If you take a walk through the oak trees in the grasslands along the Arizona-Mexico border, you might spot a deer grazing in the distance or a Mexican jay perched on a branch.
But many animals are elusive. Wildlife cameras open a window to peer into their hidden lives, capturing images of creatures that usually wander through unseen.
Strapped to trees, the cameras work by sensing motion and heat. When triggered, day or night, they begin taking photos of whatever is passing by.
Over the past year, researchers with the conservation group Sky Island Alliance have been studying animals along about 30 miles of the border using dozens of cameras. The purpose of the project is to document species that live near areas where the Trump administration built new stretches of border wall.
The borderlands harbor a rich variety of wildlife, making up one of the great hotspots of biodiversity in North America. In the rugged mountains, deserts and grasslands, a large number of animal species come together in some of the wildest and most remote lands in the Southwest.
While the cameras have become a valuable tool for conservationists advocating against wall construction and for portions of the barriers to be taken down, the images also provide a rare closeup look at the animals that make their home along the border.
The cameras are spread in a grid formation, with 58 evenly spaced observation points on both sides of the border. The study covers a 67 square-mile area, about the size of Washington, D.C., running through rolling grasslands and foothills of the Huachuca and Patagonia mountains.
In 12 months, the cameras have documented 106 species. And the list continues to grow.
Here are some examples:
This white-nosed coati was photographed as it roamed about the Patagonia Mountains at sunset.
Coatis, also known as coatimundis, live in areas ranging across the Americas from Arizona to Argentina. They feed on insects, small rodents and lizards, among other things.
Females and their young live in groups called bands, while adult males mostly live alone. The researchers have spotted both bands of animals and lone males.
The borderlands lie at the northern end of the coatis’ range, while larger populations lie to the south in Mexico and Central America. Conservationists say coatis are too large to cross through the spaces in new sections of border wall, and that bands of animals on the U.S. side could end up isolated from larger populations in Mexico.
How many javelinas do you see?
This squadron of javelinas was photographed in the San Rafael Valley in southeast Arizona. Javelinas live in large family groups — also known as squadrons — with usually 10 or fewer individuals. Some groups, however, have been reported to include more than 50 javelinas.
Javelinas have a large range and are found from southern Texas, New Mexico and Arizona to as far south as northern Argentina.
They are primarily herbivores, feeding on native plants like agave, prickly pear and mesquite beans, but they will also eat lizards, dead birds and rodents. Their average lifespan in the wild is 10 years.
Still unsure of how many are in the photo? Based on the number of glowing eyes in the photo, it looks like there are at least five javelinas.
This lone elf owl was photographed in the Patagonia Mountains as it took a moment’s rest on a low hanging branch. Known for their pale-yellow eyes, elf owls are among the smallest owls to frequent the Sonoran Desert.
They’re only commonly found in the southwestern U.S., central Mexico and the Baja California Peninsula and are usually expected to live for 3-6 years in the wild.
Like the trail camera that took this photo, these owls have excellent night vision, which helps them feed on their preferred diet of insects. These invertebrate meals become harder to find during the cold of winter, which is why the owls commonly migrate south to Mexico.
A male pronghorn grazes along the grasslands as the sun sets in San Rafael Valley. Pronghorn are considered to be the fastest land mammal in North America, with the ability to travel at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour.
Males have sharply pointed horns. Females also have horns, which are smaller and more slender. The horn’s tissue is composed of fused hairs which form over a bone core.
There are multiple subspecies of pronghorn in the U.S., including the Sonoran pronghorn, a subspecies listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Known as the “desert ghost,” this subspecies is notoriously difficult to spot. With eyes positioned high on their heads, they can spot movement from miles away.
This black bear was photographed in the foothills of the Huachuca Mountains. Black bears are the widest-ranging North American bear and are the only bear species found in Arizona.
Except for females with cubs, black bears are solitary animals. Their range spans from Canada to Mexico; individuals roam around 7 to 15 square miles.
They eat acorns, pine and fir seeds, berries and honey and occasionally small rodents. At short distances, they can run as fast as 30 miles per hour.
This bobcat was photographed in the San Rafael Valley in southeast Arizona. About the size of an Australian shepherd, they prefer to feed on rabbits but will also eat birds, rodents, lizards, carrion and even snakes.
They are found from southern Canada to northern and central Mexico. They are active and shelter in a variety of habitats as they roam, from rocky caves to low tree branches. They prefer extensive plant cover, like that in rocky canyons and river corridors.
A female will move her kittens between several dens. Bobcats can live 13 to 15 years in the wild.
The wildlife camera enables a closeup look at this large mule deer buck. The name “mule deer” comes from the animals' large ears, which are similar to a mule’s. Their ears and sharp eyesight help them avoid predators.
These social animals live in herds and have a huge range from the Yukon in the Arctic Circle to northern Mexico. Fawns are born between April and September, and twins are common.
