People regularly contact Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) with reports they have seen, photographed or found some dead unusual animal — one that doesn’t exist, is extinct in Texas or is so rare and the report coming from so far from the animal’s range that it’s unlikely the caller saw what he thought he saw.

Almost without exception, they are mistaken. The black panther turns out to be a large feral house cat or bobcat. The jaguarundi is really an otter. The wolf is a big coyote or a feral dog. The chupacabra is just a dog or coyote with a bad case of mange.

So when Waggoner got word a woman claimed to have found a dead ocelot along Highway 180 between Mineral Wells and Palo Pinto in north-central Texas, he was properly dubious. The nation’s entire population of ocelots consists of fewer than 100 animals in two small patches of habitat in Texas’ Cameron and Willacy counties near the mouth of the Rio Grande. That’s a long ways from Palo Pinto.

While the medium-sized cat’s range once covered coastal and eastern Texas before habitat destruction and unregulated hunting reduced them to the two remaining pockets at the tip of Texas, there are no historical records of wild populations anywhere close to Palo Pinto County.

But the woman was persistent and sincere. She had retrieved the cat carcass, which she at first thought was a bobcat, and took it home. It was an ocelot, she was certain. Waggoner went to check it out.

He found a dead ocelot.

“It was quite a shock for all of us,” said John Young, a TPWD mammalogist who headed the agency’s handling of the deceased cat.

Ocelots are a federally-protected endangered species, and a dead one draws a lot of interest from scientists, law enforcement and the public.

“We had a lot of questions, of course,” Young said.

Was this a wild ocelot? Did it somehow manage to travel 400 miles across Texas from the nearest ocelot population? Or is there a previously unknown and undocumented wild population of them along the upper Brazos River?

Or was it something else? Was this out-of-place ocelot an abandoned or escaped pet? Or could it have been a wild ocelot from Mexico, Central or South America (where the gorgeous cats are more numerous) that had been captured, smuggled into the US, then released or escaped? Had it even been hit by a car, or had it died from some other cause?

To answer those questions, Young and other scientists conducted what might be called a “CSI: Wildlife” operation.

Young took the ocelot to Brownsville where he and staff at the Gladys Porter Zoo conducted a necropsy, the animal version of an autopsy.

The cat was a big male, weighing about 36 pounds. That was a clue.

“When I saw the ocelot, I said, ‘That’s a chubby boy!,’?” said Dr. Michael Tewes of Texas A&M-Kingsville’s Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute and arguably the most knowledgeable and experienced ocelot expert in the nation.

A large, wild ocelot will weigh a little more than 20 pounds. A huge one might hit 25 pounds.

“Chubby” was much heavier, and was carrying considerable fat in his belly. “You don’t see fat, wild ocelots,” Tewes said.

The animal didn’t have the marks often seen on pet ocelots — a tattoo or collar with a tag, filed teeth, filed or removed claws. But he didn’t have the usual nicks and scars and other marks wild ocelots get, either, Tewes said. The pads of the cat’s feet were smooth and it didn’t have the ear notches wild ocelots get when they fight or rip their ears on thorns or other hazards they encounter.

Additionally, an X-ray showed the ocelot had, indeed, died from injuries consistent with being struck by a vehicle — broken ribs, punctured lung and hemorrhaging.

The necropsy revealed something else. The cat’s colon was empty and its stomach contained only a couple of shrews (tiny rodents).

Wild ocelots are efficient hunters, taking large rodents (rat, rabbits and squirrels) along with birds and reptiles. “An honorable ocelot would not have shrews in his stomach — they’re too small a meal to be of real interest to him,” Tewes said. “It’s an indication of a novice hunter.”

For Chubby to be a wandering member of the South Texas ocelot population, he would have had to have travelled much farther than any of the dozens of radio-collared wild ocelots Tewes has studied. The farthest any of those wild cats travelled was 23 miles. Palo Pinto County is 400 miles from the closest known ocelot population.

