First wild Ocelot photo in the Sky Island region
The Northern Mexico Conservation Program’s mission is to promote and coordinate scientific research, ecological restoration, and land management practices that support the ecological integrity of the Mexican Sky Islands, through the establishment of partnerships with Mexican landowners, conservation organizations, Universities and agencies.
As a conservation organization dedicated to the protection and restoration of the diverse natural heritage of native species and habitats in the Sky Islands, Sky Island Alliance is committed to facilitating jaguar and ocelot recovery in the region and to promoting their conservation throughout the region.
Through our new Northern Mexico Conservation Program, Sky Island Alliance has implemented outreach efforts to landowners in northern Sonora and commenced the collection of data using remote camera traps integrated with track counts within the Sonoran Sky Islands.
> View camera trap photos here.
> (NEW) View camera trap videos here
Mountain Lion taken by camera traps at El Aribabi
As a key component of this project we work on the establishment of partnerships with landowners and Mexican conservation organizations. Sky Island Alliance believes that when the majority of land use decisions lie with a single landowner, most successful conservation projects begin with trust, and the fate of conservation initiatives is determined by the relationship built between the landowner and the organization. The Northern Mexico Conservation Program focuses, for now, in northern Sonora, where a vast area of land is privately owned and typically managed in large blocks. We are currently engaged in cooperative restoration and research projects in the Sierra Azul, Sierra Cibuta, Sierra El Pinito, Sierra La Madera and will continue outreach and research efforts in other Sonoran Sky Islands.
Early program results
The Northern Mexico Conservation Program has started relationships with landowners through a non-invasive research project that aims to identify outstanding ecological attributes on the ground. Sky Island Alliance has recently captured the first images of live wild ocelots in the Sky Islands, only 25 miles south of the international border. Other species captured in film include beautiful mountain lions and bobcats, numerous Coue’s white-tailed deer, large coati troops, four species of skunks, entire javelina families, curious gray foxes, coyotes, ringtails and Mexican brown opossums, all since February of 2007.
Map of the Sonoran Sky Islands.
(click map for larger version in new window)
Rancho El Aribabi: The heart of the Sonoran Sky Islands
Located just 30 miles south of the border, Rancho El Aribabi boosts high biological diversity within its canyons, high mountains and clear-water streams. Owned by the Robles family, El Aribabi is managed as one of the premier ranches in the region, hosting over 30 endangered and/or threatened species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and plants. Where cattle-raising used to be the main economic activity, outdoor recreational activities like bird watching, camping, hiking and deer hunting take place today, with the support, services and facilities provided by the Robles.
The Northern Mexico Conservation Program began in February 2007 with a splash by capturing the first-ever photographs of wild ocelots in the Sky Island region. These photographs turned into conservation action in November 2007 with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Sr. Carlos Robles, owner of Rancho El Aribabi in the Sierra Azul. This memorandum shapes and advances conservation strategies that will restore and protect approximately 10,000 acres of riparian, desert, and upland wildlife habitat.
El Aribabi ranch house painted by William Hartmann
This is an exciting beginning in our efforts to work with landowners in Sonora and Chihuahua to help protect important wildlands of the Mexican Sky Island region. We are also looking forward to research projects that will help in our understanding of this relatively unknown region that is extraordinarily high in biological diversity.
>Read our newsletter insert about our Northern Mexico Conservation Program (PDF)
For information on Rancho El Aribabi please visit www.elaribabi.org
This project is featured in the October 2007 issue of Audubon Magazine. >Click here to read story (scroll to bottom of page)
Cuatro Gatos
Predators are at the top of the food network, and because of their ecological requirements felines are good indicator species of ecosystem health. The Sky Island region hosts four species of felines, and acts as a major geographical link for temperate (mountain lion and bobcat) and tropical (jaguar and ocelot) species. Their presence is a biological endorsement for this unique area where open space, wild prey populations, mating pairs, clean air and water, rugged topography and core areas and corridors are available. We have detected evidence of these gatos in the Sonoran Sky Islands, and so far have photographed three of them – they are proof of a healthy and functioning ecosystem!
“To the future of the jaguar and
the ocelot.” -Carlos Robles
A project with a scientific basis
The Cuatro Gatos project aims to ground-truth the results of potential habitat models (generated through GIS) published in the scientific literature – we are searching for the cats where scientists have predicted their potential presence (bibliographic references below). These areas represent potential biological corridors for the big-cats in their travels into the United States.
The identification of corridors and wildlife linkages across the landscape could possibly connect the jaguar’s northernmost breeding population grounds in east-central Sonora to the Sky Islands where jaguars have been recorded in southern Arizona and New Mexico. We strive to effectively use our experience, cooperator networks and trained volunteers to promote, plan and implement research and restoration activities on private lands. Specifically we bring technical know-how and a dedicated and capable volunteer workforce to the collection of essential scientific information, while bringing diverse interests together to protect native species and ecosystems.
* Boydston, E. and C. Lopez-Gonzalez. 2005. Sexual differentiation in the distribution potential of the northern Jaguars (Panthera onca). USDA Forest Service Proceedings RMRS-P-36.
* Grigione, M.M., Menke, K., Lopez-Gonzalez, C., List, R., Banda, A., Carrera, J., Carrera, R., Morrison, J., Sternberg, M., Thomas, R., and B. Van Pelt. (Unpublished). Identifying priority conservation areas in the U.S.-Mexico border region for Neotropical cats, the jaguar, jaguarundi and ocelot. Dept of Env. Science & Policy, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL.
* Lopez-Gonzalez, C., Brown, D., and J.P. Gallo-Reynoso. 2003. The ocelot Leopardus pardalis in north-western Mexico: ecology, distribution and conservation status. Oryx. 37(3), 358 - 364.
For more information on this program contact Sergio Avila at 520 624-7080 x16 or email sergio@skyislandalliance.org
Sergio Avila checking camera trap in the wildlands of Sonora