As the Trump administration plows ahead with plans to wall off the southern border, a small army of scientists and amateur ecologists is busy cataloging the wide variety of wildlife found along both sides of the international boundary.
A well-traveled ocelot nicknamed Himdam, O'odham for Traveler, walks past a motion-activated trail camera in the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson in March 2025.
University of Arizona Wild Cat Research and Conservation Center
In a remote-camera image captured in March, a jaguar nicknamed Cinco revisits a Southern Arizona water source where it has been documented before, suggesting the endangered cat has taken up residence in the area.
University of Arizona Wild Cat Research and Conservation Center
Participants in the 2026 Border BioBlitz walk through the brush at the Cuenca Los Ojos preserve in northern Sonora, just across the border from San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge, on April 24.
In a remote-camera image captured in March, a jaguar nicknamed Cinco revisits a Southern Arizona water source where it has been documented before, suggesting the endangered cat has taken up residence in the area.
University of Arizona Wild Cat Research and Conservation Center
Participants in the 2026 Border BioBlitz walk through the brush at the Cuenca Los Ojos preserve in northern Sonora, just across the border from San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge, on April 24.
A well-traveled ocelot nicknamed Himdam, O'odham for Traveler, walks past a motion-activated trail camera in the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson in March 2025.
University of Arizona Wild Cat Research and Conservation Center
