Leopardus pardalis

Ocelot (scientific name: Leopardus pardalis) is also known as Ocelot in English. There are 10 subspecies.

Ocelots are mostly active at night and are territorial. Their hunting methods are similar to those of most cats. They are also good at swimming and climbing trees. However, their climbing skills are still inferior to those of the agile long-tailed ocelots. Therefore, they are mostly active on the ground. Ocelots living in forest areas often choose low branches as resting places. Ocelots are mostly single and basically patrol at night. Their diet is mainly small mammals, birds, insects, etc., such as various rodents, reptiles, hares, bats, etc. When nearby rivers and ponds are drying up in the dry season, they will also take the opportunity to catch more frogs or fish to supplement nutrients. They are solitary animals and only gather when mating. Ocelots have very sensitive vision and night vision. They usually come out to hunt at night. Their food includes monkeys, armadillos, iguanas, turtles and snakes, rodents such as guinea pigs, fish, land crabs, amphibians and birds, and sometimes they also prey on domestic piglets and poultry.

In tropical areas, ocelots can breed all year round, but may be seasonal in other places. In Mexico, the United States, Argentina and Paraguay, they give birth in the fall and winter. The gestation period is generally 70 to 85 days. A litter can have 2-4 pups, which open their eyes at 14 to 18 days old, and the nursing period lasts for 3 to 9 months, and the maturity period is about 18 to 24 months. Ocelots are born in tree holes or caves in the jungle to get natural shelter. Although they are very black when they are born, they already have stripes like big ocelots. At 8-10 months, the size of the ocelots will be the same as their mother, but they will not leave their mother's territory until they are about 2 years old. Female ocelots can breed once every two years. Ocelots can live for more than 10 years in the wild and up to 21 years in captivity.

Due to the continuous destruction of habitats and the hunting of ocelots for their skins, ocelots are on the verge of extinction. Ocelots are victims of the human fur trade. In the United States, there was a record of 140,000 ocelot skins imported in one year. The number of ocelots is decreasing, and the situation of Texas ocelots in the United States is already very critical. The United States and most countries where ocelots are found have outlawed the killing and trading of ocelot skins. The fur trade, habitat loss, and pet trade have caused ocelot populations to plummet to dangerous levels, and among the countries where they are found, all but Ecuador, El Salvador, and Guyana have enacted laws to protect ocelots.

Listed in the 2015 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, ver 3.1 - Least Concern (LC).

Listed in the CITES I level protected species of the Washington Convention.

Listed in Appendix I, Appendix II and Appendix III of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) 2019 Edition.

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Distributed in Argentina, Belize, Bolivia (Plurinational State), Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, the United States, and Venezuela.
Margays live in dense tropical rainforests, high mountain forests at an altitude of 3,800 meters in the Andes Mountains, dense bushes, sparsely vegetated semi-desert areas, coastal mangroves, etc., but it is difficult to find their footprints in open areas. Especially in the thorny high shrub jungle composed of trees such as gum arabic, ebony, and mesquite, margays like to walk through the thorny bushes about 1.52 meters high. The branches of the bushes are intertwined and intertwined. Such dense thorny bushes provide margays with the possibility of resisting enemies.

There are 10 subspecies of ocelots, with a body length of 55-101.5 cm, a tail length of 27-45 cm, and a weight of 6.6-18.6 kg. Female ocelots are smaller than males, and are only one-third the size of males. The differences between the subspecies are due to the different territories, and the fur color, body size, tail length and eye size are different. The color of the ocelots on the back is white, brown, yellow and gray. There are small black spots on the head, two black bands on the cheeks, and black spots and dark brown rectangular patches surrounded by black edges. There are 4 or 5 vertical black stripes on the back, a black pattern like a chain on the body, a white belly with black spots on it, and black stripes and spots on the tail. Male and female ocelots have the same color, but the color will be different due to different habitats.