His name is O:ṣhad Ñu:kudam, or “Jaguar Protector” in the O’odham language. Exactly as it should be, says 8-year-old Kii’yaa’nii Ross, who is Yaqui, Purepecha and Navajo and refers to herself as “an Indigenous Diné girl.”
O:ṣhad Ñu:kudam is pronounced Oh-sha-dt Noo-koo-dum.
Kii’yaa’nii helped with the naming and calls it the perfect choice for the new male jaguar traveling in and around Tohono O’odham land that stretches across both sides of the U.S.-México border in Southern Arizona.
“I think it’s important to name the jaguar an Indigenous name because, first, it’s in the original language of the people who originated on this land, and the jaguars originated on this land, too,” she said in a video introducing O:ṣhad Ñu:kudam to the world.
Students from public schools on the Tohono O’odham Nation; groups of elders and hundreds of Tohono O’odham tribal members; as well as people with Pascua Yaqui and Diné (Navajo) heritage, worked together to choose the new moniker for the large cat. Students in the Baboquivari Unified School District eventually voted on the final name.
“Jaguars are important to me because they’re at the top of the food chain, and if we protect them, then we’re basically protecting everything,” Kii’yaa’nii said.
The jaguar is the hemisphere’s top predator, known for its stealth, strength and incredibly powerful jaws that can crack the skulls of its prey. And yet the large cat is also long revered and known as an animal that protects, keeping threatened ecosystems in balance and standing as a symbol for resilience in the face of encroaching development and walls.
Those qualities are why the latest jaguar known to be roaming Southern Arizona earned its new name.
“As O’odham we view jaguars as protectors of our people and the environment,” Austin Nunez, chairman of the San Xavier District of the Tohono O’odham Nation, said in a press release.
The male jaguar is the fourth jaguar since 2015 to live in the area. Other recent jaguars include El Jefe, Sombra and Yo’oko Nahsuareo (the Yaqui word for Jaguar Warrior).
Students from the Pascua Yaqui Tribe at Hiaki High School gave Yo’oko Nahsuareo his name in 2017. A lion hunter trapped and killed Yo’oko in early 2022 in México.
Remote trail cameras set by researchers, conservationists, hobbyists and U.S. Border Patrol agents have detected O:ṣhad more than a dozen times beginning in early 2023 and as recently as February 2024, according to a press release from the Center for Biological Diversity.
“O:ṣhad Ñu:kudam’s presence serves as a powerful testament to the resilience of nature and the importance of ongoing conservation efforts,” Nunez said. “We are committed to working to ensure a safe and thriving future for O:ṣhad and, one day, hope to see the return of a breeding population of jaguars to this region.”
Jaguars were nearly completely exterminated in the United States in the last century due to habitat loss and government predator control programs — mostly at the behest of cattle ranchers — but they keep crossing back into the country from México, especially as conservation efforts there have helped populations increase in size and health.
“Jaguars and Tribal Nations share a similar history,” said Aletris Neils, executive director with Conservation CATalyst. “Each jaguar that returns to their native lands is a symbol of hope that past injustices can be overcome.”
Members of the Tohono O’odham Nation created a list of 10 names that were put up for the vote. Elizabeth Ortega, a culture and language teacher at the San Xavier Education Center, provided oversight on the spelling of the O’odham names. Conservation CATalyst and the Center for Biological Diversity provided educational information about recent jaguars in the borderlands.
Nearly 1,000 people voted and more than 99% of respondents self-identified as Tohono O’odham or Native American. The process began in summer 2023 and took nearly a year to complete.
Other names in the running for the new male jaguar were O:ṣhad Malion (Jaguar Boss), Do’ag (Mountain), Mi:stol (Cat), and Gewkdag (Spirit) .
But it was the jaguar as protector — O:ṣhad Ñu:kudam — who won out.
Melodie Lopez, who identifies as Hopi, Navajo, Pueblo and Mexican and is one of the founders of EcoTruths for Indigenous Youth, also helped guide the young people involved in naming O:ṣhad Ñu:kudam.
“We may not see jaguars every day, but this is their land,” Lopez said.“We need our youth to understand that they are connected to that animal. We want them to understand and relate with this jaguar in a way that can only be uplifted by using the language of the people of this land.”
Emily Burns is program director at the Sky Island Alliance and echoed the importance of a broad conservation effort to protect the jaguar.
“With commitment to the land, we can keep Arizona’s Sky Islands a vibrant habitat for future jaguars,” Burns said.
The key, she said, is providing safe and quiet corridors for jaguars to cross when they roam over the landscape in search of prey, water and territory of their own.
“If we keep springs and rivers flowing, support native plants and animals of all kinds, and connect open spaces across the U.S.-México border, then jaguar recovery in Arizona can happen,” Burns said.
Or, as Kii’yaa’nii observed about jaguars, “They’re sacred and we need them.”
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