The Santa Rita mountain range, known globally for its birds and arduous hikes, now has another distinction — it’s the only place in the U.S. and Canada where four wild cat species are known to have lived.

This discovery came to light in a new study tracing the paths of jaguars and ocelots across Southern Arizona, particularly in the Santa Ritas. The federally financed three-year study by University of Arizona researchers placed remote cameras at 250 sites across 16 mountain ranges.

At two sites in the northern Santa Ritas, photos captured a jaguar and an ocelot, both endangered species, as well as the much more common bobcat and mountain lion. Both times, all four species were photographed within a 24-hour period, the researchers said.

“It’s very unusual. We had that happen two times on a single camera,” said Melanie Culver, the study’s principal investigator. “Texas has the ocelot. They don’t have the jaguar. In the northern U.S. and Canada they have the lynx, but no ocelot or jaguar. Arizona is really unique. Southern Arizona is really unique.”

Added Susan Malusa, the study’s project manager, “You cannot find four cats anywhere north of Mexico in North America.”

Having the four species shot together within 24 hours is about as close as you can get to having them in the same photo, Culver said.

“You are not going to get jaguars and pumas posing together,” Culver said. “The only way that will happen is if one is trying to kill the other one.”

Their comments came during a wide-ranging interview, in which they also stressed what they see as the biological importance of the lone male jaguar caught in photos and videos 118 times in the Santa Ritas from fall 2012 to June 2015. From June to October, another nine jaguar photos were shot there by remote cameras managed by “citizen science” volunteers after the federal money ran out.