THE OCELOT
Hidden in the green leaves of the tropical forests, lives the Ocelot. This wildcat looks about the same as a regular house cat but is twice its size. The ocelot is also known as the baby leopard since it’s characteristics are pretty similar, but its size is smaller. The ocelot owns a gorgeous yellow to reddish gray dapped sleek with some dark spot and stripes that run from its back neck up to the tip of the tail. This beautiful animal is commonly spotted in South America, Central America and a small population in southern Texas. Do to all the hunting in Uruguay, unfortunately; they are almost extinct. They are easily found in tropical forest, thorn forest, mangrove swamps, and savanna at elevations up to 1,200. They tend to sleep around trees and bushes in areas with a dense vegetation cover, so it makes their hunting easier.
This friendly wildcat is a nocturnal animal, which means they are sleeping during the day and do all the hunting at night. Like many wild animals, the ocelots are also carnivores who targets small prey, such as rabbits, rodents, little birds, armadillos, reptiles, and fishes. Each night, they will travel 3 to 5 miles to hunt their prey. Their victims are typically animals that weigh less than 1 kilogram and are big enough, so they can grab and carry them with their small jaw. The ocelot’s diet is a bit picky; they require at least 600-900 grams of food so they can satisfied its energy requirements. Their menu may be different by season; scientist found that ocelots in Venezuela, prefers land crabs in the wet season and during the dry season, they will switch to rodents and iguanas.
This wise animal has two hunting strategies, the first one is to observe their prey and move as slow as 0.3 km/h until they reach to it. Their second one is to observe their prey for a very long time and change position every 30 to 60 minutes, until they get close enough so they can attack them by surprise. Ocelots tend to eat their kill as soon as they kill them. And as mentioned before, they are so picky that they will remove the feathers from birds before eating them. According to Defenders, this nocturnal animal will travel around 3.1 hours to capture their preys. To navigate in the dark, they will use their keen sight and hearing. They will climb really tall trees just to catch some monkeys and birds. Finally, unlike cats, they enjoy being in the water.
As carnivores, ocelots owns some unique teeth for eating meat. They have two pointed fangs used to grab their kill with one bite and very sharp back teeth that could tear their food like scissors. Ocelots can chew their meat, so instead, they will tear their food into pieces so they can swallow it in a bite. This smart animal will safe their prey and come back to them whenever they fill hungry again.
Their birth takes place with dense vegetation. The kitten’s eyes won’t start opening until they reach their 15 to 18-day birth. Their mother will take care of them for up to two years, precisely before they start establishing their territory. When the kitten reaches to their eighteen months, the female ocelot reaches estrus, which is a period at in where they are capable of becoming pregnant, while male becomes sexually mature at fifteen-month-old. But ocelots typically do not mate until they turn two years old. Sadly, ocelots don’t have a long live expand. On average they tend to live from ten to thirteen years.
Since mating is really hard for ocelots, scientists along with the advanced technology, they have to try to develop innovative reproductive strategies with ocelots involving artificial insemination of sperm and embryo transfer. By applying these creative methods, healthy offspring from animals in the Brazilian zoos have been produced. Most of this new genetically modified offspring are currently being kept in the U.S zoos.
Diet and Hunting Abilities
What's The Ocelot?
Reproduction
The ocelot’s population densities seem to increase with rainfall and decrease with latitude, with the highest densities in tropical areas. Its fur is so pretty that it was once regarded as particularly valuable. As a result, thousands of ocelots are killed every year just for their fur, causing a decline in the species' numbers. The cat was listed as in danger of extinction from 1972 until 1996 and for now, they are listed as least concern on the IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Red List. This doesn’t mean they are not in extinction anymore. They might be if hunter keeps killing them.
Extinction
Ocelots are active during the twilight and at night, and it is pretty difficult to observe them in the dark. However, it can be spotted hunting in the daytime as well – especially on rainy or cloudy days. They will go hunting for 12 to 14 hours every day, and hunting is the primary activity. And for the rest of their day, they will rest mainly during the day in different places, such as tree branches, or under fallen trees. Ocelots are solitary animals, which means like to have their space/ territory. And to mark their territory by using urine spraying and forming dung piles. Male territories are more extensive than females. They own about 3.5–46 square kilometers large, while females cover 0.8–15 square kilometers.
Spot Them
Throughout the year, ocelots mate many times. Male and female ocelots mate about 5 to 10 times a day during the mating season. They need to mate many times because it is tough to get an ocelot pregnant. Depending on where they are geographically located, their mating season varies. Areas around Mexico and Texas, mating season, is observed during autumn and winter. In Argentina and Paraguay happens during fall only. The pregnancy period is about 80 days, and they usually end with one or two kittens. If they are lucky enough, up to four is possible.
By: Katerine Chung Chen