40 Fun Facts About Ocelots

Which Surrealist painter took his pet ocelot to restaurants and aboard the ocean liner SS France?

Salvador Dalí once calmed an alarmed New York diner by claiming the ocelot was an ordinary house cat he had painted over in an op art design.

Wild ocelots occur in just two US states: Arizona and which other, where they are listed as endangered?

Texas had only an estimated 50 to 80 ocelots left as of 2014, and inbreeding among so few cats has cut their genetic diversity.

Which is the only spotted cat in South America that grows larger than the ocelot?

Jaguar is the only bigger spotted cat on the continent, and it is also one of the few predators known to kill adult ocelots.

In Minecraft, which hostile mob keeps a full six blocks away from any ocelot?

A Creeper will not come near an ocelot, which lives in the game's jungles and warms to players who feed it raw fish.

Besides climbing and leaping, ocelots are efficient at which activity that most pet cats avoid?

Swimming comes easily to ocelots, which prefer to live close to water and will catch fish and crustaceans as well as rodents.

What colour are a young ocelot's eyes at birth, before they turn brown at about three months old?

Blue eyes stay shut for about the first two weeks of an ocelot's life, and the newborn's gray coat also changes colour as it grows.

Researchers identify individual ocelots in photos because which feature is different on every animal?

Its markings are unique to each ocelot, and even the left and right sides of one animal do not match.

Before it starts eating a bird, the famously picky ocelot does what to the carcass first?

Plucks it bare: most cats strip feathers as they eat, but an ocelot removes them all before taking its first bite.

The word ocelot reached English through French from which Indigenous language of central Mexico?

Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, supplied the word, which the French naturalist Buffon reshaped into the name used today.

Which smaller, longer-tailed relative of the ocelot is nicknamed the tree ocelot for its climbing skill?

Margay cats can turn their ankles up to 180 degrees, letting them grip branches with their hind paws as easily as with the front.

An ocelot is about the same size as which wild cat that also roams the southwestern United States?

Bobcat-sized on average, the ocelot is still the largest cat in its own genus, and bigger individuals are occasionally recorded.

An ocelot's eyes are brown, but what colour do they appear to shine when a light catches them?

Golden eyeshine comes from a reflective layer in the eye, which lets ocelots see far better in the dark than people can.

The ocelot is the largest member of which genus of small American cats, alongside Geoffroy's cat?

Leopardus cats stand apart genetically, carrying 36 chromosomes where other cats have 38.

What do biologists call the shared sites where several ocelots leave droppings, as camera traps confirm?

Latrines may double as message boards: researchers describe the shared sites as communication centres for the cats.

Ocelots avoid hunting in open areas on which kind of nights?

Moonlit nights make a hunting ocelot easy to see, so it keeps to thick cover and may wait up to an hour at one site for prey.

In Venezuela, ocelots eat iguanas and rodents in the dry season, then switch to which prey when it rains?

Land crabs take over the menu in the wet season, showing how readily an ocelot's diet shifts through the year.

Despite shrinking numbers in many places, the ocelot holds which status on the IUCN Red List?

Least Concern reflects the ocelot's huge range across the Americas, with a global population put at more than 40,000 adults in 2013.

Which naturalist gave the ocelot its first scientific name, Felis pardalis, in his 1758 Systema Naturae?

Carl Linnaeus grouped the ocelot with the house cat in the genus Felis, and the species half of his name, pardalis, is still used today.

Ocelots live wild on which Caribbean island, where the Emperor Valley Zoo keeps confiscated ones?

Trinidad lies just off the coast of Venezuela, as does Margarita, another Caribbean island with native ocelots.

The ocelot's range runs from the southwestern United States south to the north of which country?

Argentina marks the southern limit of a range that also climbs as high as 3,000 metres above sea level.

In an Aztec myth retold by archaeologist Zelia Nuttall, which god fell into water and became an ocelot?

Tezcatlipoca took the cat's form after a rival god cast him down from heaven, then rose from the water to slay giants.

Which ancient culture of coastal Peru shaped ceramic bottles like ocelots, one now in a Geneva museum?

Moche potters had plenty of company: ocelots appear in ancient American art from murals to architectural details.

Ancient Americans sharpened ocelot bones into thin points to pierce ears and limbs for which ritual?

Bloodletting tools were one sign of the cat's sacred status; ocelots also appear in figurines, murals and architectural details.

The world's first known albino ocelot, a blind female rescued in 2021, was found in which country?

Colombia's white ocelot worried scientists, because albinism shows up only when both parents carry the gene, a sign of inbreeding in a small population.

In the animated spy comedy Archer, what is the name of heiress Cheryl Tunt's pet ocelot?

Babou shares his name with a real ocelot that was a famous artist's frequent companion in the 1960s.

What name is given to the long-range call that both male and female ocelots make in the mating season?

Yowl calls carry over long distances, while at close range ocelots use a short meow instead.

What flowery name is given to the dark-edged, open-centred spots on an ocelot's coat?

Rosettes on an ocelot often link together into chains and blotches, giving it a streakier look than its smaller relatives.

Videos from the Amazon show ocelots keeping company with which small mammal, usually their prey?

Opossums are normally on the ocelot's menu, which is why footage of the two animals spending time together was reported as an unexpected friendship.

Which huge rainforest bird of prey is among the few predators able to take an ocelot?

Harpy eagle talons are the largest of any living eagle, strong enough to pull sloths and monkeys out of the trees.

Which Gulf Coast wildlife refuge shelters one of the last ocelot populations in the United States?

Laguna Atascosa protects a remnant of the habitat ocelots need, much of which has been cleared for farms and growing cities.

As ocelots wander beyond shrinking habitat into new areas, which modern hazard has become a major killer?

Road vehicles are a danger the cat tries to keep away from: ocelots favour dense forest far from roads and human settlement.

The ocelot is listed on Appendix I of which treaty that governs international trade in wildlife?

CITES gives Appendix I species its highest level of protection, a response to a trade that moved 140,000 ocelot skins in 1970.

In the United States, ocelots rest by day in which habitat, so dense that people must crawl through it?

Thorny brush such as spiny hackberry and blackbrush gives the cat its best cover, and clearing it for farms and cities is why so few remain.

How does an ocelot deal with a piece of meat once its teeth have torn it from a carcass?

Swallows it whole: an ocelot's teeth tear rather than chew, and its raspy tongue can then clean a bone of every last scrap.

Apart from mothers raising their young, how do adult ocelots usually live and hunt?

Alone is the rule: ocelots hold territories and defend them aggressively, sometimes fighting rivals to the death.

Like many wild cats, an ocelot marks the edges of its territory by spraying which liquid?

Urine sprayed on vegetation works as a keep-out sign, and males also claw logs along their trails to warn off rivals.

Which South American snake is listed among the few predators big enough to prey on ocelots?

Anaconda is on the list even though an ocelot is about twice the size of an average house cat.

Ocelots once ranged as far east as Arkansas and which neighbouring state, where none remain today?

Louisiana lost its ocelots to hunting and habitat loss, the same pressures that have left the cat very rare across the country.

Barro Colorado Island, home to one of the densest ocelot populations ever measured, lies in which country?

Panama's island is an accident of engineering: a hilltop left above water when a river was dammed to form the lake at the heart of the canal.

Which Metropolitan Opera soprano gave her pet ocelot Ita to a New York zoo when it grew too dangerous?

Lily Pons had been given the cat by a friend in Brazil and kept it in her Manhattan apartment until it began snarling at visitors.