A Michael Broad Blog
I think I’d better start this discussion by clarifying what a ‘cat species’ is. There are around 37 cat species. The number depends on how you classify them (taxonomy) and there is still some discussion on that topic. All bar one are wild cats. One of the species or subspecies is the domestic cat …
The wild cat news today is that the world’s first albino ocelot has been discovered in Colombia. And the news is not good because the discovery indicates that deforestation in Colombia is resulting in inbreeding of wild cat species because of fragmented habitat resulting in small population sizes. This assessment is made because albinism …
Here are 18 facts about the hunting technique and behaviour of the ocelot. I start with some background information to set the scene and the facts are presented in bullet fashion. The ocelot, throughout a large part of its territory (home range), shares its territory with the jaguar, puma, margay, jaguarundi and oncilla. The …
There is one species of wild cat on Trinidad and Tobago and that species is the ocelot. This is confirmed by the geographic range of this well-known wild cat species as presented by the IUCN Red List. The people who run the Red List are the people who should know best as to whether …
Well, yes, I would say ocelots can be dangerous for the following reasons: They are wild cats and therefore unsocialised to humans. They’ll be fearful of humans and may attack defensively. They are a medium-sized cat, roughly the size of a bobcat. Most weigh between 8-10 kilograms (22 pounds). That’s quite large. Some are …
As the ocelot is a medium-sized cat, roughly the size of a bobcat they are not considered to be big cats. The phrase “big cats” refers to either cats that are big and/or a group of cats that roar and which, incidentally, are also big. This group of roaring cats is the leopard, lion, …
Yes, it is believed that there are ocelots in the United States in 2020 but their numbers are incredibly small. Two different sources tell me that there are about 50 to 60 ocelots in the United States tucked into two small populations near the Mexican border. You can see those areas on the map …
Ocelots mainly eat mammals such as opossums, rabbits, rats and mice. They also eat land crabs, insects, lizards, snakes, fish and birds. Although their feeding habits change with the seasons, due to the fluctuation in the population size of prey animals, most of their prey is both nocturnal and terrestrial (living on the ground). …
