A Canada lynx in snow in Northern Ontario, Canada. Image: Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

In June, New Mexico State University graduate student William Grooms was using motion-sensing cameras to investigate wildlife in Carson National Forest in northern New Mexico. And when he looked through his first images, he spotted something flabbergasting.

His cameras had captured a series of photographs of a Canada lynx ( Lynx canadensis )—a wild cat that hasn’t been documented in the state for around 25 years. But Grooms had to make sure it wasn’t actually a bobcat ( Lynx rufus ), which is a similar-looking species.

Cameras picked up the photograph of the rare wildcat on June 12, 2026.…