Ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) Classification

The ocelot, Leopardus pardalis, is a medium-size member of the cat family Felidae found throughout the Neotropics. This solitary, nocturnal species is of increasing conservation concern in the United States due to habitat loss and fragmentation.

Historically, the northern extent of the species range extended throughout the American Southwest. Today this subspecies, Leopardus pardalis albescens, is restricted to just two small, isolated populations in South Texas. Conservation genomics can provide invaluable insights into the genetic status and management of declining populations, however, there is currently no reference genome available for this species.

To address this deficit, here we report a high-quality chromosome-level reference genome for the Texas ocelot, with a total length of 2.47Gb placed on 211 scaffolds. The assembly is highly contiguous, with a contig N50 of 84Mb and 99.2% gene completeness. This assembly provides a key genomic resource that will enhance ongoing conservation and management strategies for this endangered subspecies.

Foley, Nicole & Brookover, Emma & Tewes, Michael & Murphy, William. (2025). A Chromosome-Level Genome Assembly of the Texas Ocelot ( Leopardus pardalis albescens ). Journal of Heredity. 10.1093/jhered/esaf095.

Even in the genomics era, the phylogeny of Neotropical small felids comprised in the genus Leopardus remains contentious. We used whole-genome resequencing data to construct a time-calibrated consensus phylogeny of this group, quantify phylogenomic discordance, test for interspecies introgression, and assess patterns of genetic diversity and demographic history.

We infer that the Leopardus radiation started in the Early Pliocene as an initial speciation burst, followed by another in its subgenus Oncifelis during the Early Pleistocene. Our findings challenge the long-held notion that ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) and margay (L. wiedii) are sister species and instead indicate that margay is most closely related to the enigmatic Andean cat (L. jacobita), whose whole-genome data are reported here for the first time. In addition, we found that the newly sampled Andean tiger cat (L. tigrinus pardinoides) population from Colombia associates closely with Central American tiger cats (L. tigrinus oncilla).

Genealogical discordance was largely attributable to incomplete lineage sorting, yet was augmented by strong gene flow between ocelot and the ancestral branch of Oncifelis, as well as between Geoffroy's cat (L. geoffroyi) and southern tiger cat (L. guttulus). Contrasting demographic trajectories have led to disparate levels of current genomic diversity, with a nearly tenfold difference in heterozygosity between Andean cat and ocelot, spanning the entire range of variability found in extant felids.

Our analyses improved our understanding of the speciation history and diversity patterns in this felid radiation, and highlight the benefits to phylogenomic inference of embracing the many heterogeneous signals scattered across the genome.

Lescroart, J.; Bonilla-Sanchez, A.; Napolitano, C.; Buitrago-Torres, D.L.; Ram¡rez-Chaves, H.E.; Pulido-Santacruz, P.; Murphy, W.J.; Svardal, H.; Eizirik, E.
Extensive Phylogenomic Discordance and the Complex Evolutionary History of the Neotropical Cat Genus Leopardus
2023 Molecular Biology and Evolution (40)

Worldwide, nature-based tourism is becoming more popular and important economically. However, there is still debate regarding its impact on wildlife in protected areas.

We conducted a quasi-experimental study to investigate the effects of tourism on the mammal community of Cavernas do Peruaçu National Park, a priority area for conservation in Brazil. We used camera traps to survey tourist and non-tourist trails during 2011-2017, encompassing periods before and after tourism started in the Park. We used four metrics for assessment: species richness, probability of using trails, activity levels and daily activity patterns.

After tourism began in the Park there was no significant change in species richness and the probability of using tourist trails either increased or remained stable for five of the six species assessed. The rock cavy Kerodon rupestris was the only species to be displaced from tourist areas and to show reduced overall activity on tourist trails after tourism began. The ocelot Leopardus pardalis showed reduced diurnal activity on tourist trails, an indication of temporal adjustment.

Overall, our results show that the initial years of visitation at the Park had limited negative impacts on the target mammal species, supporting the possibility of accommodating tourism activity and effective conservation of wildlife in the region. However, it is essential to continue monitoring in the Park because of the expected growth in tourism and potential time lags in responses of species.

Barcelos, D.; Vieira, E.M.; Pinheiro, M.S.; Ferreira, G.B.
A before-after assessment of the response of mammals to tourism in a Brazilian national park
2022  Oryx (56): 854-863

Ocelots (Leopardus pardalis) are listed as least concern on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red list of Threatened Species, yet we lack knowledge on basic demographic parameters across much of the ocelot's geographic range, including population density.

We used camera-trapping methodology and spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR) models with sex-specific detection function parameters to estimate ocelot densities across 7 field sites over 1 to 12 years (from data collected during 2002-2015) in Belize, Central America.

Ocelot densities in the broadleaf rainforest sites ranged between 7.2 and 22.7 ocelots/100 km², whereas density in the pine (Pinus spp.) forest site was 0.9 ocelots/100km². Applying an inverse-variance weighted average over all years for each broadleaf site increased precision and resulted in average density ranging from 8.5 to 13.0 ocelots/100 km².

Males often had larger movement parameter estimates and higher detection probabilities at their activity centers than females. In most years, the sex ratio was not significantly different from 50:50, but the pooled sex ratio estimated using an inverse weighted average over all years indicated a female bias in one site, and a male bias in another.

We did not detect any population trends as density estimates remained relatively constant over time; however, the power to detect such trends was generally low. Our SECR density estimates were lower but more precise than previous estimates and indicated population stability for ocelots in Belize.

Satter, C.B.; Augustine, B.C.; Harmsen, B.J.; Foster, R.J.; Sanchez, E.E.; Wultsch, C.; Davis, M.L.; Kelly, M.J.
Long-Term Monitoring of Ocelot Densities in Belize
2019  The Journal of Wildlife Management (83): 283-294

The spatiotemporal distribution of a predator within an environment tends to be synchronized with that of its prey, to maximize the efficiency of its hunting behavior. However, small predators may also be obliged to avoid potentially agonistic encounters with larger predators due to interspecific competition and intraguild predation. We used occupancy models and indices of temporal overlap to evaluate whether the occurrence of prey species, ocelots and top predators (puma and jaguar) influenced the habitat use and activity patterns of the northern tiger cat and jaguarundi in a region of the semi-arid Caatinga biome in Bahia, northeastern Brazil.

The occurrence of prey had a positive influence on the use of habitat by the small felids. The northern tiger cat was nocturnal-crepuscular and presented a high degree of temporal overlap with Spix's cavy and the rock cavy. The jaguarundi was diurnal, by contrast and overlapped temporally with the agouti. The occurrence of the ocelot did not influence the habitat or daily activity pattern of the jaguarundi, but presented a high degree of temporal overlap with the northern tiger cat, which adopted a strategy of spatial segregation to avoid direct contact with this dominant competitor. The top predators did not influence the spatiotemporal distribution of the small felids, indicating that their niches are segregated by dietary parameters related to differences in body size.

Our results indicate that the availability of prey has a more profound influence on the spatiotemporal ecology of the small felids than the occurrence of the top predators, although the presence of the northern tiger cat appeared to be correlated negatively with that of the ocelot. We believe that environmental factors, such as the conservation status, size and isolation of native habitats, may have a fundamental influence on the strategies adopted by the northern tiger cat to mediate its coexistence with the ocelot.

Dias, D.M.; Masara, R.L.; de Campos, C.B.; Rodrigues, F.H.G.
Feline predator-prey relationships in a semi-arid biome in Brazil
2019  Journal of Zoology (307): 282-291