ocelot

[prettygoodword]

ocelot (OS-uh-lot, OH-suh-lot) - n., a medium-sized spotted wild cat (Leopardus pardalis, formerly Felis pardalis) of Central and South America with a grayish or yellow coat with stripy black spots.



Thanks, WikiMedia!

Although I live at the very edge of their territory, I have only seen them in captivity and Minecraft -- which is as it should be as they are nocturnal and live in brushy woodlands, and have not adapted to human environments the way coyotes have. [Sidebar: Yes, captive ocelots do oscillate in an enclosure.] The name is from Nahuatl, but not the Nahuatl name for the ocelot -- ōcēlōtl is jaguar, while the ocelot is tlālocēlōtl, literally "field jaguar." It's not clear whether French naturalist Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon, who introduced the name in 1765, made a mistake or deliberately shortened the long name. [Sidebar: Although ocelots can have ocellated ("eye-shaped") spots, the words are otherwise unrelated, ocellated coming from Latin. The pun may have been a reason to shorten the name, though.]

---L.

Comments

[guildrone]

Ah, my former first- and current third-favorite felid! (Beaten out first by the clouded leopard—which I basically consider a bigger, edgier equivalent—and second by the serval for mostly sentimental reasons.)

In any case, I still find it fascinatingly versatile and adorable besides…

[prettygoodword]

More like a bigger, floofier equivalent, no?

[full_metal_ox]

WARNING: DO NOT TRY TO OSCULATE THE OCELOTS.

(THE GIFT SHOP CARRIES CUDDLY PLUSH REPLICAS FOR THAT SORT OF THING.)

[prettygoodword]

Er, no. Do not osculate. They have claws.