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Ocelot - Leopardus pardalis
Topic Started: Jan 7 2012, 08:04 PM (5,949 Views)
Taipan
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Ocelot - Leopardus pardalis

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Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Genus: Leopardus
Species: Leopardus pardalis

The ocelot, also known as the dwarf leopard, is a wild cat distributed extensively over South America, Central America, and Mexico. They have been reported as far north as Texas, and as far east as Trinidad and Barbados in the Caribbean. North of Mexico, they are found regularly only in the extreme southern part of Texas, although there are rare sightings in southern Arizona.

The ocelot is similar in appearance to a domestic cat. Its fur resembles that of a clouded leopard or jaguar and was once regarded as particularly valuable. As a result, hundreds of thousands of ocelots were once killed for their fur. The feline was classified a "vulnerable" endangered species from 1972 until 1996, and is now rated "least concern" by the 2008 IUCN Red List.

Etymology
The name ocelot comes from the Nahuatl word ōcēlōtl, which usually refers to the jaguar (Panthera onca) rather than the ocelot.

Taxonomy
The ocelot's genus Leopardus consists of nine similar species to the ocelot, such as Geoffroy's cat and the margay, which are also endemic to South and Central America. All of the cats in the Leopardus genus are spotted, lithe, and small, with the ocelot being the biggest of its genus.

Subspecies
Certain ocelot subspecies are officially endangered, although the species as a whole is not. The following are the currently recognized subspecies of Ocelot:

Leopardus pardalis pardalis, Amazon Rainforest
Leopardus pardalis aequatorialis, northern Andes and Central America
Leopardus pardalis albescens, eastern Mexico, southern Texas
Leopardus pardalis melanurus, Venezuela, Guyana, Trinidad
Leopardus pardalis mitis, Argentina, Paraguay
Leopardus pardalis nelsoni, southwestern Mexico
Leopardus pardalis pseudopardalis, Colombia
Leopardus pardalis puseaus, Ecuador
Leopardus pardalis sonoriensis, northwestern Mexico, southern Arizona
Leopardus pardalis steinbachi, Bolivia

Physical characteristics
The ocelot ranges from 68 to 100 centimetres (27 to 39 in) in length, plus 26 to 45 centimeters (10 to 18 in) in tail length, and typically weighs 8 to 18 kilograms (18 to 40 lb), although much larger individuals have occasionally been recorded, making it the largest of the generally dainty Leopardus wild cat genus. It has sleek, smooth fur, rounded ears and relatively large front paws. While similar in appearance to the oncilla and margay, which inhabit the same region, the ocelot is larger.

The coat pattern of ocelots can vary, being anything from cream to reddish-brown in color, or sometimes grayish, and marked with black rosettes. In many individuals, some of the spots, especially on the back, blend together to form irregular curved stripes or bands. The fur is short, and paler than the rest of the coat beneath. There are also single white spots, called ocelli, on the backs of the ears. Two black stripes line both sides of the face, and the long tail is banded by black.

Habitat:
The Ocelot is found in very diverse habitats including rain forest, montane forest, thick bush, semi-deserts, coastal marsh, and along river banks, but it is never found in open country.

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Distribution:
Southern Texas, and every country south of the U.S. except Chile.

Reproduction and Offspring:
After a gestation of 79-85 days they produce a litter of 1-2 young. They weigh approximately 8.5 ounces at birth. The females reach maturity at around 1½ years, and around 2 ½ years for males. They become independent at around 1 year of age, but seem to be tolerated in their natal range for up to another year.

Social System and Communication:
Ocelots are solitary and territorial. The females defend their exclusive territory, which can be as much as 9 sq. miles, while the male’s territory is larger and overlaps that of 1 or more females (can be as large as 35 sq. miles). Ocelots communicate by use of scent markings which tells the males when she is ready for mating, and by vocal communications such as meows and yowls (in heat).

