The Sonoran Desert is a rugged, yet sensitive ecosystem that is teeming with life and biodiversity. The bi-seasonal rain that falls gives life to more plant species than any other desert in the world. 350 bird species, 130 mammal species, 20 amphibian species, over 100 reptile species, 30 native fish species, over 1000 native bee species, and more than 2,000 native plant species call this desert home.

It doesn’t really take a biologist or conservationist to understand that building a giant wall across this area will disrupt the natural order of things.

Before the physical wall comes the construction. Recently, we’ve seen that an ancient aquifer is being pumped for concrete preparation and native burial sites are being destroyed through “controlled blasting.” Trucks are moving in. Lights are shining during the night. People are present. If completed, the wall will leave 4-inch slots, barely big enough for the smallest of wildlife to feel safe passing through.

The endangered Sonoran ocelot

A new study documented 18 ocelots living on a Sonoran cattle ranch and wildlife refuge near the U.S. border. Photo: Jim Rorabaugh

One of the species in question is the endangered Sonoran ocelot. While the discovery of a breeding, northern Sonora ocelot population just south of the border is a good sign for binational wildlife conservation, it is a sad reminder of those who are being forgotten in a move of racism and hatred.

This northernmost known breeding population of endangered ocelots was detected on a conservation-oriented ranch lying amidst mountainous terrain, some 30 miles south of the border. The study published in PeerJ is the result of eight years of observations.

To record wildlife observations, various cameras were placed at over 50 remote sites across Rancho El Aribabi, an almost 40,000-acre group of cattle-ranching properties situated in the Sky Island region of northern Sonora, Mexico. These ranches are privately owned.

Using the cameras, researchers got photos of 18 ocelots over an eight-year period. They included eight males, five females and five of undetermined gender.

A female ocelot called Coontail is shown on Sept. 18, 2017 in Arroyo Tinaja, a tributary drainage off the Rio Cocospera in Sonora, Mexico, just south of the border. Video: Jim Rorabaugh

In February of 2011, a female ocelot was photographed with a kitten, a telltale sign of breeding. Their presence makes this group a probable source of the five ocelots who have been photographed in southern Arizona mountains over the past decade, the study said. Understanding these cats’ behavior will improve ocelot conservation on both sides of the border.

Having a breeding population of endangered ocelots this far north is “pretty exciting,” Jim Rorabaugh, a retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist and the study’s lead researcher, said.

“I think it’s important that we see them all as one population instead of trying to see them as Arizona and Sonoran populations. They’re all the same, all in the Sky Islands,” said Sergio Avila, a Tucson biologist who worked on the new study. “I would not divide them.”

Which is what a wall would do.

The Destruction of Construction

“Could they physically pass through a wall with bollards (posts) that are 4 inches apart? Maybe an ocelot could squeeze through; but would they?” Rorabaugh asks.

He continues, “…one thing that was pretty clear from our study is that ocelots are pretty sensitive to various kinds of human disturbance.” He said that the ocelots were sensitive to human activity, avoiding a major paved road on the ranch, any sign of human habitation and areas of heavy cattle use.

Before the monsoon come, which last from April to July, cattle tend to “just park” at water sources, hanging there for hours at a time, Rorabaugh said.

“They are fouling it, drinking it down — we didn’t have any ocelots coming into places like that,” he said.

“They also don’t like open areas, and where they clear around the wall, that would be a deterrent as well. They are pretty nocturnal, and if there are lights along the wall that’s probably not going to be very good for an ocelot either.”

“And it’s not only the wall. It’s the destruction of habitat, impacts on public lands, opening roads and checkpoints, construction materials and construction trucks,” said Avila, who is a local outdoors program coordinator for the Sierra Club’s Southwest region.

People working together

Tom Van Devender, is a Tucson biologist who is heading up yet another ocelot study. His research includes recordings of ocelots dating back to the 1930s across eastern Sonora.

He points out that the Tucson-based conservation group, Northern Jaguar Project, has had success at working with neighboring Sonoran ranchers, far south of Aribabi, to protect jaguars. He cited the recovery of streams and washes at the privately-owned Cuenca Los Ojos ranch south of Agua Prieta where ocelots were discovered in the still unpublished study.

“It’s a tropical animal, it’s coming from the south, and goes down as far south as South America,” Van Devender said. “It’s much more common in tropical vegetation farther south. The ones Jim Rorabaugh has are moving up north.”

The ocelot populations being discovered on private land throughout Sonora in Aribabi is evidence of private landowners working together for the cause of conservation.

“This study in the borderlands has nothing to do with the stories we’re told about Mexico, nothing to do with violence, with danger, with bad people,” said Avila. “These landowners are people who are thinking beyond themselves and their own profits.”

In 2011, the Mexican government designated sections of Aribabi where ocelots have been found as a Protected Natural Area. That’s the highest level of environmental protection possible on private lands in Mexico. Two jaguars have been photographed there. Conservationists call Aribabi a “core reserve” for northern Mexico.

Conservation efforts of the Rio Cocospera at Rancho el Aribabi have provided a safe haven for jaguars and ocelots. Photo: El Aribabi

Carlos Robles Elias is the heir to a longtime ranching family who manages about one-third of the ranch for conservation. He rotates cattle frequently and limits herd sizes where ocelots have been seen.

He applauded Rorabaugh’s work on the study as “extraordinary.” He feels that governments aren’t doing enough to protect endangered species such as ocelots, he added, “Fortunately we already have a serious organization that is collaborating strongly to help us protect the place. Together, micro and tiny cells of this world, we do better things than governments.”