NAME: ocelot DESCRIPTION: ocelots can grow to 30 - 41 inches in lengh and weigh 15 - 30 pounds. ocelots are nocturnal animals. they are good swimmers and fast runners. HABITAT: the ocelot's habitat is from texas to south america. they live in bushland, forests, and the understory of the rainforest. DIET: ocelots eat birds, rodents, and small mammals. Female ocelots prepare dens for their kittens in thick, thorny, low brush, such as spiny hackberry, lotebrush, and blackbrush. Mothers leave at night to hunt, but spend each day with their kittens (usually 1-2 per year) at the den. The kittens begin hunting with their mother when they are about 3 months old, but remain partially dependent upon her until they are about a year old. Females begin breeding when they are about 3 years old, and typically have only one kitten per litter. |
Once found in several areas of the southern North America, Central America, and much of South America, today the ocelot has almost disappeared from its range in the southern United States, and subspecies of the ocelot are threatened by the conversion of large areas of its natural habitat into farm land, and by the growth of cities. It is estimated that as few as 80-100 wild ocelots survive in the United States today -- most, if not all of them within the Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge, in the eastern part of Cameron County, near the town of Bayview, Texas. |
