Martin Birmingham
Sea-disc 2nd, 5th period
December 1, 2012
Role in the ecosystem
With the extinction of many of the large cats in their region the ocelot is one of the few
species left to control the rodent population. If at some point the ocelot would go extinct the
rodents that eat the seeds of the trees would overpopulate causing a sharp decline in tree seeds
growing to maturity. This would damage the already endangered forests. (Belt, 2012)
Ocelots raise their children for a long time and teach them all they need to survive in the
real world. When an ocelot is born it has no instinct on how to hunt so its mom takes it through
all the steps of being a predator. They stay with their parents until almost full grown adults. This
means that when an adult ocelot is killed its young then have to try to learn all of this on its own.
The leading cause of death for ocelots in the US is being hit by cars on the freeway while trying
to stake out its territory.
They are no threat to people being only slightly larger than a cat and hunting only small
rodents, lizards, and fish. They do not bother the animals that people raise for meat. They are a
generalist species and are able to live up to 1200 m in elevation and anywhere from a savannah
to a tropical rainforest. This sounds like they would be able to survive better than any other
species, right? They are hunted for their beautiful pelts and made into shoes or hats. This is
illegal under CITES but it still happens through the black market or in other countries where no
one cares if animals are slaughtered to make clothing.
Efforts being made to save it outside of its habitat
The ocelot population in Texas and Arizona is segregated from those in South America
makes it very difficult for their population to maintain adequate genetic diversity. Without this
genetic diversity the population would eventually become extinct. The recovery plan suggests a
captive breeding program to assist with assuring genetic diversity until the habitat can be
restored and their population becoming stable.
The other part of the recovery plan deals with preventing ocelots from being killed by
cars while trying to stake out there territory. This is like an alien ship crashing into a person and
killing them while sitting in their yard. They will advise against the construction of roads in the
dense thornscrub habitat which the ocelot lives in.
The last part of the plan is to start an incentive plan for landowners that help protect the
ocelot. This could potentially mean a tax break for those that do not develop or create roads over
areas that the ocelots live in. The FWS would also donate money to education and outreach
programs. These programs would go to school and educate people about the importance of the
ocelot in the environment. (Mays 2010)
What else could be done?
One of the major things this plan misses is enacting laws to protect the habitat they have
left. A law that makes there shrinking habitat a reserve where no one can live in or do anything
in would be extremely productive in saving the ocelot. The plan they have now is more about
how they could save it through captive breeding once there habitat is completely destroyed and
there population decimated.
A better plan would be to just get people out of where they are and let them recover
naturally without any human help or hindrance. This would give the species a sustainable way to
recover instead of a captive breeding program that would then overpopulate a small area of
habitat that is left.
Why should it be saved?
This animal should be saved because every animal on the planet deserves a chance to live
without human interruption, because this is not possible due to the growing population of
humans and constant amount of space it should be especially saved for the following reasons:

They control rodent population.

They are majestic animals to see in the wild.

They are one of the few remaining big cats in the Americas.

They represent a major spot in the evolution of cats in the Americas; they have an entire
chain of feline evolution named after them!

They are very friendly and pose no threat to humans or livestock.
References
Belt, Annie (2012) retrieved from website:
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/ocelot/
Kays, Roland (2006) Retrieved from website:
http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/animals/ocelot_agouti.jsp
Mays, Jody (2010) retrieved from website: http://www.fws.gov/policy/library/2010/201021249.html