Jaguars in Arizona and Mexico are endangered. Can cattle ranchers save them?

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SONORA, Mexico — This panorama didn’t look like a spot to seek out jaguars, the world’s most well-known jungle cat.

The bottom was parched and rocky and largely brown, apart from the occasional cactus or palm tree. It was so scorching and dry that even a few of the prickly nopales have been wilting.

But there it was — within the playback display of a motion-sensing digital camera, strapped to an oak tree close to a dry stream mattress. Lower than per week earlier, a big jaguar had walked precisely the place I used to be now standing. Even from the small digital camera show, the cat seemed imposing, with its outsized paws and a large, skull-crushing jaw.

<img alt="A dry rocky landscape which includes only a few green cactuses and a palm tree" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6450-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6450-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6450-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6450-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6450-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6450-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6450-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6450-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6450-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6450-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6450-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6450-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6450-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6450-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6450-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6450-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> The Northern Jaguar Reserve is nestled within the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains within the northern Mexican state of Sonora. Throughout our go to in April, the dry season, there was little inexperienced vegetation apart from desert crops like organ pipe cactuses and agave. Ash Ponders for Vox

It was a blistering afternoon in April, and I used to be within the Northern Jaguar Reserve, a protected space in Sonora about 125 miles south of the US border in Arizona. The reserve and the area round it are dwelling to the world’s northernmost inhabitants of jaguars, the most important cats within the Western Hemisphere, in addition to three different species of untamed felines: ocelots, bobcats, and mountain lions, or pumas.

The cat on the display was named El Guapo. He’s the most important of 5 or 6 resident jaguars within the reserve and has doubtless fathered a handful of kittens, Miguel Gómez Ramírez, the reserve supervisor, advised me.

El Guapo has a daring persona: Whereas a few of the park’s jaguars get spooked by the flash or sound of movement cameras scattered by way of the reserve, leaping within the air like stunned home cats, El Guapo doesn’t appear to care. It’s as if he is aware of he’s on the high of the meals chain.

1 / 4 El Guapo. Courtesy of the Northern Jaguar Undertaking

Whereas jaguars are sometimes related to the tropics, they as soon as ranged as far north as Southern California, the Grand Canyon, and presumably even Louisiana. The US had jaguars!

By the mid-1900s, ranchers and hunters had exterminated these felines, largely as a result of they have been seen — like many different wild predators — as a menace to cattle. Jaguars do sometimes kill cows, although few instances of livestock predation within the US have truly been verified.

Over the previous few a long time, a number of male jaguars have been noticed of their historic territory within the American Southwest — most not too long ago, in December 2023. The extraordinary sightings give environmental advocates hope that jaguars might at some point return to the US, fixing a damaged meals chain and recovering an necessary lacking piece of Indigenous tradition within the southern borderlands.

<img alt="A jaguar pelt is on display at the Ecological Center of Sonora, a zoo in the state capital of Hermosillo." data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6654-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6654-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6654-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6654-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6654-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6654-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6654-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6654-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6654-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6654-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6654-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6654-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6654-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6654-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6654-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6654-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> A jaguar pelt is on show on the Ecological Middle of Sonora, a zoo within the state capital of Hermosillo. Ash Ponders for Vox

These cats all got here from northern Mexico. They got here from the area the place I used to be now standing, slipping by way of a few of the final remaining gaps within the border wall.

Meaning any likelihood that jaguars now have of returning to the US is dependent upon sustaining openings within the wall — and on an ample reserve of cats in northern Mexico. Jaguars can solely reestablish of their northern vary in the event that they’re sufficiently ample in Mexico, the place they’re endangered. And like within the US, ranchers in Sonora have an extended historical past of killing felines for his or her perceived, and infrequently actual, menace to cattle.

Whereas the Northern Jaguar Reserve helps defend wild cats in Sonora, what had finally introduced me to Mexico was a challenge to preserve jaguars that extends far past the park’s boundary.

For a few years, a small group of scientists and advocates have been working to solid Sonora’s jaguars in a special mild — to show them from beef-hungry villains to necessary options of the ecosystem that may carry ranchers monetary reward. These efforts seem like paying off: The inhabitants of jaguars within the reserve and the ranching area round it's steady, if not rising, providing hope that individuals can stay harmoniously with the predators they as soon as loathed.

The Northern Jaguar Reserve is, with out exaggerating, in the course of nowhere.

