Ocelots

            Known for their beautiful coats and endangered status, ocelots are very interesting animals. They are classified as Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Chordata, Class Mammalia, Order Carivora, Family Felidae, Subfamily Falinae, Genus Leopardus, and Species Leopardus Pardalis. They were very difficult to research as there are few programs in the United States that are studying them as a species. .
             They live in a large range of land from Southern Texas and Mexico, to Central and South America. Basically from the extreme United States, to Argentina. In Texas, however, they only live in small areas of protected land. They have been documented to live in tropical and subtropical forests (usually very dense), grassy planes, savannahs, arid scrub lands with a great deal of cover, and coastal mangrove and swamp forests. Their crucial habitat component is dense cover, and for the most part they completely avoid open country. They can generally tolerate human disturbance, and can co-exist with them if not victimized. Ocelot males confine themselves to a range of about 18 square kilometers, while females inhabit smaller areas of about 11 square kilometers. A male's home range will usually partly cover that of several females. .
             Ocelots consume an extreme variety of different foods, though they are carnivores. Their prey will include rabbits, rodents, monkeys, lesser anteaters, iguanas, tree lizards, frogs, small turtles, birds, snakes, small deer, and even fish. In populated areas they are known to eat domestic poultry, young pigs, and lambs. They have very sharp canines as well as molars used to eat their food. One researcher had found that ocelots will actually cross and re-cross their home range in search of prey. Sometimes they even cross their entire range every two to four days, though males generally travel twice as far as females. Ocelots are usually solitary animals, but they have known to hunt in pairs and actually have been documented meowing to one another during the hunt.