BROWNSVILLE — Like their namesake, the popular annual Ocelot Conservation Festival is having to adapt, but thanks to the Friends of the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, this year’s celebration will go on as a virtual event.
The three-day festival traditionally is held at the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville. But this year it’s going to be three days of virtual ocelots online, and will include the Ocelot Run.
Blame you-know-what for the changes.
“This year with the pandemic, we’re not going to be hosting it live like we usually do at Gladys Porter Zoo,” Chris Quezada, visitors services park ranger at Laguna Atascosa, said Tuesday.
“There are going to be a series of speakers and we’re going to be talking about pretty much everything that goes toward ocelot conservation on behalf of the (U.S. Fish and Wildlife) Service,” he said. “We’ve got a few speakers lined up. We’ve got speakers from the Cincinnati Zoo talking about some science innovation and sampling with sperm, you know to freeze some and hopefully use some in the future. And then we’ve got something a little less gross, just land acquisition, what goes on in land acquisition, how it affects our neighbors here around the refuge.”
Quezada said there also will be segments in the program about general ocelot conservation and biology, as well as the potential for translocation of cats from elsewhere to improve the genetic pool for the critically endangered Texas subspecies, which is cut off from Mexican ocelots.
“We’re going to talk about habitat restoration, what it means for the refuge, what it means for our community and how people can get involved,” Quezada said. “We’re going to be talking about volunteer opportunities, and there’s going to be a live auction and some arts and crafts for kids and families.”
Texas ocelots have had a good year or two, and have actually increased their numbers on the refuge, Quezada said.
“We are at about 17 ocelots at the refuge, and I believe for the past couple of years we’ve been at 14 or 15, but this year we’re at 17, which is really good for our numbers,” he said.
“Which most likely means that the population outside the refuge on private ranches also have a couple more,” he said. “There are about 60 ocelots left in the state, a third of them are on the refuge, and if there are 17 on the refuge now, there are probably a few more on private lands, so that’s good news, too.”
Quezada said the assistance of TxDOT, which paid for several wildlife underpasses on high-mortality highways for ocelots, is paying off, too.
“The cat population on the refuge has been using them,” he said. “Initially, they were having a tough time getting acquainted with these new structures, so there have been some more documentation of them using the underpasses, which is really, really good for them.”
Quezada said the popular 1K and 5K Ocelot Run will be held as a virtual event.
“The only thing is, it won’t be at the zoo this time, it’ll be from wherever you’re at, which means more people can participate” Quezada said. “Hopefully next year we’re back to our traditional setting but for this year we’re going virtual.”
Further information on Ocelot Fest will be available on the Laguna Atascosa and Friends’ websites as well as their Facebook pages.
