The eight big cats
Created | Updated Oct 24, 2005
Everybody knows about lions and tigers, leopards, and cheetahs. In the U.S.A everyone knows about pumas/cougars/Mountain lions. But do you know anything about Jaguars besides that they are a car? Or how about snow leopards, they aren't really white. Or clouded leopards.
Let's start with the true big cats, that is those that can roar, due to an elastic membrane that allows their vocal cords to make a loud noise.
Tigers:
Tigers are the largest cats in the world, they are also the strongest and possibly the most endangered. There are five existing subspecies of tigers, the bengal, indochinese, Chinese, Sumatran, and Siberian. The three extinct subspecies are the Caspian tiger, the Javan, and Bali tigers. The Caspian tiger lived in central asia, possibly into Turkey. It had long belly hair kind of like a collie dog. The Javan and Bali tigers were the smallest, the Bali tiger was almost brown in some individuals. Of the extant subspecies the bengal is the most common, living in India. Shere Khan, the infamous tiger from Rudyard Kipling's "Jungle Book" was a bengal tiger and so are all wild white tigers, though all captive white tigers were descended from Mohan, an individual found in Bandhavgarh National Park in India. White tigers are not albinos, they are the result of a special gene specific to wild bengal tigers. Many years of select breeding has created severe birth defects in many white tigers. White tigers are cross-eyed, making it difficult to hunt as cats use their eyes and ears more than their sense of smell. Also they are slightly retarded. Some captive white tigers are part siberian, though there have never been any white siberian tigers. Since tigers are such an endangered species it is important to convince the public that orange is better than white; if they really care about the future of this wonderful animal, then they should consider this. Siberian tigers are the largest, there are only 300 left in the wild, and they are the only tigers where both males and females search for mates. Sumatran and Indochinese tigers are the smallest with the darkest stripes because they live in tropical rainforests. The animals they eat aren't as big as those of the previous two species. We hardly know anything about them. Chinese tigers are the most endangered. There are only 20-30 left in the wild. They are also the most primitive, suggesting that Tigers evolved in China. The Bali,Javan,and Caspian tigers are extinct and there are maybe 5,000 tigers in all of Asia and that's being optimistic. Tigers pray on animals bigger than themselves on a regular basis. They can bring down buffaloes and Gaurs weighing over a ton, and that's not even the biggest subspecies. They are also known for killing people especially in northeast India where they kill 80 people every year. Tigers are solitary, but in areas with less human disturbance they can be more social and diurnal. Male tigers have been seen sharing kills with females and cubs, but they are territorial and need their own space. They all love the water, and can be seen bathing in it. Tigers are also one of a few big cats, leopards being another, that can prusthen, a sort of puffing noise that they use to greet eachother. Most livestock killers are transient males that have been pushed toward the edge of their habitat, or a tigress who has cubs to feed.
Lions:
Lions are probably the most well studied big cats as they are the easiest to see and they aren't endangered yet. They live in prides consisting of one or two males, and a host of females and cubs. Like tigers, lions need to eat large prey. The larger the pride, the more they need to eat and the larger animals they kill. Lionesses are the hunters, while the male protects the pride. The lions will pick out an animal from the herd and chase it towards their pride members, who will then kill it with a bite to the throat just like most cats. Males might not hunt for their own food but their lives are far from secure. They must leave the pride when they mature so as not to compete with their father. Males usually team up in pairs to chase smaller animals off kills, they also must defeat the resident male to take over the pride and sire their children. Their job is to protect the females and young, which is not easy because once they show the slightest weakness, other transient males will oust them and they will probably die. Females ,however, recieve support from the pride if they get injured, so they live twice as long as the average male. When a new male takes over a pride, he kills the cubs to force the females into heat. Then he mates with them. Cubs are the last to eat at a kill and the most likely cause of death among them is starvation. Lion prides might be known for their cameradery in hunting, but other predators are actually much more pleasant towards eachother. Wild dogs feed in a leisurely fashion so that every packmember gets enough to eat. With lions, after the male eats the females go at the prey and will growl, snap, and claw at eachother for their share. Lions are now considered African cats, but the Asiatic lion still lives in the Gir forest of Gujarat in NW India. It has been hunted out of southeastern Europe and the middle east. It once shared habitat with the Bengal and Caspian Tigers, as well as various subspecies of middle eastern leopards and cheetahs which are critically endangered.
