Animal Facts #1: Ocelot

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The Ocelot is a wild cat that lives throughout South America. This cat is medium sized that ranges from 55-100 cm (22-39 in) and weighs 8-16 kg (18-35 lbs). Ocelots are active for 12-14 hours every day, with hunting being their main activity. They are most active around twilight and travel one to five miles per night, which makes them difficult to observe. During the day they rest in trees or dense brush. These cats are not afraid of water either, they can swim effectively when needed. Like a domestic cat they are able to produce short-range vocalizations of "meows" and can produce a long-range "yowl" during the mating seasons. These animals are solitary who live singly in territories that are marked by spraying urine and laying dung piles. They tend to keep social interaction to a minimum, but a few adults have been observed together in non-mating months and some juveniles may interact with their parents.

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Ocelots prey on small mammals such as; armadillos, opossums, rabbits, rodents, fish, insects, small birds, and reptiles. Typically a ocelot only attacks animals less than 1 kg (2.2 lbs). Rarely do they prey on large targets such as a dear. After they have killed their prey they tend to eat immediately, interestingly, ocelots remove birds feathers before consuming them.

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These are beautiful animals and are treasured for their fur. Poachers today are still killing ocelots for their marketable illegal fur trade. There is a estimation of being 800,000-1.5 million worldwide, but in the U.S. there are only just 30. Many of them die in the U.S. from automobile accidents with even more being killed for their fur and habitat loss has always been a issue.

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Like many wild cats, ocelots are occasionally kept as pets. Salvador Dali had a pet ocelot named, Babou, sometimes he even brought it aboard the luxury ocean liner SS France. As of today acquiring a pet ocelot, in the U.S., is rare as they are very expensive and difficult to acquire. Ocelots also give off a pungent odor and mark their territory everywhere. That includes furniture, walls, and floors.

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This concludes today's day of animal facts. Every day I will try my best to make a post on a animal. Feel free to comment what animal to do for tomorrow. Thanks for reading.