HikeArizona.COM

April 16, 2010. Tucson, ARIZ. – Remote cameras captured the image of an ocelot, a rare tropical cat, in Cochise County , Arizona . Sky Island Alliance, a Tucson-based regional conservation organization, recently photographed the cat while participating in the Witness for Wildlife program, which is supported by the Freedom to Roam Coalition and Patagonia , the outdoor clothing company.

Sky Island Alliance sets remote cameras to unobtrusively observe wildlife and assess wildlife corridors in Arizona’s Sky Island region. Last week, volunteer citizen naturalists participating in the Witness for Wildlife program retrieved images from one of the remote cameras in Cochise County. The image of the ocelot was dated November 7, 2009.

Taken by a remote camera, this remarkable photograph is the first verifiable record of this elusive wild feline alive in Arizona. Although a small number of ocelots live in south Texas, ocelots have never before been recorded alive in Arizona. Additionally, this record from Arizona places ocelots over 200 miles north in latitude from where they are found in Texas.

Elusive ocelot is spotted in remote area of S. Ariz.

A rare tropical cat has been photographed by a remote camera in Southern Arizona.

Volunteers with the Witness for Wildlife program last week retrieved images of an ocelot taken by cameras in Cochise County, according to a press release from the Sky Island Alliance, a local conservation organization that set up the camera.

The image of the cat was dated Nov. 7, 2009.

The photograph is the first verifiable record of the elusive feline being alive in Arizona, according to the press release.

"It shows that Southern Arizona has a high-quality habitat. It's very diverse," said Jessica Lamberton, a Sky Island Alliance biologist.

Previous records of the cat in Arizona came from dead specimens, Lamberton said.

The organization does not plan to capture the animal, she said.

The animals have tan-brown fur and are darkly spotted with distinguishing parallel black stripes on the forehead, neck and shoulder.

They have long tails and agile bodies, usually weighing about 35 pounds.

The ocelot was listed in the United States as a federally endangered species in 1982.

The cats have been documented in northern Mexico just below the Arizona border for the last three years, Lamberton said.

A small number of ocelots also are known to live in South Texas.

Cat killed by Arizona car may be rare ocelot

Apr. 24, 2010 11:47 AM
Associated Press

TUCSON - An animal resembling a rare ocelot has been killed after being hit by a car on a highway between Superior and Globe.

An ocelot is a small- to mediuim-sized cat listed as a federally endangered species.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department collected the dead, intact carcass of the cat after it was accidentally hit last weekend on U.S. 60 by a driver.

Its remains will be sent to an U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service forensics laboratory in Oregon for testing.

The discovery comes about a week after volunteers from the Witness for Wildlife program retrieved a November photograph from a remote camera of an ocelot in Cochise County.

chumley wrote:Well at least this one wasn't actually killed by a Game and Fish employee

azbackpackr wrote:Not sure how they will make that determination.