Description
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has collected and curated Global Positioning System (GPS) locations from GPS-enabled Tellus Ultralight neck-collars placed on federally endangered ocelots (Leopardus pardalis) in Texas. This dataset includes 17,709 GPS locations from 14 male or female ocelots being monitored from 2012 to 2021. These locations are stored using coordinates in Universal Transverse Mercator for Zone 14 North. Ocelots were captured in box-traps, sedated, anesthetized, fit with a GPS collar, and released on USFWS lands following protocols in Sternberg and Swarts (2021 - https://doi.org/10.7944/wx3d-jd10). Locations in this dataset only occur on Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, locations on private lands having been removed but maintained by USFWS for internal use.
The USFWS uses Darwin Core terms to describe data fields for each record. The definitions below are taken directly from the Darwin Core Terms quick reference guide (http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/index.htm), although some have been modified to more accurately describe information attributed to records in this dataset. Users of the dataset should refer to Darwin Core terms reference guide if more clarity is needed about a given field, or how it might relate to information assembled in other databases. Additional details are described in the metadata file and at https://ecos.fws.gov/ServCat. https://doi.org/10.7944/ka9g-t377.
Data Records
The data in this sampling event resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 20 records.
2 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.
This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.
Versions
The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.
How to cite
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
Sternberg M, Swarts H, Mays J (2025). GPS locations of Ocelots on Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge from 2012-2021. Version 1.1. United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Samplingevent dataset. https://doi.org/10.7944/ka9g-t377
Rights
Researchers should respect the following rights statement:
The publisher and rights holder of this work is United States Geological Survey. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.
GBIF Registration
This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: a13be032-4e00-4bf8-8a63-22976eea99c9. United States Geological Survey publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by U.S. Geological Survey.
Keywords
Occurrence; Observation; GPS; ocelot; Leopardus pardalis; endangered; Felidae; mammal; Texas; USA; Refuge
Contacts
- Metadata Provider ●
- Originator ●
- Point Of Contact
- Zone Biologist
https://orcid.org/https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0028-2669
- Originator
- Refuge Manager
- HC 60 Box 860, Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge
- Originator
- Supervisory Park Manager
- 91 Bartlett Park Road, Cumberland Gap National Historical Park
- Content Provider
Geographic Coverage
Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, Cameron County, Texas, USA
| Bounding Coordinates | South West [26.02, -97.49], North East [26.41, -97.23] |
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Taxonomic Coverage
Ocelot (Leopardus pardalis)
| Kingdom | Animalia |
|---|---|
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Mammalia |
| Order | Carnivora |
| Family | Felidae |
Temporal Coverage
| Start Date / End Date | 2012-01-18 / 2021-06-04 |
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Project Data
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has collected and curated Global Positioning System (GPS) locations from GPS-enabled Tellus Ultralight neck-collars placed on federally endangered ocelots (Leopardus pardalis) in Texas. This dataset includes 17,709 GPS locations from 14 male or female ocelots from 2012 to 2021.
| Title | GPS locations of Ocelots on Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge from 2012-2021 |
|---|---|
| Identifier | OcelotGPS_FWSdata_Public |
| Funding | Major funding was provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Friends of Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. |
| Study Area Description | The data occurs on Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge which is located in Cameron County, Texas, USA. |
| Design Description | Ocelots were being monitored as part of the long-term management and recovery of ocelots on and around Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, managed by the USFWS, when the monitoring program was being led by USFWS from 1992 to 2021. Ocelots were captured in box-traps, sedated, anesthetized, fit with a GPS collar, and released on USFWS lands from 2012 to 2021 following protocols in Sternberg and Swarts (2021 - https://doi.org/10.7944/wx3d-jd10). |
The personnel involved in the project:
Sampling Methods
GPS locations of ocelots were acquired on a variable schedule depending on the needs to monitor each specific ocelot as determined by USFWS staff. GPS locations ranged from every 30 minutes to as few as two locations in a 24-hour period. Additional GPS location data for collared ocelots on Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge for a similar timeframe may become available after 2024 from a collaborative dataset of the USFWS and the Texas Department of Transportation. There are three separate datasets containing GPS locations of ocelots on and around Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife from this timeframe (i.e., current dataset, a shared dataset between USFWS and the Texas Department of Transportation, and a third dataset solely collected by FWS containing locations of ocelots on private lands). All locations represent locations of ocelots freely moving about in the wild. Skips in sequential numbers in the occurrenceID, number, and numberByID columns represent data found elsewhere in the aforementioned datasets. Nevertheless, all data provided are accurate and unaltered locations of wild ocelots, including shortly after recovery from anesthesia and ocelot having been released back into the wild, and data from the point at which the collar was retrieved from the ocelot.
