By Wendy Anders

The country’s Ombudsman’s Office (Defensoría de los Habitantes, in Spanish) felt the need to intervene in a troubling situation in which 12 ocelots have been killed on Costa Rica’s roads since January, pointing out that there are also human risks involved with wild animals crossing roads.

Although the need for special passageways for wild animals to cross highways has been clearly identified, no technical specifications have been drawn up nor have any specific actions been taking by roadway officials, stated the office today in a special urgent press release.

Today Tatiana Mora, director of Quality of Life for the Ombudsman’s Office, stated that plans for the creation of aerial or subterranean passages for wild animals on Costa Rica’s main and secondary highways must be immediately drafted and acted upon.

Her office has met with the National Roadways Council, CONAVI, which she says has expressed its complete willingness to address the issue of animal safety on roads. Mora said she hoped that by the end of this year, plans would be in place so that all road designs incorporate aspects of wild animal protection into their planning and construction phases.

The International Society for Endangered Cats (ISEC) Canada, a federally registered non-profit organization operating since 1990 to protect smaller felines, describes ocelots (Leopardus pardalis) as “one of the more beautiful feline species.”

Ocelots, called manigordos in Costa Rica, are the only medium sized cat found in the tropics, according to ISEC. The felines live in a range of habitats from sea level to 1200 m including humid tropical forests, dense thorny chaparral, dry scrub, savannas, and coastal mangrove and swamp forests, says ISEC on their website.

The society goes on to describe them in detail saying, “Their coat is short and soft … and colour varies from whitish or tawny yellow to reddish grey. Markings run into chain-like streaks and blotches, forming elongate spots bordered with black enclosing an area darker than the ground colour. The underside is snowy white with black spots, and the tail is ringed or barred with black on the upper side, whitish on the underside, and black tipped. Like most wild cats, the backs of the rounded ears are black with a white central spot.”

The International Union for Conservation of Nature listed ocelots at risk of extinction as recently as the 1980s, but that no longer is true. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species currently calls these streamlined felines a species “of least concern.” This means that the ocelot population is believed to be strong enough that they won’t go extinct any time soon.

Nevertheless, their deaths on highways is a sign that many of the country’s other wild animals are also at risk for highway deaths, said Mora, and protecting biodiversity is one of the country’s responsibilities.