News last month of a new jaguar in southern Arizona captured our hearts and minds. This was the third jaguar sighted north of the U.S.-Mexico border in the last couple of years. Are we seeing these jaguars because motion-triggered cameras are more common? Or is it that our work south of the border is having an impact?

With your support, we are safeguarding prime habitat in Sonora where there is still a breeding jaguar population. If these cats survive, then surely some will move north. This is the jaguar’s moment.

Meanwhile, plans for an expanded U.S.-Mexico border wall would stop wildlife dead in their tracks. Hundreds of miles of physical barriers, roads, high-powered lighting, cameras, and sensors have been around for years. These already wreak havoc on habitat, disrupt wildlife movement and dispersal patterns, block watercourses, and alter fragile ecosystems. More would be worse.

To bring attention to how these barriers impede the flow of life, this spring we are organizing Un-Fragmenting / Des-Fragmentando: An evening of wildlife illuminations on the U.S.-Mexico border. Larger-than-life photographs of jaguars and other wildlife from the Northern Jaguar Reserve will be projected onto the border’s metal barrier, momentarily re-opening a critical wildlife corridor.

Today, NJP is participating in AZ Gives Day – a one-day campaign to boost our collective giving power to support Arizona-based nonprofits. Your contribution will help take this public art installation to communities along the border, reconnecting the wild places of the borderlands. Ultimately, we want to create passageways where a jaguar could safely saunter northward from the Northern Jaguar Reserve to reoccupy habitat in Arizona, New Mexico, or even Colorado.

Please consider making a donation here >>. 

NJP is small but mighty. We are having a decidedly positive impact on the northern jaguar population and the unparalleled biological diversity found in this region. Yet there is always more work to do. You have our most heartfelt thanks for your support; this work would not be possible without you!

Photo by Kendra Sollars