Trappng

Trapping has resumed on the ranch. So far no luck, but I'm feeling optimistic.

Watch this space for more news!

Ocelot news

A roadkill ocelot was found and collective in Arizona. No official records occur for ocelots in Arizona since 1964, though have been anecdotal reports over the years. See the story here:


Arizona Fish and Game - Ocelot

Video post

Here is a short video by Richard Moore talking about Rancho Caracol. This bird hunting ranch in northern Mexico, is the site of further research by biologists and students with the Feline Research Center. SCV is conducting her PhD work here, AC is lead researcher, and CS is also using data from the ranch as part of his PhD.

Richard Moore Nature

For more photos of the cat research and information about ranch, visit there website:
Rancho Caracol

Rancho Caracol graciously allowed me to visit in February of this year and assist SCV with her work. Here are a few photos from that amazing trip.

As I promised

A couple days ago, I said I would post a map pointing out how the ocelots and bobcats partition the habitat they share. So I played around in ArcMap today (love this program even though most of the time it makes you want to place sharp, hot things in your eyes) and made a very simplified map of the 4 collared cats on my research site. Female ~3-4 years adult ocelot in red, ~1.5 years adult female bobcat in pink, ~1.5 years adult male bobcat in green, and ~3 years adult bobcat in blue.

It's a little crude, but you can very easily see that the ocelot spends all of her time in the thick brush. That's what ocelots like. Very much. They prefer 95% canopy cover! And it's a mid- and low-story brush. Seriously, folks, you have to belly crawl through this if you want in there. And it's THORNscrub. It pokes, it scratches, it's fierce stuff. I've provided a couple photos of that, too.





But ocelots love it.

Bobcats not as much. They will definitely use it. You can see male YB1 uses part of the area that the same ocelot, Y14, uses. He particularly likes this old road that runs through the area. He walks up and down that scanning for yummy things to eat and getting photographed by our remote cameras.

The female bobcat, YB2, uses the other protected brush area, but she mainly uses the area around the intermittent ponds, which is much more open than the rest of the brush. She also uses LOTS of open area. All the white that I did drawn in and code as brush is pretty much open rangeland of grass and occasional brush or trees now and then. But pretty much wide open.

The other male bobcat, YB3, is very young, like YB2. So he has been all over the place. He doesn't go in the thich brush pretty much at all. And he likes to move around a lot. He's young, and he's overlapping another male bobcat, which is just a little older than him (but still a youn adult). So it won't be a surprise if one day he is gone. Headed off to find a permanent home range for himself with a pretty female bobcat and no bigger, better males to take her from him.

And this is all just preliminary with about 20 or so locations. This data will get even better, even more reliable once we get up to 40 locations or so. And imagine in a year?!

Cool stuff.

A little fun for the day

So I received an entry form for a new Sprint phone contest. They wanted a creative essay on what you could do fast. Here is my silliness:

Can you sedate an ocelot in 4 minutes? I can. Within in 30 minutes I can have that spotted feline radio-collared (she'll be the talk of the thornscrub forest with that sexy "necklace"), measurements taken (don't worry, we won't tell the boy ocelots her girth, weight or age), and samples taken (a girl's gotta protect her DNA, eh?). Lickety split this sleek pussy cat is curled up inside a killer crib (okay, so it's a pet carrier, don't tell her that) where she can sleep it off in a nice, quiet spot (get it, spots? Hee hee). So in the time it could take me to run a mile (maybe I could have done a 4 minute mile when I was 15!), I can cross another check mark off for conservation. This sweet, spotted ocelot's collar will tell us scientists lots of juicy info on her whereabouts, like where she likes to dine out and who she likes to dine with. Oh yeah, we know of her dirty secrets. And all that gossip will help us make management decisions for this beautiful, but very endangered wild cat. And it all started with 4 sleepy minutes and one tiny stick in the leg. Not bad. And don't worry, she won't remember us a bit as she streaks off into the brush with her new shiny collar.

And of course, I can't do all of that alone. Gotta credit AC for his work! Technically, I'm still sedating bobcats and raccoons. Two more successful bobcats and then I'm qualified to sedate ocelots. Safety first for the cats!

Sunshine go away

I never thought I would say those words! But unfortunately, the quickly approaching South Texas summer heat may hamper our trapping efforts. Traps are checked at sunrise and any captured animals worked up and released well before noon, but safety of the animals always comes first. So when temperatures rise about 90 degrees for a certain number of days....well, it's time to close the traps for good.

Luckily, we will be resuming trapping as soon as the heat releases its grip; sometime in September or October.

So everyone keep your fingers and whiskers crossed that we get at least another week or two in before it gets too warm.

And pray for rain, clouds and cool breezes.


Research associate, AC, measures the paw width of a male bobcat. Bobcats are sympatric carnivores to ocelots. This simply means that they occur in the same geographical areas, or even have overlapping home ranges, but do not interbreed. Next post: some preliminary home range graphics where you can see this overlap.

Getting started

So my goal today is to try and add more information to this blog. There is the obligatory bio about myself and my goals. And then, of course, more photos! Here is one of my favorites:



This is a male from the project in Mexico (part of SCV's PhD research). And he had the most amazing smell. I had forgotten about that ocelot musk smell. Well, it had been about 12 years since I'd been that close to one, to be fair. It's kind of a mild skunky smell, but not a bad smell. It's actually kind of nice. Eau de ocelot. Pretty darn cool.

And as odd as it sounds, even a few hours later, I could smell him on my sweatshirt and it just made me smile all over again.

Let's talk cats

I've created this blog to not only talk about my interests in wild cat research but to also share other ongoing research on cats from around the world. I'll include Notes from the Field where I'll give some insights into the current research in South Texas on endangered ocelots. Also Cat Clips, where I'll pass along interesting news clips about other species of wild cats. If you've ended up here as a reader, I hope you find the posts interesting, educational and above all, topics that pique your interest about wild cat conservation.

The photo above is of a male ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) being released in Tamaulipas, Mexico. This ocelot was trapped and fitted with a VHF radio-collar. Radio-tracking will allow researchers to estimate home ranges, habitat use and other important ecology about these secretive felines.