Ocelot
From Costa Rica Travel Guide: Vacation and Travel tips
Ocelots in Costa Rica
The Ocelot is the larger version of the Oncilla and the Margay, which share the same regions in Costa Rica. The Ocelot is all but extinct in the United States and a rare sighting in Mexico, but they can be found in Central America down to the northern parts of Argentina and Uruguay. The male ocelot is slightly larger than the female but the average weight and length are 26 lbs. and 30 inches respectfully. Perhaps the most visually stunning of all the Costa Rican cats, the Ocelot has a yellow to reddish brown coat marked with distinct black spots and rosettes. Their fur is short. A solitary white spot is located on the back of each ear, and two black lines can be found on both sides of the face. The tail is black-banded.
The Ocelot hunts mostly on the ground, but it does climb and swim well and will often take to the trees if need be. This cat tends to live in forest or thick brush and hunts over a range of seven square miles. Ocelots don’t really track potential prey per se, as many other cats do, but rather pounce quickly on prey as it is encountered. Studies have shown that Ocelots find prey by odor trails, but they have excellent vision (including night vision) as well. Sometimes the Ocelot will kill and feed on animals larger than itself such as collared peccaries and brocket deer, but usually prefers to hunt prey smaller than itself. The staple of an Ocelot’s diet are small rodents, but they also feed on armadillos, agoutis, opossums, rabbits, porcupines, anteaters, kinkajous, lizards, snakes, bats, iguanas, frogs, fruit, arthropods, turtles, and crabs. They are also known to meticulously pluck the feathers off a bird before devouring it. Like the jaguar and puma, the ocelot will hide a partially eaten kill and return later to feed.
The Ocelot is mainly nocturnal and territorial. In clashes over territory, the Ocelot will fight ferociously, and occasionally to the death. Independent by nature, this cat is solitary, meeting only to mate. Ocelots rest in trees, between roots, thick vegetation, and caves. They have been known to share their spot with another Ocelot of the same sex.
Ocelots will often spend 10 hours on the move and cover and average of 4 miles a night. Male Ocelots have home ranges several times larger than that of the females. A male may overlap the areas of several females, but rarely that of another male’s. Ocelots mark their territory by urinating on vegetation, defecating, scratching logs, and scraping a small patch of ground with their hindfeet.
A mating female will find a den in a cave, hollowed out tree, or thick vegetation. The gestation period for a female Ocelot is between 70-80 days, usually resulting in one or two kittens, but sometimes three or four. The kittens leave the den at about one month when they will go with their mother on a hunt and will begin to eat solid food by two months. They become independent at about a year, but can often stay on their mother’s territory for another couple years.
Ocelots can survive in disturbed areas, but deforestation and loss of habitat has made them more vulnerable to hunting. In the’60’s, 70’s and early ’80, thousand of ocelots were killed for their beautiful pelts (In the United States alone, 133,000 ocelot pelts were imported in a single year- the US banned the importation in 1972). Luckily, the demand for pelts has dropped, but in Costa Rica they are still killed by game hunters and farmers. Unfortunately, Ocelots reproduce slowly, and even in protected areas, they recover losses very slowly.