I traveled there final month with Roberto Wolf, a veterinarian who leads the Northern Jaguar Undertaking (NJP), an American nonprofit that oversees the refuge. After crossing the border south of Tucson, we drove one other 4 hours or so to a captivating ranch city known as Sahuaripa, the place the slim streets have been lined with brightly coloured properties and stuffed with stray canine.

<img alt="" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6074-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6074-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6074-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6074-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6074-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6074-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6074-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6074-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6074-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6074-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6074-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6074-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6074-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6074-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6074-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6074-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> Properties within the city of Sahuaripa are brightly painted and infrequently have crosses mounted on their entrance doorways. Ash Ponders for Vox

<img alt="" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2950-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2950-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2950-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2950-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2950-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2950-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2950-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2950-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2950-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2950-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2950-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2950-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2950-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2950-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2950-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2950-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> A person named Don Francisco sells heat tortillas at daybreak in Sahuaripa. Ash Ponders for Vox

<img alt="" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2916-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2916-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2916-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2916-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2916-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2916-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2916-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2916-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2916-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2916-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2916-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2916-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2916-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2916-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2916-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2916-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> A one-armed statue of Jesus overlooks the city of Sahuaripa. The opposite arm, I used to be advised, fell off in a lightning storm. Ash Ponders for Vox

From there it was one other few hours on to the reserve, largely on rugged grime roads. (I felt like we have been in a kind of automotive commercials for all-terrain autos which can be solely helpful on this actual situation.)

A while after getting into the reserve we stopped by a go browsing the aspect of the street. It was coated in scratch marks, just like the arm of a sofa in a house stuffed with cats. That was the work of a mountain lion marking its territory, mentioned Gómez, who met us within the park. He identified a movement digital camera close by that had beforehand captured the habits.

Proper earlier than arriving at our campsite, a skunk ran throughout the entrance of the automotive, did a handstand, after which disappeared into the scrub.

The subsequent morning, which was cloudless and crisp, we hiked to a spot known as La Hielería — the spot the place the path cam had not too long ago noticed El Guapo. Massive winged shadows crossed our paths, solid by vultures looking for carcasses.

<img alt="" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2841-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2841-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2841-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2841-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2841-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2841-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2841-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2841-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2841-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2841-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2841-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2841-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2841-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2841-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2841-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2841-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> On the drive from Arizona to Sahuaripa, we crossed the Yaqui River, simply west of the Northern Jaguar Reserve. It cuts by way of the foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains. Ash Ponders for Vox

<img alt="" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6564-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6564-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6564-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6564-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6564-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6564-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6564-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6564-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6564-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6564-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6564-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6564-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6564-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6564-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6564-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6564-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> Dozens of motion-detecting path cameras are scattered all through the reserve. Right here, the show exhibits a mountain lion that walked by a number of days earlier. Ash Ponders for Vox

La Hielería, as soon as a part of a cattle ranch, has an necessary place in cat conservation. Within the late Nineteen Nineties, when jaguars have been reappearing within the US, a crew of researchers started exploring northern Mexico to seek out out the place they have been coming from. As a part of that work, a biologist named Gustavo Pablo Lorenzana Piña arrange a movement digital camera by a stream mattress in La Hielería.

The digital camera captured, as anticipated, cow after cow after cow. However then, as Lorenzana stored clicking by way of, he noticed it: a jaguar, “the undisputed ruler of the neotropical forests, captured in a stupendous shot with shrubs and cacti within the background,” he mentioned.

The picture, taken in early 2000, was the primary ever picture of a stay jaguar in Sonora. It was a feminine, later named Gus, in honor of Gustavo.

<img alt="The first ever photo taken of a live jaguar in Sonora." data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/JagSah.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/JagSah.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/JagSah.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/JagSah.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/JagSah.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/JagSah.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/JagSah.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/JagSah.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/JagSah.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/JagSah.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/JagSah.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/JagSah.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/JagSah.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/JagSah.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/JagSah.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/JagSah.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> The primary ever picture taken of a stay jaguar in Sonora. GP Lorenzana/CA López-González

Her story ended — as most different jaguar tales do — by the hands of people. The animal was pursued and killed for allegedly harming cattle, Lorenzana advised me.

Though it’s technically unlawful to kill jaguars in Mexico, searching them for actual or perceived hurt to livestock was as soon as a standard follow. And it’s nonetheless a menace right now. Within the late twentieth century, at the very least 5 animals have been killed on common per yr within the state, in response to the e-book Borderland Jaguars by David Brown and NJP co-founder Carlos López González.

