Rio, New Ocelot, Arrives At Elmwood Park Zoo

NORRISTOWN, PA — Elmwood Park Zoo's newest resident has arrived, and officials are hopeful she will mark the beginning of a new generation of her kind at the Norristown zoo for years to come.

Rio, a 6-year-old ocelot, has made her debut in the zoo's Trail of the Jaguar.

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An ocelot is a medium sized wild cat about two times larger than an average house cat. While their range once covered much of the desert southwest in the United States, they now have only a tiny fractured range in in west Texas and northern Mexico.

Their range also extends throughout all of South America, and while numbers are currently solid, they are in decline as their range continues to shrink.

Elmwood says they plan on slowing introducing Rio to their other ocelot, Mateo, in the coming weeks.

"Our careful matchmaking will hopefully result in future Ocelot kittens," the zoo shared in a statement.

Watch Rio explore her new habitat here.