page_title: Ocelot
section_title: In culture
hierarchical_section_title: Ocelot / In culture
caption_attribution_description: English: Salvador Dali with his pet ocelot, Babou, and cane.
context_page_description: The ocelot is a small wild cat native to the southwestern United States, Mexico, and Central and South America. This medium-sized cat is characterized by solid black spots and streaks on its coat, round ears, and white neck and undersides. It weighs between 8 and 15.5 kg and reaches 40–50 cm at the shoulders. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. Two subspecies are recognized: L. p. pardalis and L. p. mitis.
  Typically active during twilight and at night, the ocelot tends to be solitary and territorial. It is efficient at climbing, leaping and swimming. It preys on small terrestrial mammals, such as armadillo, opossum and lagomorphs. Both sexes become sexually mature at around two years of age; they can breed throughout the year, though the peak mating season varies geographically. After a gestation period of two to three months, the female gives birth to a litter of one to three kittens. They stay with their mother for up to two years, after which they leave to establish their own territories.
  The ocelot prefers areas with dense vegetation cover, high prey availability, and proximity to water sources.
context_section_description: Ocelots have been associated with humans since the time of the Aztec and Incan civilizations, who depicted ocelots in their art and mythology. Ocelot bones were made into thin, pointed instruments to pierce ears and limbs for ritual bloodletting. Several figurines depicting ocelots and similar felids are known. In her 1904 work A Penitential Rite of the Ancient Mexicans, archaeologist Zelia Nuttall described a statue depicting an ocelot or a tiger excavated in Mexico City and its relation to the Aztec deity Tezcatlipoca. She argued that the sculpture depicted an ocelot, writing,
  "According to the well-known myth, Tezcatlipoca, when cast down from heaven by Quetzalcoatl, "fell into the water where he transformed himself into an ocelot" and arose to kill certain giants.
  Moreover, she described a photograph of a seated person to corroborate her claim:
  At the back of his head, above his left hand, the head of an ocelot is visible, whose skin hangs behind his back, the tail ending below his knee. Besides this the personage wears leggings made of the spotted ocelot skin and a rattlesnake girdle from which hang two conventionalized hearts. It is interesting to find that in a note written beneath its photograph the late Senor Islas de Bustamante, independently identified the above figure as a representation of "Ocelotl-Tezcatlipoca" or Tlatoca-ocelot, lit. the Lord Ocelot ... and described as wearing "the beard of the mask of Tezcatlipoca".
  Like many other felids, ocelots are occasionally kept as pets. Mindy Stinner (of the Conservators Center, Burlington) notes that ocelots, unlike caracals and servals, might demand a lot of attention from their owners. They have a tendency to chew on or suck on objects, such as fabric and the fingers of their owners; this can lead them to accidentally ingest objects like tennis balls. Agile and playful, pet ocelots can be troublesome to keep due to their habit of leaping around and potentially damaging objects; ocelots may unintentionally injure their owners from bites. Nevertheless, carefully raised ocelots can be highly affectionate to their owners.
  Painter Salvador Dalí owned a pet ocelot named Babou that was seen with him at many places he visited, including a voyage aboard SS France. When one of the diners at a New York restaurant was alarmed by the ocelot, Dali told her that it was a common domestic cat that he had "painted over in an op art design". Opera singer Lily Pons and musician Gram Parsons are also known to have owned ocelots.
caption: Salvador Dalí with his pet ocelot Babou
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