Leopards:
Leopards are often confused with jaguars and cheetahs. They are the smallest cats that can roar and the most widespread. Nonetheless they have dissapeared from the middle east, North Africa, and much of central and east Asia. The amur leopard lives in the same Russian forests as the Siberian tiger, and has long fur like a snow leopard. It is critically endangered with less than a hundred remaining. There even used to be leopards in Israel, where kings David and Solomon might have hunted them. What makes leopards stand out is their adaptability and cunning. As the great British-Indian game hunter Jim Corbett states, "If the leopard were the size of the tiger, he would be twice as deadly". They will eat everything, from cattle to lizards. They have adapted to living with people and in some areas 74% of their diet is domestic dogs. They also kill people where they have been known to enter dwellings. Black panthers are just leopards born with black fur. You can even see the spots if its sitting in the sun. It is believed that leopards in rainforests are more likely to be black, while desert leopards are almost white. Leopards have an edge over other carnivores in Africa because they drag their kills into trees where lions, hyenas and wild dogs can't reach them. This is also where they hide the cubs, so that they are safe too. Leopards are violent lovers and often inflict injuries on eachother.
Jaguars:
Jaguars are very poorly studied. The word Jaguar comes from the Guarani indians of Paraguay, which means "The cat that kills with a single bound". We don't have any idea how many there are, but we do know some things about their lifestyle. They live mostly in rainforests and swamps from central to South America. Jaguars are the biggest cats in the western hemispehere and the third largest in the world. It is difficult at first glance to tell the difference between a leopard and jaguar.
First the Jaguar is bigger and much more muscular.
The Jaguar's spots are larger with smaller dots in the middle.
The leopard does not have dots in the middle of its spots.
The head of the Jaguar is larger because of its powerful jaw muscles.
Jaguars cannot climb as well as the leopard, but they do know their way in trees. They are excellent swimmers, and this is where they make their mark in the cat world. Not even tigers can swim as well as the jaguar. Jaugars eat a wide variety of prey. On land they eat tapirs, peccaries, and brocket deer. They also feed on armadillos, sloths, and will climb trees to catch monkeys. They hunt in the water as often as they do on land, where they catch fish, turtles, capybaras and even large caimans and crocodiles. They kill their prey by biting through the skull with their powerful jaws. Jaguars are the only cat that does this and it allows them to kill turtles and other armored animals more easily. Jaguars also can be born with black fur. There used to be Jaguars in the southwest United states but they were hunted out of there in the 1800's. Now the cats are absent from most of their open habitats living only in rainforests where we can hardly find them. Of the cats in the genus panthera, Jaguars are the least dangerous to man, and most attacks are provoked.
Cheetahs:
Cheetahs can sprint at 80 miles an hour. They are the fastest land mammals on earth but their adaptations for running come at a high price. Cheetahs have deep chests to house large lungs that store extra oxygen that give it limited stamina, it's long legs and blunt non-retractable claws give it perfect traction, and it's flexible spine allows it to extend it's stride more than twice as long as a human. But cheetahs cannot bring down large prey by themselves, so they feed almost exclusively on thomson's gazelles. Once a cheetah stalks it's prey, it erupts into a run, zigzagging through the grass after the gazelle. To bring it down, it must trip the prey, and its success at this step means the difference between success and failure. cheetahs kill by suffocation and sometimes the canines don't even pierce the skin. Their skinny legs and blunt claws make it impossible to defend their kills against lions, leopards, or hyenas that compete with it for prey. Cheetahs must eat quickly before they are chased off. Mother cheetahs are solitary and are unable to defend their cubs from lions that will eat them if they find them, giving this fastest of cats one of the highest cub mortality rate of any carnivore. Males live in groups of three and can bring down a wildebeest by knocking it down. Living in a group ensures that at least one member will mate. Cheetahs nearly became extinct in the pliestocene and all individuals are descended from the few that survived. Now the population is succeptable to disease, which could wipe it out. Asian Cheetahs live in northern Iran. They used to coexist with tigers in India, where they were used as hunting cats. The word cheetah comes from chita the hindu word for spotted. The spotted chital deer is also named after it.