One man I met, in his 70s, advised me he’d killed six jaguars on a ranch that's now a part of the reserve. (He’d usually use canine to trace down the cats and chase them right into a cave or a tree. Then he’d shoot them.) Ranch homeowners would pay round 5,000 Mexican pesos — price round $260 in right now’s US {dollars}, and almost double that within the early 2000s — per slain jaguar.

<img alt="A photo of a man leaning on a wooden fence with a cow skull hanging on it" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4525-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4525-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4525-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4525-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4525-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4525-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4525-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4525-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4525-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4525-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4525-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4525-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4525-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4525-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4525-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4525-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> Heraclio “Laco” Duarte Robles killed a number of jaguars when he labored for a ranch in what's now the reserve. Now Laco is employed by the Northern Jaguar Undertaking, the place he helps maintain the cats alive. Ash Ponders for Vox

Jaguars do sometimes kill calves, although they like to feed on wild prey, comparable to deer or javelina, a small, fierce peccary that appears like a pig. In Sonora, jaguars and pumas would possibly every kill a few calves per yr, which generally quantities to solely a fraction of a rancher’s manufacturing.

Whereas Gus was on the shedding aspect of encounters between ranchers and cats, she left an enduring conservation legacy. By displaying up on a path cam in La Hielería, she helped show that Sonora was dwelling to a breeding inhabitants of jaguars. That spurred an effort to purchase up ranches — together with the one comprising La Hielería — and switch them right into a reserve. NJP bought its first ranch in 2003, and has since added a number of extra.

Collectively they cowl greater than 56,000 acres.

In the present day the Northern Jaguar Reserve has a small but wholesome inhabitants of 5 or 6 jaguars, in response to Carmina Gutiérrez González, a biologist at NJP. Movement cameras have noticed one other 10 or so jaguars passing by way of the area, mentioned Gutiérrez, who identifies people by their distinctive patterns of spots.

<img alt="A photo of a jaguar lounging on concrete in an enclosed area" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7587-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7587-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7587-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7587-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7587-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7587-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7587-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7587-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7587-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7587-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7587-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7587-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7587-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7587-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7587-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7587-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> Our solely in-person encounter with a jaguar was on the Ecological Middle of Sonora, a zoo inside a half-day’s drive from the reserve. Ash Ponders for Vox

After seeing El Guapo on the digital camera in La Hielería I wandered down the dry stream mattress, the place I stumbled upon a pile of feces. Jaguar feces, Gómez suspected. I’ve by no means been so excited to discover a pile of shit in my life.

Individuals like Gómez who've spent greater than a decade within the reserve have by no means seen jaguars nose to nose. My likelihood was near zero. So poop? I’ll take it.

The reserve is important although inadequate — it’s comparatively small, overlaying lower than 3 % of the realm of Yellowstone, for instance. Jaguars in Sonora, in the meantime, have extremely giant dwelling ranges, and might journey as a lot as 10 miles a day, Gómez mentioned.

Defending them in a single small space isn’t sufficient in a area the place searching nonetheless happens. So the Northern Jaguar Undertaking had got here up with one other answer.

One morning, after a couple of nights within the reserve, we drove to a cattle ranch simply past the boundary. We parked our dusty 4Runner subsequent to a handful of cows and their calves, who froze and stared at us as if they'd by no means seen people earlier than.

<img alt="A photo of a man smiling in front of a wooden barn" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6735-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6735-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6735-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6735-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6735-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6735-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6735-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6735-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6735-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6735-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6735-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6735-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6735-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6735-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6735-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6735-Retouch.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> Uriel Villarreal Peña on his ranch, Saucito, close to the Northern Jaguar Reserve. Ash Ponders for Vox

A rancher named Uriel Villarreal Peña, who owns the property, got here out to greet us, trailed by two canine. As we sat round his outside desk, below the shade of a tin roof, he advised us he owns slightly greater than 100 cattle — every price a number of hundred {dollars} — that he sells in Sahuaripa to be exported to the US.

For greater than a decade, Villarreal, who wore a ball cap, denims, and a button-down shirt, has been a part of a program known as Viviendo con Felinos. This system, launched by NJP in 2007, works with ranchers to position movement cameras on their land. When these cameras detect a wild cat — a jaguar, puma, ocelot, or bobcat — the nonprofit pays the rancher from a pool of funds they’ve raised from donors. The thought, Wolf advised me, is “to make dwelling wild animals extra worthwhile than lifeless ones.”

