Surge in Texas Ocelot Deaths
Sad news from South Texas: the past year has seen a surge in ocelots dying on roads. Can underpasses help. My blog on the news released by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service yesterday.
6 Comments
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vdinets
The most likely explanation is that ocelots move around more, probably due to low rodent numbers, unusual weather, or both.
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tomeslice
There’s also a 4th option which I just thought of, which is not happy either:
4. There is substantially more traffic nowadays in that part of Texas and therefore more cats are getting ran over 🙁
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Alan D
We volunteer for a local organization that spearheaded the movement for both a wildlife bridge and under crossing across a nearby major road. The results so far have been excellent and we are now monitoring cameras to gather data to propose another crossing over I10 which is the freeway between Phoenix and Tucson. Hopefully, they see similar positive results in TX.
I think these wildlife bridges and under crossings are the best way to reduce roadkill and damage to people and cars. It’s really a win-win.
For more information on the Tucson crossings see http://www.sonorandesert.org/.
Alan D
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tomeslice
This is indeed sad, but it could have a few explanations:
1. Drivers in Texas are less careful this year
2. Ocelots in Texas come near the roads more and become roadkills
3. There’s a dramatic increase in the number of Ocelots in Texas, and therefore we see more ocelot road kills..
I’d like to think it’s the 3rd option, which is happy. But of course this happiness is off-banced by many of them dying on the roads.