Was that a cat that just ran by? If you happen to be at the Sabal Palm Audubon Sanctuary, it could have been an ocelot. This cat is twice as big as a pet cat. With its speckled coat, it looks like a mini-leopard. Or maybe that flash of fur was a jaguarundi. Jaguarundis are slightly smaller than ocelots, about as big as house cats. They don’t have spots after they are four months old. In the United States, these animals live only near the tip of Texas and have been seen in southern Arizona as well. Both are endangered here.

At Sabal Palm Audubon Sanctuary, you’ll also see sabal palms. These trees look very much like palm trees, and they attract a variety of birds, including green jays, buff-bellied hummingbirds, olive sparrows, and northern flickers. Sabal palms used to fill the area, but now they're only in the sanctuary and a few nearby sections of land. Non-native plants - ones that don’t belong in the area - have crowded them out.

In addition to non-native plants, houses and roads are also threatening Sabal Palm Audubon Sanctuary. As houses and roads are built, clusters of native plants and animals may get cut off from one another, threatening their survival. Sabal Palm Audubon Sanctuary is creating “wildlife corridors" - narrow strips of land that link groups of animals and plants including the ocelot, jaguarundi, and sabal palm.