Hunting and Diet:
The Ocelot is a terrestrial hunter and active during the night (nocturnal), and the mainstay of its diet are nocturnal rodents, such as cane mice, and marsh, spiny and rice rats, opossums and armadillos. They will also take larger prey such as lesser anteaters, deer, squirrel monkeys and land tortoises. They will also take advantage of seasonal changes and the abundance of fish and land crabs during the wet season. Occasionally, the will take birds and reptiles. However, the majority of prey items for this cat weigh less than 1-3% of its body weight.

Principal Threats:
Ocelots have a small litter size, one of the longest gestations and growth rates among the small felids, and a high infant mortality rate. Add this difficulty in sustaining its own population with deforestation and habitat destruction, and the survival of this beautiful little species becomes even more difficult.

Status: IUCN: Not listed. CITES: Appendix I.

Felid TAG recommendation: Ocelot (Leopardus pardalis). Although once commonly imported for pets, legal animals have not been available until the last 2 years, and today most ocelots are of unknown or hybrid ancestry. The TAG is recommending that the Brazilian ocelot, L. p. mitis, be the subspecies acquired by North American zoos because captive propagation now is occurring in some Brazilian zoos. Orphaned individuals also have been allowed to be exported. Recently three pairs were imported into North America by AZA zoos. The target population of this species is 120 individuals. Although only a PMP is in operation, the TAG recommends that it be upgraded to SSP status as soon as possible. The Brazilian Ocelot Consortium is the main focus for saving the ocelot.

How rare is this cat ? The International Species Information Service lists 217 worldwide, with 108 being in the U.S. There are 5 living at Big Cat Rescue.

Information taken With Permission from IUCN Wild Cats.

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Edited by Taipan, Mar 30 2012, 05:30 PM.
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Intraspecific killing of a male ocelot

Cynthia L. Thompson
School of Biomedical Sciences, Department of Biological Anthropology, 221 Lowry Hall, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242, USA

Abstract

Raw data on the social behavior of secretive felids is often scant. A freshly killed ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) corpse was found at Brownsberg Nature Park, Suriname. The specimen incurred damage to the neck, skull, upper vertebrae, and scapula. These injuries are consistent with the hypothesis that it was killed by a conspecific, most likely during a male-male interaction. This paper reviews the physical damage and the possible social scenarios that may have caused these injuries. While isolated, this incident can provide insight to a rarely seen behavior of a traditionally difficult to observe species.

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Fig. 1. Injuries to the left neck and head.

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Fig. 2. Damage to the left cranium. (a) Puncture hole and (b) puncture hole with the specimen's own maxillary canine for scale.

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Fig. 3. Axis and scapula, with the organism's own maxillary canines for scale.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1616504710001424

Edited by Taipan, Mar 30 2012, 05:47 PM.
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Last Stand for U.S. Ocelots?
After decades of habitat loss and vehicular deaths, only 50 of the cats are left in a corner of Texas.


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Ocelots are wild cats that can be found in South America, Central America, and the U.S.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JOEL SARTORE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE

Elaine Robbins
National Geographic
PUBLISHED JUNE 3, 2014

Last November in Texas, a feline twice the size of a house cat was struck dead on State Highway 100, just south of Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge in the Rio Grande Valley.

Leo Gustafson, the refuge's assistant manager, went out to inspect the corpse. He soon found himself gazing at the cat's beautiful tawny coat, covered with spots, bars, and splotches—the perfect camouflage for a thorn-scrub habitat of sun and shade. But the pattern had proved useless as the ocelot tried to cross the four-lane divided highway.

Gustafson noted the thick radio collar around the cat's neck and recognized the individual as the four-and-a-half-year-old male that refuge staff had been tracking. Over the past few months, they had watched with trepidation as he crisscrossed a patchwork of cotton fields and convenience stores, culverts and roadways, seeking to establish a territory and find a mate.

"It's tragic, really," said refuge manager Boyd Blihovde. "Ocelots are so beautiful and so rare, and to lose so many of these animals to vehicular collision just seems senseless."

The death of the cat wildlife biologists knew as OM276 (OM stands for "ocelot male") also brought the species one step closer to extinction in the United States.

Ocelots still inhabit Mexico and every country south of it except Chile. But the last ones left in the United States—an estimated 50 individuals, down from about a hundred a decade ago—live in two separate populations in and around Laguna Atascosa and on private land in neighboring Willacy County.

