The mysterious El Jefe has been spotted in the mountains of Arizona.
A stunning new video of a big cat in Arizona has everyone talking.
Video has emerged of a jaguar known as “El Jefe” near Tucson in Arizona, just a few months after it was photographed in the Santa Rita Mountains southeast of the city, according to a CNN report.
Known as “El Jefe” locally, it is the only known jaguar in the United States.
This wasn’t always the case, as jaguars were once common in Arizona, but now there is just one, and El Jefe is his name. Now, the Biological Diversity Center worry he might be under threat. The jaguar lives near the Rosemont Copper mine, which threatens to destroy El Jefe’s habitat.
The copper mining project is awaiting government approval, and the jaguar’s existence can’t be making the project’s backers terribly happy. They are claiming that the new mining project wouldn’t take up much of El Jefe’s range.
The cat was spotted just miles from downtown Tucson, in the mountains that are nearby. Scientists think this male jaguar once lived 130 miles south of the border before making his way up to Arizona.
Translated, El Jefe means “the boss.” It was a name chosen by Tucson school kids by way of the Center for Biological Diversity last October. Scientists became aware of its existence back in October when a hunter and his dogs chased it up a tree. The hunter snapped photos and submitted them to officials. Since then, the jaguar has been one of the most popular things in the area to photograph, and because of its distinctive spots, it’s an easy species to identify.
Leave a Reply