According to LiveScience.com, the once common jaguar has since become a rare sight due to hunting and habitat fragmentation. Jaguars (Panthera onca) once ranged from southern South America to the southern United States. By the late 1900s, none were thought to exist north of Mexico, but two independent sightings in 1996 confirmed jaguars still reached as far north as Arizona and New Mexico. The species has been protected outside of the United States under the Endangered Species Act since 1973. That protection was extended to jaguars in the United States in 1997, the year after their presence here was confirmed. A most recent sighting occurred in 2012 when University of Arizona research cameras snapped photos of one in Arizona’s Santa Rita Mountains, according to the Arizona Daily Star.
 |
| Jaguar at the San Antonio Zoo (Malacara photo) |