This is the species' last foothold in a territory that once included Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Arizona. (Five ocelots have been sighted in Arizona in the past five years, but researchers say the possibility of a breeding population there is highly unlikely.)

An Unfriendly Environment

The number one cause of ocelot deaths in the U.S. today is vehicular. Six of the 14 cats tracked with radio telemetry by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Laguna Atascosa biologists have been killed by vehicles. As Blihovde puts it, "Wildcats and highways don't mix."

Yet cars and trucks aren't an ocelot's biggest foe. Habitat loss and fragmentation are.

Some 95 percent of the cats' native habitat in the U.S. has been converted to agriculture or become urban sprawl. In the Rio Grande Valley—a border area that's one of the nation's fastest growing regions—young males like OM276 that venture outside the refuge must navigate a dangerous man-made landscape.

Cause for Hope?

Now, after decades of inaction, some recovery measures are finally under way.

This year the Texas Department of Transportation plans to install the state's first highway wildlife crossings for ocelots. Eight underpasses, at a cost of $1.4 million, will be incorporated into the expansion of Highway 106.

Such crossings, accompanied by highway fencing, have proved successful elsewhere in the U.S. In the 1980s, for instance, when Interstate 75 (aka Alligator Alley) was widened though the Everglades, Florida invested $20 million to build 23 crossings. Today the state's endangered panther population, which numbered no more than 50 in the mid-1990s, has bounced back to an estimated 160.

Mountain lions (another name for the panther) imported from Texas helped the Florida panther recover by introducing genetic variability. So it's only fitting that Texas ocelots may soon receive their own new pair of genes.

Researchers from the ocelot "translocation" team—which includes the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and various universities and institutions in the United States and Mexico—plan to appeal to the Mexican government for permission to import breeding-age females from Tamaulipas, Mexico, where an estimated thousand ocelots live.

Ocelots Need Room to Roam

Ultimately, the ocelot's recovery depends on finding enough room for the population to expand.

The Fish and Wildlife Service says it wants to buy land or secure easements to create habitat corridors. But to date the agency has purchased only about 100,000 of the estimated one million acres (405,000 hectares) of habitat the cats need to recover. In Texas, which is 95 percent privately owned, landowner incentives to restore ocelot habitat may offer the best hope to conserve the species.

In the face of such grim realities, each new ocelot birth is significant. So on February 14, when a juvenile never seen before took a selfie with one of the refuge's wildlife trip cameras, Laguna Atascosa staff felt like they'd received a valentine.

When wildlife biologist Hilary Swarts tracked and radio-collared the animal a few weeks later, she confirmed that it was a 10- to 12-month-old juvenile female. Then in late April, another new juvenile, a 12- to 14-month-old male, was discovered on the refuge.

Two new kids on the block are hardly enough to pull the species back from the brink. But for an imperiled species like the ocelot, every kitten is a sign of hope—and a step in the right direction.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/06/140603-ocelots-cats-wildlife-recovery-habitat-loss-panther-highway/
Edited by Taipan, Aug 16 2017, 09:27 PM.
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Apex Predator
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
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http://tropicalconservationscience.mongabay.com/content/v7/TCS-2014-Vol7%284%29_690-705_Rodgers.pdf
Edited by maker, Feb 14 2015, 01:07 PM.
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New Ocelot Den Found!
Biologists find the first den in 20 years on Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge


2016 was an encouraging year for the endangered ocelots of south Texas! Several females with kittens were documented using remote cameras placed in strategic locations where ocelots live and reproduce. This along with the substantial efforts made by TXDOT to provide wildlife crossings made this recent discovery even more exciting.

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New ocelot kitten photographed by remote camera at Laguna Atascosa NWR / USFWS

What would cause the increase in Ocelots?

“I suspect that the past couple of years of abundant rainfall have made excellent breeding conditions for these endangered wild cats,” said Hilary Swarts, wildlife biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, stationed at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge.
Of the seven known adult female ocelots at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, two are just now reaching the age to reproduce, three have recently been photographed with healthy-looking kittens following close behind, and one adult female has not yet been seen with any offspring. However, the seventh female brought researchers the most exciting discovery of all.

