Quick answer
Key facts about ocelot — size, diet, habitat, and conservation in one place.
Rosettes and camouflage
Chain rosettes and streaks break up the ocelot's outline in dappled understory — similar patterning to leopards but on a cat roughly twice the size of a house cat. Each coat is unique, like a fingerprint.
Nocturnal hunter
Ocelots hunt mainly at night, stalking rodents and opossums on the forest floor and occasionally climbing for monkeys or birds. Excellent vision and hearing suit them to dense cover where they travel along game trails.
Texas population
A small breeding population persists in southern Texas shrubland — the only U.S. breeding ocelots outside captivity. Habitat loss to agriculture and roads threatens this isolated group, linked genetically to Mexican populations.
Fur trade legacy
Ocelots were heavily trapped for fur until international protection; coat patterns were mimicked in fashion. Listed Least Concern globally, they still lose forest to soy, cattle, and palm expansion across the Amazon and Atlantic Forest.