Our latest annual report on the Tucson-Tortolita Mountains wildlife linkage project is out.

In this report, we detail the most up-to-date data and findings from our wildlife camera monitoring efforts in the fragmented Tucson-Tortolita Mountains wildlife linkage, including species presence and distribution, wildlife movement, and crossing structure usage. This information is crucial for informing our landscape connectivity and wildlife crossings advocacy and planning work in Pima County and for larger conservation efforts across the region.

A few highlights from 2025 include:

• Pima County’s new Santa Cruz River wildlife ramp was completed and CSDP installed cameras to monitor wildlife use of this one-of-a-kind ramp. Wildlife documented using and exploring the ramp thus far include coyote, javelina, and coati.
• New cameras installed in Saguaro National Park West to compare data from a core habitat area to the adjacent wildlife linkage.
• Installation of wildlife cameras in the abandoned railroad underpass under Interstate 10 just east of the Santa Cruz wildlife ramp. Our cameras quickly documented coyote, bobcat, and badger using the underpass. This is an encouraging indication that some wildlife passage is still occurring across I-10.

Background

In February 2021, CSDP began a new study of wildlife movement and species presence between the Tortolita and Tucson Mountains, including the Avra Valley wildlife corridor. This was an expansion of CSDP’s smaller monitoring efforts in this area that began in 2017. With this expanded study, monitoring is conducted using remote wildlife cameras located both east and west of Interstate-10.