Snow Leopards:
In the opinion of many, the snow leopard is the most beautiful mammal alive, except for a few women. It is a seperate species from the leopard and lives in the high mountains of the Himalayas, through the Karakorums and up into Russia. We know they are endangered but scientists have no idea how many there are because they are very elusive and live at low population densities in some of the most rugged terrain on earth. A snow leopard has many adaptations that allow it to cope with it's cold environment. It's thick fur keeps it warm, and it's nasal passages are enlarged to warm air when it enters and exits the body. It's long tail gives it balance as it nimbly traverses sheer ledges and jumps across gorges. It's feet have enlarged paws so that it does not sink into the snow. The snow leopard's tail is longer than it's body and can be wrapped around the cat when it sleeps. Snow leopards eat mountain sheep, goats, marmots, and occasionally yaks, and kiang (wild asses).
Snow leopards have never killed humans, though there are cases when people have stolen kills from snow leopards without the leopard reacting, except once when it played tug of war. Snow leopards cannot roar, but they can growl, purr, and snarl. Tibetans view the snow leopard as a pest and persecute it for killing their herds. The National Zoo in Washington D.C. should seriously consider obtaining one in addition to their clouded leopard for the Asia trail exhibit.
Pumas:
Pumas, cougars, Florida panthers, catamounts, mountain lions, mountain painters, or whatever you call them are America's native cat. I have been out west many times without seeing one except for a bighorn sheep skull in California. Cougars rival the snow leopard in leaping ability and prey primarily on deer and rabbits. They are also the north American carnivore most likely to kill people as neighborhoods infringe on their territory. Cougars used to live from coast to coast and from Canada to Tierra Del Fuego. Now they are absent from the east except for the panthers in Florida. Cougars cannot roar, and are in the same genus as the domestic cat, though some scientists put them in the genus puma instead. Unlike other big cats cougars do not scavenge, preferring fresh meat they kill themselves. Their gaze is that of a professional hit man and can give any bear or wolf a run for their money. Cougars are not really endangered in North America, but they have been wiped out of the eastern U.S. and Canada, except for southern Florida. They are found in all of mainland Latin America all the way to Tierra del Fuego. This give them the largest north-south distribution of any wild mammal (excluding rodents and people of course). Florida Panthers are a subspecies of cougar that used to live in the eastern U.S. They are very inbred because there are less than a hundred left in the wild, and western cougars have been brought in to bolster their populations but it is likely that in a very short time there will be no purebred Florida panther's left. The loss of red wolves, grey wolves and cougars in the east has led to the increase of white tailed deer, which are eating everything they can possibly digest. They are destroying shrubs and understory trees, which some birds and mammals feed on, and they are thinning the natural rodent population. This is an excellent example of why we need big cats around to control the populations of large animals and encourage plant and small animal diversity.
Clouded Leopards:
The smallest of the big cats, the clouded leopard is also the most poorly known to the masses as well as to science. They live in southeast asia from as far west as northeast India and the himalayas, to central China and Indonesia. Clouded leopards have the biggest teeth in relation to their body size of any cat and their skull is specially adapted to house them. They are the best tree climbers of all the cats and can even walk upsidedown on a branch and hang from its hind feet alone. Like snow leopards, clouded leopards have long tails that give them balance as they climb through the trees. Their main prey is monkeys and birds, but also deer and pigs on the ground. We know nothing of their social structure. It is debated whether these cats spend most of their time in trees, or use them as resting places and travel primarily on the ground like leopards and Jaguars. We also don't know whether they hunt monkeys and birds, by persuing them through the treetops like some small cats, or whether they jump on the backs of small deer and pigs from an overhanging branch. Clouded leopards have oval blotches on their fur which are not quite stripes but not quite spots. They are considered endangered species and the Taiwan clouded leopard is extinct. In zoos, mother clouded leopards have a bad habit of grooming their newborn infants to death literally so they are hard to breed in zoos. Also males are much larger than females and in some instances have killed them during mating. This is a problem with small cats as well because we know even less about them than many other carnivores that no one has heard of.
Let's start with the true big cats, that is those that can roar, due to an elastic membrane that allows their vocal cords to make a loud noise.