Photographs of jaguars are price 5,000 pesos every (~$260), which is analogous to what hunters would possibly make for killing them. Photographs of ocelots earn 1,500 pesos (~$78), pumas 1,000 pesos (~$52), and bobcats 5,000 pesos (~$26). Every rancher can earn a max of 20,000 pesos (~$1,038) a month for his or her pictures — greater than double the minimal month-to-month wage in Mexico. By becoming a member of Viviendo con Felinos, ranchers additionally agree to not kill any wild animals on their ranch, together with deer and javelina.

<img alt="A photo of a man looking into the distance while resting in the middle of an uneven hiking trail" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5885-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5885-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5885-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5885-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5885-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5885-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5885-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5885-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5885-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5885-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5885-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5885-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5885-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5885-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5885-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5885-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> Roberto Wolf rests for a second on our hike in La Hielería. Ash Ponders for Vox

(Mexico has one other, unrelated program run by its nationwide livestock confederation that partially reimburses ranchers for cattle killed by wild predators. Ranchers complain that these funds, that are equally meant to scale back searching, are laborious to entry and insufficient.)

Villarreal advised me he joined the NJP program partly for the cash. Cat pictures taken on his ranch earn him a couple of thousand {dollars} every year, he mentioned, which quantities to about 10 to fifteen % of his annual revenue from the ranch.

However he additionally simply likes jaguars. “I’m excited by seeing animals, in preserving animals as a result of they give the impression of being fairly,” he mentioned.

It helps that jaguars haven’t prompted him many issues. When he was younger, Villarreal thought wild cats have been dangerous as a result of they ate cattle, a rancher’s livelihood. However over time he realized that predators will keep away from calves so long as they've loads of deer and javelina to eat.

After sampling a little bit of Villarreal’s selfmade Bacanora — an agave-based liquor, much like mezcal; my job is tough, I swear! — he took us to see one among his movement cameras. It was “close by,” although getting there concerned a brief drive, a half-hour hike within the solar, and a run-in with a street runner, a manic-looking floor hen that all the time appears to be in a rush.

<img alt="" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5723-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5723-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5723-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5723-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5723-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5723-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5723-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5723-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5723-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5723-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5723-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5723-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5723-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5723-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5723-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-5723-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> Wolf and NJP subject technician Heraclio “Laqui” Duarte López present us a map at an overlook on our method to the reserve. Ash Ponders for Vox

<img alt="" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3674-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3674-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3674-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3674-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3674-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3674-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3674-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3674-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3674-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3674-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3674-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3674-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3674-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3674-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3674-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3674-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> Climbing within the reserve takes you throughout volcanic rocks and scrubland, usually within the blistering warmth. Ash Ponders for Vox

<img alt="" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4875-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4875-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4875-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4875-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4875-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4875-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4875-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4875-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4875-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4875-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4875-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4875-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4875-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4875-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4875-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-4875-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> A cattle cranium on the outskirts of Peña’s ranch. Ash Ponders for Vox

<img alt="" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-0704-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-0704-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-0704-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-0704-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-0704-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-0704-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-0704-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-0704-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-0704-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-0704-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-0704-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-0704-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-0704-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-0704-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-0704-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-0704-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> A vermilion flycatcher takes to the air throughout the financial institution of the Aros River within the reserve. Ash Ponders for Vox

Strapped to a wood publish, the digital camera was plastic, coloured in camo, and roughly the dimensions of a brick. We opened it up and clicked by way of the current pictures. Me approaching. Rabbit. Deer. Fox. A raccoon-like creature known as a ringtail. Coati. Ocelot. Javelina. Javelina. Javelina. Javelina. Javelina.

I requested Villarreal what he thinks when he sees a wild cat on the digital camera. “1,500!” he joked, referring to the cash in Mexican pesos he earns from every image of an ocelot. He then added, extra severely: “It feels good to have the ability to say that they do exist.”

Up to now, 21 ranchers close to the reserve have joined Viviendo con Felinos. And collectively, their land includes 126,000 acres — an space greater than twice the dimensions of the particular reserve. This system has in impact expanded the realm throughout which jaguars and their prey are protected. What’s extra, it’s so widespread amongst ranchers that there’s truly an off-the-cuff waitlist to affix, Wolf mentioned.

NJP has been slowly rising this system, however including extra ranches — and the entire pictures they could take — is pricey, Wolf famous. Between fall 2023 and fall 2024, NJP spent effectively over $100,000 on picture awards alone. That doesn’t embrace workers time or the price of cameras, which run round $150 every. And people cameras usually should be changed as a result of, of all issues, woodpeckers sometimes hammer out the lenses and sensors, Gómez advised me.

