IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Emmons, L.H.; Sherman, P.; Bolster, D.; Goldizen, A.; Terborgh, J. | |
| Ocelot behavior in moonlight | |
| 1989 Advances in Neotropical Mammalogy: 233-242 | |
We studied the behavior of ocelots in the field in southeastern Peru by radio-tracking and quantitive monitoring of tracks on a network of prepared sites. The numbers of tracks on trails and beaches decreased as the moon waxed. Radio-tracking showed that the time spent active, total distance traveled, and temporal pattern of activity of ocelots did not differ significantly on moonlit and dark nights. They likewise avoided open areas by day. Ocelots therefore generally seem to shift their foraging to denser cover in bright light conditions. Transect census showed that spiny rats, a major prey of ocelots, are less visible from trails on moonlit, than on dark nights, but radio-tracking has shown these rats to be equally active in moonlit, than on dark nights, which indicates that they did not have better hunting success on moonlit nights. This mammalian predator of rodents seems more likely to have its hunting impeded than enhanced by bright light conditions, which may hinder its ability to approach its prey unseen. It seems unlikely that this type of predator is responsible for much of the "lunar phobia" seen in small mammalian prey species. |
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