Tigers:
Tigers are the largest cats in the world, they are also the strongest and possibly the most endangered. There are five existing subspecies of tigers, the bengal, indochinese, Chinese, Sumatran, and Siberian. The three extinct subspecies are the Caspian tiger, the Javan, and Bali tigers. The Caspian tiger lived in central asia, possibly into Turkey. It had long belly hair kind of like a collie dog. The Javan and Bali tigers were the smallest, the Bali tiger was almost brown in some individuals. Of the extant subspecies the bengal is the most common, living in India. Shere Khan, the infamous tiger from Rudyard Kipling's "Jungle Book" was a bengal tiger and so are all wild white tigers, though all captive white tigers were descended from Mohan, an individual found in Bandhavgarh National Park in India. White tigers are not albinos, they are the result of a special gene specific to wild bengal tigers. Many years of select breeding has created severe birth defects in many white tigers. White tigers are cross-eyed, making it difficult to hunt as cats use their eyes and ears more than their sense of smell. Also they are slightly retarded. Some captive white tigers are part siberian, though there have never been any white siberian tigers. Since tigers are such an endangered species it is important to convince the public that orange is better than white; if they really care about the future of this wonderful animal, then they should consider this. Siberian tigers are the largest, there are only 300 left in the wild, and they are the only tigers where both males and females search for mates. Sumatran and Indochinese tigers are the smallest with the darkest stripes because they live in tropical rainforests. The animals they eat aren't as big as those of the previous two species. We hardly know anything about them. Chinese tigers are the most endangered. There are only 20-30 left in the wild. They are also the most primitive, suggesting that Tigers evolved in China. The Bali,Javan,and Caspian tigers are extinct and there are maybe 5,000 tigers in all of Asia and that's being optimistic. Tigers pray on animals bigger than themselves on a regular basis. They can bring down buffaloes and Gaurs weighing over a ton, and that's not even the biggest subspecies. They are also known for killing people especially in northeast India where they kill 80 people every year. Tigers are solitary, but in areas with less human disturbance they can be more social and diurnal. Male tigers have been seen sharing kills with females and cubs, but they are territorial and need their own space. They all love the water, and can be seen bathing in it. Tigers are also one of a few big cats, leopards being another, that can prusthen, a sort of puffing noise that they use to greet eachother. Most livestock killers are transient males that have been pushed toward the edge of their habitat, or a tigress who has cubs to feed.
Lions:
Lions are probably the most well studied big cats as they are the easiest to see and they aren't endangered yet. They live in prides consisting of one or two males, and a host of females and cubs. Like tigers, lions need to eat large prey. The larger the pride, the more they need to eat and the larger animals they kill. Lionesses are the hunters, while the male protects the pride. The lions will pick out an animal from the herd and chase it towards their pride members, who will then kill it with a bite to the throat just like most cats. Males might not hunt for their own food but their lives are far from secure. They must leave the pride when they mature so as not to compete with their father. Males usually team up in pairs to chase smaller animals off kills, they also must defeat the resident male to take over the pride and sire their children. Their job is to protect the females and young, which is not easy because once they show the slightest weakness, other transient males will oust them and they will probably die. Females ,however, recieve support from the pride if they get injured, so they live twice as long as the average male. When a new male takes over a pride, he kills the cubs to force the females into heat. Then he mates with them. Cubs are the last to eat at a kill and the most likely cause of death among them is starvation. Lion prides might be known for their cameradery in hunting, but other predators are actually much more pleasant towards eachother. Wild dogs feed in a leisurely fashion so that every packmember gets enough to eat. With lions, after the male eats the females go at the prey and will growl, snap, and claw at eachother for their share. Lions are now considered African cats, but the Asiatic lion still lives in the Gir forest of Gujarat in NW India. It has been hunted out of southeastern Europe and the middle east. It once shared habitat with the Bengal and Caspian Tigers, as well as various subspecies of middle eastern leopards and cheetahs which are critically endangered.
Leopards:
Leopards are often confused with jaguars and cheetahs. They are the smallest cats that can roar and the most widespread. Nonetheless they have dissapeared from the middle east, North Africa, and much of central and east Asia. The amur leopard lives in the same Russian forests as the Siberian tiger, and has long fur like a snow leopard. It is critically endangered with less than a hundred remaining. There even used to be leopards in Israel, where kings David and Solomon might have hunted them. What makes leopards stand out is their adaptability and cunning. As the great British-Indian game hunter Jim Corbett states, "If the leopard were the size of the tiger, he would be twice as deadly". They will eat everything, from cattle to lizards. They have adapted to living with people and in some areas 74% of their diet is domestic dogs. They also kill people where they have been known to enter dwellings. Black panthers are just leopards born with black fur. You can even see the spots if its sitting in the sun. It is believed that leopards in rainforests are more likely to be black, while desert leopards are almost white. Leopards have an edge over other carnivores in Africa because they drag their kills into trees where lions, hyenas and wild dogs can't reach them. This is also where they hide the cubs, so that they are safe too. Leopards are violent lovers and often inflict injuries on eachother.