After overhunting in the 19th century nearly drove them to extinction, mule deer populations have rebounded through conservation efforts.
A trail camera catches the colors of a lone pipevine swallowtail butterfly in the foothills of the Patagonia Mountains, while another image captures a dance between two butterflies in the grasslands of San Rafael Valley.
These butterflies are known for the beautiful dorsal surfaces of their wings, which are generally blue or blue-green.
The U.S. distribution of the pipevine swallowtail butterfly extends from southern Connecticut south to central Florida and west to Arizona, with an endemic subspecies in Northern California.
This bat was photographed in the Huachuca Mountains. The researchers weren’t able to identify the species, but they’ve included the bat in their tally because it’s part of a unique animal family.
About 70 different species of bats live in the Sonoran Desert. Some species, such as the lesser long-nosed bat and the Mexican free-tailed bat, migrate from Central America and Mexico into Arizona.
Some of these pollinators drink nectar and pollinate saguaros and agaves.
Conservation advocates say they’re concerned that bright lights installed in places along the border barrier could disrupt the movements of nocturnal species like bats.
This mountain lion walked into view in the Patagonia Mountains.
Mountain lions live in an enormous range that stretches across the Americas, from Canada to South America. Throughout these areas, they are also known as cougars, pumas or panthers.
The cats roam through habitats in the borderlands, preying on deer and other animals.
As adults, their fur is mostly tawny-beige. But cubs have spotted coats and rings around their tails, which disappear as they grow.
One night last year, another wildlife camera near the border captured images of a mother cougar passing with three spotted cubs.
The Mexican subspecies of the Virginia opossum has appeared eight times in front of the cameras during the study over the past year.
This type of opossum is mostly found farther south in Mexico, and the border lies near the limit of its range. Conservation advocates say new sections of border wall could separate some individuals in Arizona from the core population further south in Mexico.
It’s unknown how these marsupials may fare as temperatures rise with climate change. But conservationists say some species like this one could move northward as temperatures get hotter, and if the animals encounter a wall, that could hinder their movement.
The North American porcupine isn’t commonly seen in Arizona. But the animals have been photographed more than 10 times during the yearlong study.
The porcupine is the second-largest rodent in North America after the beaver. They are often 2-3 feet long and can weigh about 20 pounds.
The U.S.-Mexico border is near the southern end of the porcupines’ range, and the researchers said they’ve been excited to see the animals appear in their images.
The cameras are regularly checked by employees and volunteers, who change the batteries, switch out memory cards and bring the cards back to Tucson.
At her computer, wildlife specialist Meagan Bethel does the laborious work of going through the photos one by one. The vast majority of the images she looks at — thousands upon thousands of photos — are blank, with no animals, and she sets these aside.
The cameras can be triggered by trucks passing on a road, by people walking past or by wind rustling through the vegetation. Rainstorms will also set off the cameras.
Bethel said she moves quickly through the images, scanning for changes in movement. With nighttime images, she said she goes more slowly “to make sure nothing is hiding in the shadows.”
Bethel said she loves seeing an animal appear in the frame.
“It's a glimpse into their daily lives and you can see the character they all have,” Bethel said. “The deer and coyotes are some of the most common on camera but they are always doing something interesting. They display their natural behaviors that humans rarely see like playing, grooming, or nursing.”
The cameras were installed and started recording photos in March 2020. Conservationists at Sky Island Alliance wanted to document the wildlife in habitat corridors along the Huachuca and Patagonia mountains, which span the border.
Leaders of the organization said they began the project with a sense of urgency because the Trump administration had waived environmental laws to speed construction, eliminating requirements for studies examining the environmental effects.
“What we tried to do as fast as we could was to try to fill in that gap,” and do the sort of science that the federal government skipped, said Paulo Quadri Barba, the group’s conservation director. Using the cameras over the past year has enabled them to gather data on the diversity of species, Quadri said, and “basically do what should have been done if laws would have been followed properly.”
The many species show that this stretch of the border along the Arizona-Mexico border is a jewel of biodiversity, Quadri said, and should be protected and restored.
Before the border wall construction, species in the borderlands were already facing challenges, he said, such as the fragmentation of habitats and the effects of climate change. And now they’re contending with a barrier, he said, that is “severing those populations of animals.”
Quadri, an ecologist who previously worked for the park service in Mexico, said he’d like to see as much wall removed as possible, and for the U.S. and Mexico to work together to “heal the wounds” and establish a reserve or park around the area. He said the species documented in the study can also inform decisions about areas where segments of the wall could be removed.
In the meantime, the wildlife cameras are continuing to take photos along the border.
“We would of course love to catch jaguars and ocelots out there,” Quadri said. “We know they're around.”
Those rare cats have been photographed with trail cameras elsewhere in the border region. And as those and other animals wander in front of the lenses, the list of confirmed species will continue to grow.
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Environmental coverage on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. Follow The Republic environmental reporting team at environment.azcentral.com and @azcenvironment on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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