My painting from the series “Wildlife. Big Cats” is dedicated to a beautiful creature ocelot. The number of these bright, graceful cats is regularly decreasing.
The ocelot’s habitat is prone to fragmentation and loss. This leads to the death of cats from hunger. Traffic accidents have become a serious threat lately as ocelots try to move outside their habitat and collide with vehicles. In the Atlantic Forest in northeastern Argentina, it suffers from deforestation and wildlife poaching.
In the 60s and 70s, the fur trade was a thriving business and this led to serious exploitation of felines such as the ocelot and jaguar. In the 1960s, ocelot skins were among the most popular in the United States. In 1986, the European Economic Community banned the import of ocelot skins, and in 1989 the ocelot was included in Appendix I to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. However, the hunt for ocelots for skins continues and continues to pose a serious threat to ocelot survival.
Another threat to the ocelot is their domestication as pets. Kittens are caught and their mothers are killed. Even though it is prohibited in several countries, the pet trade persists. In some parts of Central and South America, ocelots are still sold in the markets.
People should stop this madness so that the ocelot can be seen not only in the paintings but in wildlife.
