Hello Kitty!

Hello Kitty!

We are excited to meet our first animal of this year’s travels. We unpacked our gear at our camp. We’ll be exploring several kinds of habitats here the Southwest. We spent our first evening looking for a wild cat, the ocelot. These spotted cats roam in the southern most regions of the southwest. They are not easy to spot, but we were lucky and found one!

Ocelot Fun Facts: 

• Ocelots are mostly nocturnal. Like all cats, they are carnivores. They eat rabbits, rodents, birds and reptiles.
• Ocelots can swim well.
• Ocelots are mostly solitary. They scent mark their territories.
• They are kept as pets, which is a very bad idea. They are not like your domestic housecat, They are strong and destructive. These cats belong in the wild.
• They are know to be shy.
• Females give birth to a litter in a den, where the cubs will stay til they around 3 months old.

These small big cats are gorgeous. The were once listed as threatened by the IUCN because they were hunted for their coats. They still are losing habitat, but for now their populations are stable. Yay!!!