Folks at Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute are using tissue samples from Chubby to produce a DNA profile of the cat. Scientists can use that genetic profile to see if Chubby came from one of the two South Texas populations or has genetic similarities to wild ocelots from other parts of the cat’s range. But all indications are that Chubby was not a wild ocelot. Most likely, he was a pet that either escaped or was abandoned.

Ocelots raised in captivity are allowed as pets, although under strict federal permitting. But, so far, no one in the Palo Pinto County area has come forward saying they lost their ocelot.

“You can never say never,” Tewes said. “But everything I’ve seen supports the view that it’s a non-native cat.”

Texas may not seem like suitable alligator habitat to those that don’t know much about our State, but Texas residents know that we have plenty of these large reptiles—over 250,000 to be exact. Alligators, not unlike other animals, can cause serious problems, especially because of their size, powerful jaws, and numerous teeth. Refugio County-based Game Warden Raul “Pinky” Gonzales found out the hard way. No wonder Texas has a well-regulated alligator hunting season in place for these prehistoric lizards.

Game Warden Gonzales is recovering this week from injuries suffered in a struggle with an 8-foot, 9-inch alligator. The incident began on Friday, April 2, when Gonzales responded to a call about an alligator on FM 136 just south of Woodsboro. He arrived to find the big ‘gator in the middle of the road. Attempting to relocate the animal, the warden got on top of it and began to tape its mouth. Although he has dealt with alligators for more than two decades and has never been injured, this time was different. The alligator swung its head and struck Gonzales squarely in the face, causing a severe cut to his upper lip, breaking a tooth, loosening another, and damaging his eyeglasses.

Gonzales immediately tried to get away but the agitated reptile bit down on his left hand causing severe lacerations to his thumb and index finger. The warden pulled free and rolled away from the ‘gator before shooting the alligator, which killed it. After moving the carcass off the road, Gonzales contacted Capt. Henry Baldermas via cell phone. He then drove approximately 1.5 miles to the captain’s residence, where Baldermas transported him in his patrol unit to Citizens Medical Center in Victoria. The warden had surgery to repair ligaments and remove infectious material from the hand wound. He was released from the hospital Monday, but something tells me he won’t forget the one alligator that got the better of him.

Ocelots are endangered animals in the United States, found primarily in South Texas. It’s always a big deal when these rare animals are spotted, particularly when that sighting occurs outside of their normal range, and especially when that ocelot is found hit by a car. That’s exactly what happened within the last week just outside of Palo Pinto, Texas, way up in North Texas!

The above photo shows a male ocelot that was found dead on Highway 180 just East of Palo Pinto. And although the cat may look strange to many of you, it’s even more odd that this animal was found this far north. Has this animal moved up from South Texas, where residents hold an annual Ocelot Festival, or was it simply an escaped or dumped animal from someone that illegally possessed it? The jury is still out.

The fur of the ocelot, with its dark brown irregular shaped spots and stripes, edged with black on a yellow background. The ocelot’s coloration varies with its habitat, but the base color is typically a light yellow or cream in more arid areas and darker brown in forested areas.

The ocelots hunting technique is varied and is carried out mostly by night – its prey includes small deer, rabbits, rodents, reptiles and when available, fish. The ocelot swims well and will hunt for birds in the lower branches of trees in its forested habitats. Male and female cats often share territories which can be up to 3 square miles in area, which makes the Palo Pinto County cat such an anomoly.

Bobcat Description – The bobcat (Lynx rufus) is a medium-sized, reddish brown, yellow-tan, or grayish cat with faint dark spots whose color varies greatly with the habitat in which it occupies. Its ears usually have small tufts at the tips, and its fur is longer on the sides of its head than on the rest of its body. Bobcats have a short tail (hence the name, as in bobbed-tail), long legs, and large feet. The bobcat is highly adaptable and inhabits almost every wooded or brushed area throughout the United States.

