Ocelot · No. 22 of 22
Saint Louis Gets An Ocelot For The First Time Since 1969
An expansion-draft return for a species the market had not seen in 57 years.
The Deal
The Grades
Saint Louis
Reintroduced a species to the market after 57 years. Low cost, high novelty.
The Breakdown
Zuko is 11 months old and the first ocelot at the Saint Louis Zoo in 57 years. Fewer than 120 ocelots remain in the wild in southern Texas; the species was listed as endangered in 2016.
Most of the attention in this sport goes to gorillas, elephants and pandas, because those are the animals that move the turnstiles. But the overwhelming majority of the roughly 400 to 850 SSP transfers completed in a typical year involve animals like this one: a young cat, a modest announcement, a species most visitors could not name.
That is where the actual conservation work happens, and it is why the wire matters more than the blockbusters.
