Caesar Kleberg News

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY-KINGSVILLE

Article by MICHAEL TEWES Photo by FIN AND FUR FILMS

The most important phase in the life of an ocelot, or any wild cat, is its youth.

Kittens are extremely vulnerable. Born altricial with their eyes closed, kittens are totally dependent on their mother for food, warmth and protection. A couple of weeks after birth, their eyes open, but simple movements and coordination still must develop. Any predator or enemy including coyotes, bobcats and Great Horned Owls, could quickly kill the kittens if the mother leaves them exposed.

This is the beginning of a long journey of learning. If the mother lacks the skills and experience to be a good teacher, then the kittens will have little chance to survive, much less excel in meeting the upcoming environmental challenges. Young ocelots must master complex hunting and social skills to thrive as an independent adult in a seasonally changing world.

The recently released film, American Ocelot, provides a visual story showing the close mother-kitten interactions that are critical to teaching the skills for survival. Filmmaker Ben Masters crafted an extraordinary movie that peeks, for the first time, into this early relationship. You will not be disappointed if you take the time to find and watch this film.

Ocelots are mostly nocturnal, secretive in their ways and occupy the densest brush—three different factors that combined make encounters with humans very rare. To document a mother-young ocelot bond in their natal home is a spectacular cinematographic achievement.

Dozens of additional photographs from remote cameras, and several hours of video that were not included in the film, have provided us with a rich behavioral understanding during this critical phase of life. It represents an ecological treasure of visual nuggets revealing seldom seen behaviors.

Not all mother ocelots are created equal. And the role of the mother is crucial. It begins even before the young are born. Fundamental to success is the level of her experience that is used to identify a valuable territory and how it can be effectively exploited and successfully defended.

The mother must recognize a home range that is large enough to have healthy amounts of the essential elements needed to successfully raise her young. She would prefer an area with little coyote scent and

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thereby few coyotes, multiple quality den sites in the densest cover to move her young between, plenty of escape cover, and perhaps most important, a high abundance of rabbits and rodents. The easier the hunting, the more time she can spend teaching her young. One problem is other mother ocelots are searching for the same high-quality territory.

Consequently, the mother must also have the experience to recognize a territory small enough that she can travel over frequently to spread her scent designating ownership. This important act was frequently shown in the assembled ocelot footage.

She must know how to defend it from other intruding mother ocelots willing to assert claim for a prime territory. The mother’s success with passing her genetics to future generations depends upon a successful territory.

While viewing the film, I frequently noted the smooth integration of mother vigilance with teaching through visual and auditory cues. Often the young ocelot was seen near her mother, or if she was lagging, quickly catching up following staccato meows or calls from mom.

Staying close to the mother as they expand their area of exploration, is an important test to passing the class “Surviving 101.” The kitten must be near the teacher to watch and learn the important life lessons. Interestingly, the mother would often pause, listen and look, to assess the safety of the area she was about to enter with her young. It reduced the chance of the kitten stumbling into a rattlesnake or bobcat.

The best set of life-promoting skills and experiences, passed down from the preceding ocelot generation, can empower a successful mother to teach her kittens. It also takes a kitten which is a good student willing to learn the best response to threats or opportunities. However, these success traits are truly tested when “stuff happens.” For example, an unpredictable major drought can, and does, rapidly reduce both prey abundance and foliar cover from even the best ocelot home range. If a severe drought of one to three years follows the birth of kittens, the young will have little chance to survive.

How the mother and young respond will influence their survival and ability to pass their learned survival skills to the next generation. If a kitten is born during abundant rainfall and a cornucopia of prey, then life can be much easier.

Often cotton rat populations, a favorite prey of ocelot, will dramatically increase during wet periods making hunting trips easy. Unfortunately, neither the mother or young will be tested to learn how to find the few remaining rodents as in a drought.

Many times over the decades, I have had inquiries from people owning pet ocelots who want to release their feline into the wild. I advised against such an action for several reasons, including the probability that the release would be equivalent to a death sentence.

A naive ocelot without a mother’s training on surviving in the wild would likely not live long. The inexperienced ocelot must be able to identify prime prey habitat, select the right distance to rush a rabbit before it escapes into cover, and a multitude of other learned behaviors. Selecting the best thermal cover during wet windy cold fronts would be another important example of survival training given by the mother.

The inexperienced ocelot would have to navigate a complex social world of enemies and competitors including bobcats and other ocelots. Ocelots compete intensively for good habitat. We have documented at least three times where one ocelot has killed another in these contests. If they survive an aggressive match, then losers are often forced to use marginal or poorquality home ranges where reproduction often fails, and mortality is high.

I am grateful for the information gained from the American Ocelot—it has elevated our appreciation of the importance of the mother’s role in teaching survival skills to her young. Hopefully enough learning is acquired during the early stages of life that enable the young ocelot to thrive at successfully exploiting its territory and defending it at the same time.

Texas Wildlife Association 6644 FM 1102 New Braunfels, TX 78132 www.texas-wildlife.org (210) 826-2904 • FAX (210) 826-4933 (800) 839-9453 (TEX-WILD)