‘High-quality semen’ from dead Texas ocelot may revive endangered species, experts say
The ocelot had been relegated to a life outside the favorable habitat of a South Texas conservation area.
After spending his first eight years inside Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, he was likely forced to leave by an older male ocelot tired of competing for mates, officials say. The refuge is just one of two populations of the endangered cats in the U.S. and as few as 60 remain in Texas, where most ocelots live.
In 2013, this ocelot was fitted with a tracking collar as a 1-year-old and became known as OM283. Over the years, researchers monitored his movements as he made a home in the refuge and refitted him for new collars twice over the years.
Then came a “dreaded phone call” in May. In the early morning hours, a car hit OM283 just south the refuge, ending his life.
But the race to preserve a legacy for the ocelot had just begun.
‘Live on in spirit’
Hilary Swarts, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, hung up the phone and headed into the dark with a mortality kit and cooler of ice. She knew time and rising temperatures were working against her.
The ocelot population is fragile — species has been on the U.S. endangered species list since 1972 — and being hit by vehicles is their leading cause of death, officials say.
With his body on ice, Swarts rushed the ocelot to Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville. There, a veterinarian removed testes from OM283 and shipped them overnight to the Cincinnati Zoo, arriving within 36 hours of his death.
“We knew that any chance of success depended on collecting the cat and getting the sample to the Cincinnati Zoo as absolutely fast as possible,” Swarts said in a news release from the zoo.
Because of those quick actions, the ocelot now has chance to “live on in spirit and biology,” officials say.
‘Hope’ for ocelot preservation
From the testes, Bill Swanson recovered 440 million sperm and about 60%, or 250 million, showed signs of being viable for reproduction.
Swanson is the director of animal conservation research at the zoo’s Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife, or CREW. The center works to preserve endangered species of plants and animals.
The sample of 250 million sperm collected by Swanson was mixed with a “cryoprotectant solution,” transferred to 20 semen straws and frozen over liquid nitrogen to be stored in tanks.
Each straw has enough sperm to conduct one artificial insemination procedure.
“It’s just incredible that we were able to obtain such a high-quality semen sample from a wild cat hit by a car in Texas 36 hours before,” Swanson said in a news release.
An ocelot first
The frozen semen from OM283 will be thawed and tested on a female ocelot in the ABQ BioPark in Albuquerque, New Mexico, next week. If successful, the ocelots’ offspring will be born around October.
Their birth would be the first time kittens have been born from the frozen semen of a wild ocelot, officials say.
Nine pregnancies, including three litters from frozen semen, have been produced within zoos over the past 25 years.
These new births could offer genetic diversity to ongoing efforts to save the species “while demonstrating, for the first time, the feasibility of producing kittens using frozen semen from the imperiled Texas ocelot population.”
“Only 60-80 individuals are estimated to remain in their native Texas habitat, so the importance of this sample, and the hope that it represents for the species, cannot be overstated,” Swanson said.
Ocelots weigh up to 35 pounds, with “chain-like blotches and spots” that are “bordered with black and have a light colored center.”
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