[Geoff]

For everyone who really likes nature stories; a week or so ago a small “tigrillo” was released back into the forest west of Pueblo SacBe.

Apparently this little pussy had gotten confused between the Audi’s, BMR’s and frustrated golfers that prowl Playacar and was causing problems at the savoury aviary. The rambunctious feline was passed to Hari Siliceo, Pueblo SacBe’s site manager, who along with Carlo Michieli and a fellow from the Playacar Aviary transported and released the tike deep in the forest, well west of the village.

Not trusting the locals translation of “trigrillo”, I scoured the internet and assembled for the readers’ benefit, the following description (garnered from various reputable websites) of what was supposedly caught and transplanted. It was likely a young ocelot. (Upon further review, the cat could have been a Margay, but they are not a lot different - equally endangered and possessing more or less the same following characteristics):

“The ocelot is the feline (cat) that is a most commonly seen in tropical forest where it is not hunted, although it may be seen close to inhabited areas. The ocelot, known in Mexico as the 'tigrillo' or 'little tiger', ranges through the forest regions of Central and South America from Texas in the north to Brazil and Paraguay in the south. It is the third largest of the South American cats after the jaguar and puma.
Very little is known about wild ocelots, even though they are popular as pets in North America. Pet ocelots are reputed to be very docile. They strongly resemble the closely related margay, and are generally twice the size of a margay or a domestic cat. Ocelots have much shorter tails than margays reflecting their less arboreal nature.
These cats are active both during the night (nocturnal) and during the day (diurnal). They are usually solitary. They hunt and capture their prey on the ground, although they occasionally climb trees A fully grown male measures about 4 1/2 feet from nose to tip of tail. Its beautiful spotted coat provides excellent camouflage in its forest home where it preys on a wide variety of animals, including rodents (including guinea pigs), bats, birds, amphibians, land crabs, insects, snakes, lizards, armadillos, crocodillians, small deer, agoutis, rats, peccaries, pacas, and birds. (What don’t they eat??) In areas where it is heavily hunted it has become a nocturnal animal, but elsewhere it can be seen in daylight. Although it can climb, the ocelot seems to hunt mainly on the forest floor. Ocelots are known to raid domestic poultry. Like most cats, they are expert bird pluckers, removing most feathers before eating their catch.
Sadly, it is much hunted by man for its fur, and it is now seriously threatened. Thirteen ocelots are killed to make one fur coat. In one year 140,000 ocelot skins were declared to have been imported by the USA. They were once the mainstay of the fur trade.
International commerce in ocelot products has now been prohibited; ocelots are now listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Tradein Endangered Species (CITES). Almost extinct in their natural range in the USA, they are extremely rare in Mexico. Habitat loss and overhunting have decimated their populations.”

Nice story eh?