora, Mexico, and that these males use southern Arizona as the northern extent of their territory. No female jaguars and no evidence of breeding individuals has been documented in Arizona or New Mexico since the presence of jaguars was rediscovered in 1996.
