TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Southern Arizona is home to beautiful and rare wildlife — and people trying to capture it on camera.
Last month, local photographer Jason Miller used a trail camera to capture one of Southern Arizona’s rarest wild cats: an ocelot.
“It was off chance that I got him,” Miller told KGUN. “Usually, I concentrate on a trail, an animal’s markings or whatever and set the camera up and hope for the best.”
Arizona Game & Fish’s Mark Hart confirms the ocelot in Miller’s video has been moving through Southern Arizona for more than a decade, and has been captured several times before. But the big cat is a rare and exciting sight in the wild, infrequently coming up from Mexico.
They are similar to jaguars, which also come up from Mexico and are an even rarer sight in Southern Arizona. Getting a jaguar on camera is what got Miller involved with trail cameras in the first place, and is still an elusive goal for him.
Miller is a landscaper by trade. But for five years now, capturing wildlife videos has been his full-time passion.
“It’s like when you open a gift at Christmas: You don’t know what’s inside til you open it,” he explained. “And that’s how it is when I open a trail camera, take the SD [memory] card out and check it. I have no idea what’s walked by there in the last 3 or 4 weeks.”
Miller says he currently has 14 of these motion-activated trail cameras set up deep in the wilderness, all over Southern Arizona. He leaves for them a few weeks at a time before returning to check them.
“It’s not a home run every time I check ‘em,” he admitted.
But when it is, he posts the remarkable results on his YouTube channel, Jason Miller Outdoors.
It captures up-close videos of everything from bighorn sheep, big cats, bears as well as smaller animals like quail and a Gila monster.
“Everything I get, I love, and I love sharing it. And the response I get from it,” said Miller, whose channel has thousands of views and subscribers. “Javelina giving birth, I got two mountain lions mating… I usually set up on game trails or water spots.”
Miller knows where to look because he used to be a hunter. Two years ago—Arizona Game and Fish banned using trail cams to aid hunting.
While Miller says he never hunted in the same place as his cameras, he still decided to choose photography over hunting.
“Just decided to go with the camera stuff. I enjoyed it more,” he said. “I’m still kind of hunting but just with a camera. Instead of pulling the trigger, still getting wildlife footage. And I love it.”
Miller’s videos have inspired others to start using trail cameras. But there’s a responsible way to do that which he follows: not revealing exact locations in footage in order to protect the animals.
“While we’re excited to see the new image… Not everybody shoots with a camera,” Hart said. “And that’s what worries us. That someone may—for reasons known only to them—go and try to take that creature out.”
Amateur trail cam operators are also asked to notify Arizona Game and Fish or U.S. Fish & Wildlife when they find rare or endangered animals.