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Mother ocelot and two kittens on Yturria Conservation Easement / USFWS

Precipitation leads to plant growth, which in turn provides food for the wildlife that ocelots like to eat, such as rodents, rabbits, and birds. “With plenty of food and water, and minimal disturbance from humans, female ocelots have all the resources they need to reproduce successfully,” said Swarts.
Using GPS technology, biologists tracked her movements and discovered the first confirmed ocelot den at the refuge in nearly twenty years. At the den site, researchers rejoiced to find a male ocelot kitten, weighing just shy of a pound, estimated to be three weeks old. The researchers took measurements and photos and left the area as quickly as possible in the interest of minimal disturbance. His mother, approximately 11 years old, was not at the den at the time, but returned soon after. USFWS researchers plan to track the kitten’s growth and progress in the coming years.

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3 week old male kitten found at den site being checked by biologists / USFWS

Swarts and other researchers track and monitor ocelots in south Texas, collecting data on their population numbers, health, habitat use, range, and reproduction. These new kittens are now part of this ongoing effort.

Lost without the Help of Private Landowners

In addition to Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, private land plays a vital role in ocelot survival and recovery. Land owners that work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect ocelot habitat on their own property are also seeing camera evidence of new kittens.
Of the adult females captured on camera by USFWS biologists at the Yturria Conservation Easement in Willacy County, at least three have had kittens this past year. While ocelot females usually have only one kitten per litter, researchers were excited to see that one of the three mothers had twins.
“Data gathered in Willacy County is further evidence that private ranches are often great havens for wildlife and key partners in our conservation efforts. These private lands will be crucial to protecting habitat and wildlife into the future,” said Boyd Blihovde, Refuge Manager at Laguna Atascosa NWR.

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3 week old male kitten at den site Laguna Atascosa NWR / USFWS

As long as USFWS and its partners continue to work toward reducing threats to ocelots in south Texas and ocelots keep reproducing successfully, there’s great hope for the future of these majestic wild cats in the lower Rio Grande Valley!

https://medium.com/usfws/ocelot-numbers-a6db557a5ace#.ou219fmn4
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Watch a Wildcat Attack a Parrot in Rare Video
Tourists were in for a shock when they saw a wildcat catch a parrot during a birdwatching trip.




By Shaena Montanari
PUBLISHED AUGUST 15, 2017

Macaws are not typically on the menu for ocelots—until the opportunity presents itself.

During a recent birdwatching trip in Peru's Tambo Blanquillo private wildlife reserve, tourists were stunned to see the wildcat grab a red-and-green macaw and carry off its prize, still vigorously flapping its wings, into the forest.

Stefano Raffo, the reserve's business manager who filmed the incident, says it's unusual to see predators in the act of catching prey. And on top of that, “it is really rare to catch it on camera.”

Red-and-green macaws flock to this part of southeastern Peru because of the clay-rich riverbanks—and tourists follow, eager to see the beautiful birds in the wild. This species, widespread throughout South America, is not endangered.

“The macaws and many parrot species go to the clay walls and feed directly on the clay," says Eduardo  Iñigo-Elias, an ornithologist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York.

"The clay works like having an Alka-Seltzer—it helps them get rid of some of the toxins of the fruits and seeds they are feeding on.”

Not only that, but eating clay—a phenomenon called geophagy—provides the birds with needed salt, along with balancing their pH.

But congregating on exposed riverbanks can be dangerous—it puts the birds at higher risk of predators.

“The jaguars and ocelots wait until the macaws come down to the clay. If they get lucky, they will catch one,” says Raffo.

For that reason, red-and-green macaws are typically shy and cautious birds, Raffo says, and don't often get caught.

“It was a lucky ocelot," says Iñigo-Elias, "and a silly macaw."

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/08/ocelots-macaws-parrots-attack-predators/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_fb20170816news-wildcatattacksmacawvideo&utm_campaign=Content&sf106301226=1
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