| Study Extent | Locations were collected from GPS collars attached to ocelots on Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, located in Cameron County, Texas, USA. Some ocelots received multiple collars over the 2012-2021 study period. |
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| Quality Control | The dataset has gone through a cleaning and georeferencing process to ensure GPS points and location information is accurate. All data associated with testing each collar were removed. If a collar malfunctioned, its battery died, it was removed or replaced with a new collar on the ocelot, and a note was made in the organismRemarks column. Terms in the dataset are in accordance with those set by the Darwin Core (DwC) Standard (Darwin Core Task Group, 2021). A template generator was used to cross walk our recorded data into DwC Standards and it is cited here: Luke Marsden, & Olaf Schneider. (2023). SIOS-Svalbard/Nansen_Legacy_template_generator: Nansen Legacy template generator (v1.01). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8362212 Locations in this dataset only occur on Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge; locations on private lands having been removed but maintained by USFWS for internal use. This was done using the Select by Location tool in ArcGIS Pro, version 3.1.7, and using USFWS boundaries provided by the USFWS, Division of Realty, Region 2, Albuquerque, New Mexico, to select only the locations of ocelots on the Refuge for release to the public at this time. Refuge boundaries were accurate as of December 4, 2024. Data are projected in North American Datum (NAD) 1983, UTM Zone 14N. The USFWS uses UTM as the data standard. UTM locations should be considered accurate to within 10 m given our testing with these GPS collars. As with similar GPS collars/devices, altitude is not a very reliable metric in this dataset, neither in precision or accuracy in our experience, but it is provided as researchers may find some use in these estimated values. Likewise, we would not recommend using altitude to estimate accuracy of the GPS locations. The time of each location as in the eventTime column was calculated from Greenwich Mean Time that was originally recorded with each location. Time (eventTime) was adjusted to Central Standard Time for the USA with seasonal adjustments for Daylight Savings Time. A data dictionary defining fields in this dataset that are not Darwin Core (DwC) standards is available on the Service Catalog of the USFWS (https://iris.fws.gov/APPS/ServCat/Reference/Profile/175725). |
Method step description:
- 1. Trap an adult ocelot. 2. Sedate, and anesthetize an adult ocelot. 2. Attach a GPS-enabled and pre-programmed collar on an adult ocelot. 3. Acquire locations from email delivery from the collar on a predetermined schedule using the local cellular network, or manual download data in the field by contacting the collar remotely and copying data to a laptop computer using a UHF antenna and download cable, or download the data by direct download through the micro-USB port on the collar onto a laptop once the collar is retrieved. 4. Assess accuracy of each location based on location of initial trapping, tracking of the same collar using VHF (during 2 hour windows each weekday), and overlaying locations with known local boundaries and habitats using ArcGIS software platform.
Additional Metadata
| Acknowledgements | Many U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Student Conservation Association interns contributed to this project, including C. Knight, C. Wildermuth, R. Lyon, J. Smith, H. Frederick, V. Van Quill, P. McGovern, G. Schmidt, D. Kuhn, R. Thomas-Kuzilik, E. Lustig, E. Saldo, E. Hope, A. Liang, N. Fogel, C. Horton, V. Locke, E. Peterson, M. Butler-Valverde, K. Shupe, K. Crandall, C. Hickling, M. Picillo, and G. Chio. Thomas deMaar, Gladys Porter Zoo, provided technical guidance and assistance in the sedation, anesthesia, and care for live-trapped animals. Additional thanks to all the volunteers and staff that assisted in data acquisition and curation before 2013. Funding for one intern was provided by the Houston Zoo. Jonathan Moczygemba, K. Marklevits, S. Miller, B. Severson, M. Severson, and B. Blihovde provided significant field-level assistance on the project. Major funding was provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Friends of Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. |
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| Introduction | The ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) occurs from North to South America, including south Texas and Arizona, in the USA, and south to Argentina. Although its status across its range was initially more due to over-hunting and habitat destruction, more recently, its presence in the USA has declined due to habitat loss, fragmentation, and consequentially to collisions with vehicles. Today, only two known breeding populations of ocelots remain in the United States, both of which occur in south Texas. One of the Texas ocelot populations is found primarily on private ranch land in Willacy and Kenedy counties, while the other population is centered on the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge in Cameron County. These populations rely mostly on a habitat of dense Tamaulipan thornscrub, the majority of which has been removed due to agriculture and urbanization, resulting in the isolation of these two populations. Recovery of the ocelot in the USA relies on increased population connectivity through habitat restoration and preservation of healthy ocelot populations. Although decades of research in Texas has been conducted tracking the movements of ocelots, the majority of those years utilized VHF technology, and GPS technology offers considerably better and more information to inform the scientific community on the ecology and recovery of ocelot. USFWS staff deployed large, single-door, traps with attached bait cages containing live pigeons to trap and collar adult ocelots. Trapping and handling protocols followed those of Sternberg & Swarts (2021). |
| Getting Started | The dataset contains 17,709 locations of 14 wild ocelots on Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. Some ocelots received multiple collars, and these different deployments are noted by serial numbers in the dataset, as well as their date of deployment. Data are provided in copies in CSV UTF-8 format as well as an exact copy already in Microsoft Excel format to provide options to users. These data contain locations of these uniquely-identified ocelots as well as sex, life stage, remarks on collar deployment, time it took the GPS system to acquire each location, the number of satellites used to acquire each location, a rough estimate of altitude and movement and animal temperature among other characteristics. These locations have been scrutinized for accuracy, and all collar-testing data as well as data when the collar had been dropped from the ocelot using a remote command to remove it and retrieve the collar, have been removed so that only data on the movements of wild ocelots on the Refuge remains. |
| Purpose | The purpose of these GPS-collar data from ocelots was to assist the USFWS in monitoring the population, and leading efforts towards the recovery of the federally endangered ocelot in Texas. These data assisted USFWS staff in making determinations for numerous activities to protect the ocelot by informing the USFWS staff on the following for ocelot on and around Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge: use of different habitats; territories and ranging characteristics; reproductive activity; movements and risks associated with dispersal, crossing of roadways, and use of wildlife underpasses under roadways; interactions with other species including bobcats that were also being GPS-monitored. To our knowledge these data represent the first GPS-collar data for ocelots in the wild that has ever been made available to the public. The publication of these data will hopefully encourage further contributions of similar data to the public from other groups, as well as to provide data for scientific analyses that can inform the management and recovery of the endangered ocelot. |
| Maintenance Description | No additional data are planned to be added to this dataset. Locations may supplements this dataset if any of the current private lands become managed as part of the National Wildlife Refuge System in the future. |
| Alternative Identifiers | https://ecos.fws.gov/ServCat/Reference/Profile/175725 |
| https://ipt.gbif.org/resource?r=test_ocelot |