Road Closed For Ocelots

Ocelot (phti by USFW via Wikimedia Commons)

At the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival I visited many birding hotspots but didn’t have time to see Laguna Atascosa. Exploring it on my own would not have helped.  The 15-mile Bayside Drive loop road is closed for ocelots.

Ocelots (Leopardus pardalis) are about the size of a Maine Coon cat (15-30 pounds, one foot high and 3 feet long from nose to tip of tail) with short fur in a beautiful spotted pattern.  Because the pattern is unique to each cat they can be identified as individuals in photographs.

Though ocelots are widespread in Central and South America they’re endangered in the U.S., seen only in Arizona and south Texas.  They used to range across South Texas into Arkansas and Louisiana but the land looks nothing like it did 50-100 years ago.  Ocelots need thick native vegetation to hunt and raise their young but 95% of that has been cleared and drained for farms and towns.  There’s nowhere for the ocelots to go.

In 1995 there were 80-120 ocelots in south Texas but the number is now just under 50, all of them in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.  A ranch and Laguna Atascosa are the only places in the U.S. where ocelots breed.

With only 12 ocelots at Laguna Atascosa each sighting is a gift.  In March and May trail cams recorded a cute female kitten and a year-old male. USFW also captures and radio tags the ocelots so they can target the cats’ preferred areas for protection.

Unfortunately road-kill history and the radio tags have shown that ocelots frequently walk Bayside Drive during the day.  Since 1995 about half of all ocelot deaths in Texas have been road kills.

As bad as it is to run over an abundant animal, imagine the horror of killing one of only 12 endangered animals.  To stop their decline U.S. Fish and Wildlife closed the loop road to private vehicles on October 15, 2013.

Though I couldn’t drive my rental car on Bayside Drive, I’m glad the road is closed to protect these beautiful cats.

Click here to read more and see ocelot photos at Friends of Laguna Atascosa.

 

(photo by U.S. Fish and Wildlife via Wikimedia Commons.  Click on the image to see the original.)

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