Viviendo con Felinos has given jaguars in Sonora extra space to roam, and that alone is big.

However these iconic animals are additionally benefiting from a extra elementary shift within the area — a shift in its tradition and customs.

After our go to with Villarreal, we stopped at his neighbor’s property, a big ranch owned by Agustín Hurtado Aguayo. Hurtado, now in his 80s, is the previous president of the state’s livestock affiliation and a large determine in Sonora’s ranching group.

A number of years in the past, “I hated felines,” he advised me at his dwelling within the metropolis of Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora, a couple of hours west of Sahuaripa. Cowboy hats and a pair of bull horns hung from the wall. “I had a really dangerous picture of them,” Hurtado mentioned.

<img alt="" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7903-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7903-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7903-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7903-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7903-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7903-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7903-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7903-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7903-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7903-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7903-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7903-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7903-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7903-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7903-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7903-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> Agustín Hurtado Aguayo at his dwelling in Hermosillo. Ash Ponders for Vox

<img alt="" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6666-3.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6666-3.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6666-3.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6666-3.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6666-3.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6666-3.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6666-3.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6666-3.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6666-3.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6666-3.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6666-3.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6666-3.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6666-3.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6666-3.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6666-3.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-6666-3.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> Ranch-life pictures and a longhorn bull mount line the wall of Hurtado’s dwelling. Ash Ponders for Vox

Searching wild cats was a follow that older generations handed on, he mentioned, and it stemmed from the assumption that cats harm manufacturing. “That’s the coaching we had,” he advised me. It was additionally regular for cowboys to hunt and eat deer, he mentioned, which diminished an necessary meals supply for predators.

After Villarreal joined Viviendo con Felinos, Hurtado grew interested in this system. He preferred the cat pictures from his neighbor’s ranch. “Once I started to see pictures from the cameras, I started to understand the animals,” he mentioned, displaying me his iPhone wallpaper of a mountain lion. “Little by little, my imaginative and prescient of untamed cats started to vary.”

Hurtado, who later additionally joined this system, realized that by limiting the variety of cattle on his ranch, his cows could be more healthy and there’d be extra grass left over for deer. If he had extra deer — and his staff kept away from searching them — wild cats would kill fewer of his animals.

These concepts have gotten more and more widespread amongst ranchers in Sonora who've joined this system.

“If we as ranchers or as homeowners of property protect the conventional meals chain, now we have no drawback,” mentioned Jose de la Cruz Coronado Aguayo, one other rancher in Viviendo con Felinos.

There are different methods, too, to guard cattle from predators, comparable to by ensuring calves don’t roam the mountains alone. In different areas of the world, putting in predator deterrents, comparable to electrical fences, alarms, and flashing lights, can be effective in stopping predation.

“Cats can actually coexist with livestock,” Hurtado advised me.

<img alt="The reserve is surrounded by cattle ranches that mostly sell calves for meat." data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3319-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3319-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3319-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3319-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3319-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3319-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3319-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3319-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3319-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3319-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3319-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3319-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3319-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3319-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3319-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-3319-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> The reserve is surrounded by cattle ranches that largely promote calves for meat. Ash Ponders for Vox

Whereas it’s clear how pictures of jaguars would possibly make somebody fall in love with wild cats, that doesn’t clarify how ranchers like Hurtado realized how one can farm in such a manner that protects each felines and cattle. Wolf, of NJP, says it usually comes right down to particular person experiences. Ranchers be taught over time that by leaving deer alone or creating new water sources for animals, fewer livestock go lacking. What’s additionally essential, he mentioned, is that by incomes cash for pictures of cats, folks in this system turn into extra tolerant of their presence — and extra open to compromise and discovering methods to stay with them.

Earlier than we left his dwelling, Hurtado took out his laptop computer and confirmed us pictures from the movement cameras on his ranch. They have been spectacular: a mountain lion, near the digital camera and carrying a glance of shock. An ocelot with what seems like a mouse in its mouth. And several other jaguars, together with the picture under, taken in 2023 — which he had set as his desktop background.

