A very special visitor recently made an appearance at the Brownsville Episcopal Day School, and the ocelot from the Cincinnati Zoo put on quite a show for the appreciative students who learned how important it is to protect the endangered cats.
"Because if you don't they could get extinct,” said student José Carlos Reens Trevino.
The students and their teachers have developed an award-wining curriculum to learn about wildlife and ocelots in particular, and the visit was to reward their achievement.
The auditorium was decorated with colorful posters depicting the endangered cat, and many of the younger students had painted their faces to resemble the cat.
"I know that they are an endangered species, and all the ocelots have different patterns on their skin,” said Blake Fowkes.
The students had already learned much about the rare cat that doesn't live in the wild anywhere else in the United States except for the Rio Grande Valley, and seeing an ocelot in person was a thrill.
"I have never actually seen an ocelot and the way it could come down and the way it never actually got scared at all was pretty cool,” said Dominic Troiani.
"If we don't take care of them then they will be extinct and there will be no more of them," added Claire Fourt.
"We need to stop tearing down their habitat. Like leave the trees so they will have a place to live,” said Noah Zavaleta.
"We need to stop driving so fast on the roads near their habitat or else they will get run over by a car,” said Gerardo Farias
"If we don't take care of ocelots they will extinct, and we like ocelots a lot,” said Juliana Trevino.
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