SALISBURY — The Salisbury Zoo recently received a female ocelot kitten named Anahi from the Greenville Zoo in South Carolina.
She was one of two female ocelot kittens born on Aug. 15 2015. The kittens were the first offspring for parents Evita and Oz. The Greenville Zoo was one of two Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) institutions to breed ocelots in 2015.
This past winter the Salisbury Zoo lost their male ocelot, Ozzie. He was almost 17 years old, which is considered a long life for an ocelot in captivity. Ozzie came to Salisbury from the Beardsley Zoo in 2009. Although he spent most of his time here at the Salisbury Zoo, he traveled back to the Beardsley Zoo periodically to participate in an ocelot artificial insemination project to help further ocelot conservation. Ozzie was the father to two kittens through this program.
The Salisbury Zoo is part of the ocelot Species Survival Program, which strives to ensure the sustainability of a healthy, genetically diverse and demographically varied population through breeding programs with the AZA-accredited institutions. Working with the AZA and the Ocelot SSP the Zoo hopes to obtain a male in the near future to pair with Anahi.