haha no but if somebody did that costume and walked in front of my camera traop they would be my favorite person

yea come on!

I studied wildlfie biology at Texas A&M and then started making short films afterwards. It's a lot of fun but its difficult to do it well enough to make a career out of for sure.

I would go see them at the laguna atascosa national wildlfie refuge and also check out this coalition of organizations trying to do some ambitious recovery: https://recovertexasocelots.org/

for this movie the camera traps were super important. We used browning consumer grade camera traps and Tshed pro grad camera traps. Biggest challenge is figuring out their behaviors and getting the cats dialed in, it often takes several months before you get it figured out, which can be difficult to stay motivated!

they're historically found across much of eastern half of the state and into louisiana and arkansas, most likely along river habitat and forests.

currently working on borderland jaguars. And I sincerely hope ocelots are not wiped out! I'm cautiously optimistic about their prospects

Yes definitely. A captive breeding program is definitely a possibility and there are vets that collect the semen from wild cats when they;re caught. The struggle is that its' very expensive, time consuming, and the captive bred cats don't release as successfully as wild cats due to their pampered upbringing

I'm in the incredibly good fortune to choose what I want to make, which I do not take for granted! I've got a lot of friends in the wildlife research and conservation world and they keep me pretty up to date and just kind of take the opportunities that arise. This film actually started as a low budget short film and when PBS Nature saw it, they reached out and asked us to extend it into a 50 minute.

Yup!

It's not so much the windfarm as it is the habitat loss. It's no differnet than a parking lot or an ag field. Anytime you transition wild habitat into a human dominated area you lose the wildlife. For ocelots in S. Texas, a lot of their former habitat has been plowed under and is now dominated by ag and wind farms, which is totally unsuitable for the species. Alternative energy is necessary, but it definitely comes at a high price and we should be careful where we put it. In Texas, there's little to no zoning for wind energy and there's turbines in some really stupid places that are extremely importnat migratory corridors. It's maddening because the effort to do alternative energy is noble and necessary, but done poortly can really set back some areas or species

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I think that a windfarm with good forest or brush underneath would be suitable for ocelots but most of the wind farms in South Texas near the ocelots are on ag.

Cool! You can contribute to this group who's leading the effort to bring them back: https://recovertexasocelots.org/

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Thanks for supporting!

there's mountain lions in Texas but no breeding populations in NE Texas. The last documented jaguar in Texas was in the 40s and there has never been a black jaguar anywhere close to Texas, I think the farthest north melanistic jaguar was documented in Chiapas MX

I have not, normally the woods are pretty noisy. Probably nighttime in Montana in winter far from a road is the quietest I've heard or closest to silent

whew, maybe one day. I'd like to do that ride again one day but probably not for at least 2 decades or so. Dang that was good living

definitely proud dad moment watching her open up that camera trap!

make a short film that has a story. It doesn't have to be beautiful or perfect but if you have a short film that tells a story, production companies and other filmmakers will see that you care and know how it actually comes together. IT's the best way to learn all the roles too.

check out the film and then check out https://recovertexasocelots.org/ for some ideas that people have!

Thanks Jason! Appreciate all you've done for ocelots and for helping to guide our filming and understanding of the species!

Damn straight. Should be more.

For consumer grade cameras, I prefer the Browning Recon Force HP5. For professional grade camera traps that'll shoot in 4K, I prefer the Tsheds or the Cognisys with either Panasonic or Canon camera bodies. Low light sensor is preferred and a variable lens to meet the situation. Thanks for watching!

I wish I had the magical answer but to be honest I don't. For ambitious recovery efforts to take place there would have to be approval of permits at both state and federal levels and I feel your frustration over not knowing how to proceed. I'm taking the film to DC after the holidays and setting up a screening and trying to get some of the top folks at USFWS and DOI to come and get inspired (fingers crossed!). There's also a great resource guide at recoverhttps://recovertexasocelots.org/ that has some opportunities to get involved or support financially. Thanks for watching and for the question!

Interesting thought. For me, as an American and as a Texan, I don't like the idea of not being able to have our most beautiful and endangered cat in our home. Where they currently exist in Texas, they're doing fairly well.

Currently the most likely place for a reintroduction of either cats or new genetics is in South Texas in habitat similar to where they currently exist.