1 / 3 Photographs from movement cameras on Hurtado’s ranch. Courtesy of the Northern Jaguar Undertaking

Not everybody in Sonora abruptly loves cats. Ranchers nonetheless blame jaguars when their calves disappear or flip up lifeless. And a few jaguars are nonetheless killed discreetly. One rancher who’s not a part of Viviendo con Felinos advised me that since November he’s misplaced greater than a dozen of his calves, and he suspects that wild cats are behind the injury. He says the reserve needs to be fenced in for the advantage of ranchers. (There’s no proof that mountain lions or jaguars killed his calves, Wolf mentioned.)

Stress within the area boiled over earlier this yr, when a mountain lion apparently entered the home the place a ranch employee was staying and attacked his canine. The employee, a person named Ricardo Vazquez Paredes, says he hit the cat with a pipe and the lion ran away, however not earlier than injuring his canine, Blaki. Whereas Wolf and a few of the different ranchers I spoke to suspect his account may be exaggerated — it’s uncommon for mountain lions to go close to human dwellings — the story raised considerations round Sahuaripa about jaguars and efforts to guard them.

Local weather change may also worsen battle within the area. Ranchers I spoke to say Sonora is getting drier , that means there can be much less and fewer grass for cattle — and for animals like deer that wild cats eat. That would make cows weaker and extra prone to starve and jaguars hungrier and extra prone to assault. Research suggests that jaguars kill extra calves when it’s dry.

In 2023, a rancher in Viviendo con Felinos named Diego Ezrre Romero misplaced a calf to a jaguar. “Essentially the most crucial factor on my ranch is water,” Ezrre advised me. “There are few deer due to the situations.”

<img alt="Diego Ezrre Romero, a rancher in the Viviendo con Felinos program, in the verdant courtyard of his home in Sahuaripa." data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2389-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2389-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2389-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2389-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2389-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2389-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2389-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2389-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2389-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2389-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2389-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2389-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2389-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2389-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2389-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-2389-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> Diego Ezrre Romero, a rancher within the Viviendo con Felinos program, within the verdant courtyard of his dwelling in Sahuaripa. Ash Ponders for Vox

That is to say: Battle in Sonora isn’t about to vanish altogether.

But Viviendo con Felinos seems to be serving to. Together with NJP’s different efforts to interact the group — education schemes, for instance, and portray murals that depict the enduring cats in Sahuaripa and different cities — the group is making ranchers in jaguar territory extra tolerant to cats. And because of funds, extra tolerant to losses that they could trigger.

“With out them [NJP] there wouldn’t even be a jaguar right here proper now,” mentioned Fausto Lorenzo, a rancher close to Sahuaripa who’s not affiliated with the reserve. “All of the ranchers would have killed them as a result of that was the customized.”

From Hurtado’s dwelling in Hermosillo, we drove again towards Arizona. The freeway reduce by way of fields of saguaro cactuses. Mud devils spun within the distance, transferring like flying whirlpools throughout the scrubland.

<img alt="A photo of a dramatic yellow sunset behind layers of mountains" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7223-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7223-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7223-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7223-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7223-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7223-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7223-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7223-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7223-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7223-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7223-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7223-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7223-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7223-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7223-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Ponders-Vox-Jaguars-7223-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> The solar units behind the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains close to the reserve. Ash Ponders for Vox

The success that NJP has had in Mexico finally bodes effectively for efforts to revive jaguars to the US. The variety of jaguars within the reserve is steady, Gutiérrez says, however movement cameras counsel that year-over-year extra people are passing by way of the area. That’s extra people that would doubtlessly spill into the US.

One large drawback, nevertheless, stays.

As we neared the US border, the wall got here into focus. It was metallic and brown and rose 18 ft above the desert. Now stretching hundreds of miles throughout the Southwest, the wall has made the border largely emotionless to wildlife — together with jaguars. And it’s nonetheless increasing. The Trump administration is now planning to complete one of many final unwalled sections of the border, a 25-mile stretch within the San Rafael Valley, about 150 miles northwest of the refuge, the place jaguars have crossed into the US.

The long run for Sonora’s jaguars seems promising no matter whether or not Trump finishes his wall. NJP and other organizations have given these animals extra space to stay and helped reduce the threats they face.

The true loss can be felt within the US. And never simply amongst environmentalists and different wildcat advocates. Jaguars have lived within the US lengthy earlier than any of us. They’re a part of the nation’s nature heritage — of the ecosystems which can be really American — and their absence leaves our landscapes impaired. Ranchers in Sonora train us that we are able to stay alongside the continent’s nice predators. We simply have to decide on to.

Replace, Might 20, 11:25 am ET : This piece was initially printed on Might 20 and up to date to incorporate each peso and greenback quantities the place relevant.