![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/A-jaguar-on-the-Piquiri-river-credit-Charles-J.-Sharp-from-Sharp-Photography-CC-4.0.-BY-SA-via-Wikim.jpeg\")
A jaguar on the Piquiri river \u2013 credit, Charles J. Sharp from Sharp Photography CC 4.0. BY-SA via Wikimedia<\/p>\n A jaguar on the Piquiri river \u2013 credit, Charles J. Sharp from Sharp Photography CC 4.0. BY-SA via Wikimedia<\/p>\n
Imagine sitting in southern Texas and knowing that in less than a day you could drive to se the world\u2019s third largest cat.<\/p>\n
That is absolutely the reality in Mexico today, following a second national jaguar population census which found this charismatic cat is actually increasing in numbers across the country, reaching around 5,300 animals.<\/p>\n
Gerardo Ceballos and colleagues conducted the first census in 2010, hoping to grasp more or less the gravity of the risk of extinction faced by the jaguar. They were estimating they\u2019d find around 1,000 in the whole of Mexico.<\/p>\n
But rather than the risk of extinction, their results conveyed a different narrative. They found four-times as many cats as they expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a great surprise, terrific news,\u201d Ceballos said. \u201cObviously 4,000 means the species is still in danger of extinction, but 4,000 is a lot better than 1,000.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then in 2025, Ceballos completed a second survey, employing over 50 national and local research institutions and community leaders, who together set up 920 motion-activated camera traps.<\/p>\n
Staggered again, the count showed that in 15 years, jaguar numbers had increased 30%. It turns out that even though the twenty-teens saw hundreds of thousands of acres of forest cleared, there were almost as many jaguars in Mexico as there are cheetahs on the entire African continent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that the country has managed to maintain and increase its population over the last 14 years is extraordinary,\u201d Ceballos told the Guardian<\/a>. \u201cFor me it\u2019s great news for the country. Mexico and the world need good news.\u201d<\/p>\n The populations came in as follows: the Yucat\u00e1n peninsula region had the most (1,699), followed by the south Pacific area (1,541), north-east and central Mexico (813), the north Pacific (733) and the central Pacific coast (540).<\/p>\n