What was the name of Salvador Dalí's pet ocelot?

Salvador Dalí’s pet ocelot was named Babou.

Babou became Dalí’s exotic companion during the 1960s, appearing beside him in photographs, restaurants, hotels, and other public places. Dalí reportedly claimed that Colombia’s head of state had given him the animal, although the story was part of the artist’s famously theatrical public persona.

The ocelot’s striking spotted coat suited Dalí’s taste for visual spectacle. In a Manhattan restaurant, he reportedly reassured an alarmed diner by joking that Babou was merely an ordinary cat painted in an op-art pattern. Babou also accompanied Dalí during a transatlantic crossing aboard the SS France.

Babou is often confused with the anteater associated with Dalí’s Paris appearances. They were different animals: the ocelot was his better-known long-term exotic companion, while the anteater became famous through a memorable street photograph. Babou’s eventual fate and date of death are not known.