Yo’oko, who was named by students at Hiaki High School in Tucson, Arizona, last year, was photographed by trail cameras several times in the last couple of years. Wildlife experts compared the photographs of Yo’oko with the photograph of the pelt, which was taken in Mexico; the fur pattern appeared identical.
“This tragedy is piercing,” Randy Serraglio, a conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), said in a press release provided to The Dodo. “It highlights the urgency to protect jaguar habitat on both sides of the border and ensure that these rare, beautiful cats have safe places to live … The thought of having to explain to those kids at Hiaki High School that somebody killed their favorite jaguar really just breaks my heart.”