Ocelots continue to hang on by a slim thread in southern Texas with some 50 "cats" still calling the Lone Star State Home........The Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute has a pessimistic population model projecting the "blinking out" of the species within 50 years due to dwindling habitat and there being only two "island populations in Texas that are separated by a vast distance(no opportunity for the Ocelots to move back and forth and improve the gene pool as well as relatively tiny protected domains in each region)..........

Current Sightings: 

Plight

 of the ocelot: 

Endangered

 cat's future 

uncertain

Steve Sinclair;valleymorningstar.com

Some major changes are planned at Laguna
 Atascosa National 
Wildlife Refuge that will 

have an effect on visitors.On Oct. 15 the
15-mile Bayside Drive
 will be closed to motorized vehicles,

 though it will remain open for hikers and
bicyclists.The popular
 drive is being closed after two

 ocelots became road casualties on the
 tour loop, including a
 nursing female. Part of Bayside Drive

passes through known ocelot habitat.

Laguna Atascosa and adjacent habitat is one of
 two strongholds

 for the endangered ocelot,
a small spotted cat about the size of a bobcat 
Within the past few

 years the official estimate for
 ocelots in South Texas has been reduced from 
less than 100 to

 about 50. The other ocelot
 population is farther north in ranch country.
 The refuge has by far the most cats.

Ocelots are shy, secretive cats mainly active
 after dusk and in my

 16 years in the Rio Grande
 Valley and a frequent refuge visitor, I have 
see three.
I have been in love with ocelots ever since I
 learned Texas still had

 a viable population.
 Along with refuge biologist Linda Laack, I
started the Ocelot

 Conservation Festival, with
 all money raised going for ocelot research
 and project. Over the

 years, the festival has
generated thousands of dollars to help with 
ocelot preservation.

The future of the ocelot in Texas is by no 
means certain. Mike

 Tewes, an expert on
 Texas wild cats at the Caesar Kleberg 
Wildlife Research Institute

 in Kingsville, once
 told me that one model has the ocelot 
disappearing from the

 state within 50 years.
 Other models are more optimistic.

But wildlife officials are committed to 
maintaining and hopefully

 increasing the ocelot
 population through management 
techniques and there has even

 been discussions of
bringing ocelots from Mexico to Texas
 to help diversify the gene 

pool. Currently,
 most of the ocelots at Laguna Atascosa 
are related.

The only ocelots in the United States are
 found in Texas and

 they are truly a treasure
 of the Lone Star State.