Bobcat Diet – Bobcats primarily hunt rabbits and rodents, but they are also known to eat birds, bats and the occasional deer fawn or young pig. Bobcats can sometimes cause problems around rural and suburban farms, where they will kill and consume small goats, sheep, chickens, and turkeys.

Bobcat Behavior – Bobcat habitat varies greatly from forests to semi-deserts and brush land to mountain-dominated areas. A habitat dense with vegetation and lots of mice and rabbits is perfect for this medium-sized cat. Bobcat are excellent hunters, stalking prey with stealth and patience, then capturing their meals in the blink of an eye

Bobcat are territorial animals and usually live solitary lives. In fact, females will never share a territory with each other. Male territories, on the other hand, tend to overlap. These territories are established with scent markings and territory sizes are extremely varied based on habitat and terrain. Bobcat home range sizes usually range from 15 to 30 square miles for males and about 5 square miles for females.

Bobcat Reproduction – Bobcats typically mate during the winter each year and kittens are usually born in early spring. Although this time of year is when most bobcat mating takes place, they can mate throughout the year. Bobcat gestation ranges from 50 to 60 days in length and litter sizes can be from 1 to 6 kittens. The kittens will begin eating solid food at around 2 months of age. When they are between 8 and 11 months, the mother will push the kittens out of her territory.

Each bobcat may have several dens, one main den and several auxiliary dens, within its home range and territory. A bobcat’s main den is typically a cave or rock shelter, but can be a hollow log, fallen tree, or some other protected place in level terrain. Bobcat will also have shelter dens located in less-visited portions of their home range. These auxiliary dens are often brush piles, rock ledges or stumps.

More on Bobcats:

“The reclusive bobcat is active largely at night, although they frequently leave cover and begin hunting long before sundown. In hilly country, their presence can often be detected by their habit of dropping their feces on large rocks on promontories or ridges. Also, like the mountain lion, the males make scrapes–small piles of leaves, sticks, and so forth on which they urinate–along their travel routes, but these scrapes are smaller. Mock scrapes can be used against these animals for persons interested in trapping bobcat.

They den in crevices in canyon walls, in boulder piles, or in thickets. The dens can be readily recognized by the strong odor emanating from them. An expert at climbing trees, bobcats seek refuge in them when available.”

When it comes to heading outdoors, you just never know what you will see. That’s the great thing about getting outside and walking around diverse habitats. Not only do healthy plant communities provide great wildlife habitat, but they also hosts the really cool stuff—the wildlife! I’ve always found that the best time to view any wildlife species is during the breeding or mating season. This is because animals are on the move and often times not paying much attention to things, such as me, around them.

I guess before I continue much further, I understand that many people do not enjoy snakes, especially rattlesnakes, but they are actually very interesting animals. But once you get over “they can kill you” thing, I think most people will appreciate the role that rattlesnakes play in their environment. Well, at least to some extent. These cold-blooded killers are not really the aggressive, come-and-get-you reptiles that people make them out to be.

They don’t try to lurk around barns and houses to scare the sh*t out of people or try and bite them. In fact, they are really just looking for prey. And when it comes to prey, they are fairly specific. These snakes rely on patience, camouflage, keen senses, and a lightning-quick strike to capture their prey by ambush. Rattlesnakes prefer rodents, but the occasional rabbit will work just fine. They will also catch birds, but this is rare for most rattlers. But an interesting thing that most people will never witness is their courting behavior during the breeding season.

The rattlesnake breeding season typically happens in late summer when the male seeks out and encounters a female. Although rattle snakes are generally thought of as being horizontal animals, they get quite vertical during the mating season. I’m sure there is a joke in there someone, so do what you can with that. Anyway, part of the rattlesnake breeding ritual involves “dancing” together with their heads up off the ground. This can go on for some time, but is rarely seen by humans. Check out the photos above and tell me what you think!