A Dallas Zoo event to curb the illegal wildlife trade captured nearly 30 ivory trinkets and family heirlooms.
One item in particular, however, provoked ire — and horror — on social media: a fur coat made from endangered ocelots. The tan- and brown-spotted coat appears to show the faces of the animals.
Texas Parks and Wildlife posted a photo of the coat on Instagram, imploring people to make informed purchasing choices to reduce the demand for illegal wildlife products. “Not a good look,” the agency wrote.
Members of the cat family, ocelots were once present across South Texas, the southern Edwards Plataeau and along the Coastal Plain, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife. But as their habitat was cleared for farming and urban growth, the animals’ population has declined.
In 1995, an estimated 80 to 120 lived in Texas. Today, only about 30 to 35 ocelots remain in the shrub lands at or near the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge near Brownsville. Fewer than 120 now live in the U.S.
Ocelots also face extinction due to poaching. The animals are prized for their dappled fur, which resembles a jaguar or leopard. Weighing roughly 15 to 30 pounds, it requires 30 to 35 ocelots to make a single, standard-size coat, according the Carolina Tiger Rescue.
This was the Dallas Zoo’s first Toss the Tusk event, a national initiative hosted by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Wildlife Trafficking Alliance. Since the program’s inception in 2019, more than 1,000 wildlife products have been surrendered to zoos across the country.
Elephant ivory is the most common product surrendered. Walrus ivory and other miscellaneous animal products like a seal-skin purse have also been turned in, with no questions asked.
Relinquished products are sent to the agency’s National Wildlife Property Repository in Colorado, which stores about 1.4 million items for use in public education, law enforcement training and research.