Jaguars:
Jaguars are very poorly studied. The word Jaguar comes from the Guarani indians of Paraguay, which means "The cat that kills with a single bound". We don't have any idea how many there are, but we do know some things about their lifestyle. They live mostly in rainforests and swamps from central to South America. Jaguars are the biggest cats in the western hemispehere and the third largest in the world. It is difficult at first glance to tell the difference between a leopard and jaguar.
First the Jaguar is bigger and much more muscular.
The Jaguar's spots are larger with smaller dots in the middle.
The leopard does not have dots in the middle of its spots.
The head of the Jaguar is larger because of its powerful jaw muscles.
Jaguars cannot climb as well as the leopard, but they do know their way in trees. They are excellent swimmers, and this is where they make their mark in the cat world. Not even tigers can swim as well as the jaguar. Jaugars eat a wide variety of prey. On land they eat tapirs, peccaries, and brocket deer. They also feed on armadillos, sloths, and will climb trees to catch monkeys. They hunt in the water as often as they do on land, where they catch fish, turtles, capybaras and even large caimans and crocodiles. They kill their prey by biting through the skull with their powerful jaws. Jaguars are the only cat that does this and it allows them to kill turtles and other armored animals more easily. Jaguars also can be born with black fur. There used to be Jaguars in the southwest United states but they were hunted out of there in the 1800's. Now the cats are absent from most of their open habitats living only in rainforests where we can hardly find them. Of the cats in the genus panthera, Jaguars are the least dangerous to man, and most attacks are provoked.
Cheetahs:
Cheetahs can sprint at 80 miles an hour. They are the fastest land mammals on earth but their adaptations for running come at a high price. Cheetahs have deep chests to house large lungs that store extra oxygen that give it limited stamina, it's long legs and blunt non-retractable claws give it perfect traction, and it's flexible spine allows it to extend it's stride more than twice as long as a human. But cheetahs cannot bring down large prey by themselves, so they feed almost exclusively on thomson's gazelles. Once a cheetah stalks it's prey, it erupts into a run, zigzagging through the grass after the gazelle. To bring it down, it must trip the prey, and its success at this step means the difference between success and failure. cheetahs kill by suffocation and sometimes the canines don't even pierce the skin. Their skinny legs and blunt claws make it impossible to defend their kills against lions, leopards, or hyenas that compete with it for prey. Cheetahs must eat quickly before they are chased off. Mother cheetahs are solitary and are unable to defend their cubs from lions that will eat them if they find them, giving this fastest of cats one of the highest cub mortality rate of any carnivore. Males live in groups of three and can bring down a wildebeest by knocking it down. Living in a group ensures that at least one member will mate. Cheetahs nearly became extinct in the pliestocene and all individuals are descended from the few that survived. Now the population is succeptable to disease, which could wipe it out. Asian Cheetahs live in northern Iran. They used to coexist with tigers in India, where they were used as hunting cats. The word cheetah comes from chita the hindu word for spotted. The spotted chital deer is also named after it.
Snow Leopards:
In the opinion of many, the snow leopard is the most beautiful mammal alive, except for a few women. It is a seperate species from the leopard and lives in the high mountains of the Himalayas, through the Karakorums and up into Russia. We know they are endangered but scientists have no idea how many there are because they are very elusive and live at low population densities in some of the most rugged terrain on earth. A snow leopard has many adaptations that allow it to cope with it's cold environment. It's thick fur keeps it warm, and it's nasal passages are enlarged to warm air when it enters and exits the body. It's long tail gives it balance as it nimbly traverses sheer ledges and jumps across gorges. It's feet have enlarged paws so that it does not sink into the snow. The snow leopard's tail is longer than it's body and can be wrapped around the cat when it sleeps. Snow leopards eat mountain sheep, goats, marmots, and occasionally yaks, and kiang (wild asses).
Snow leopards have never killed humans, though there are cases when people have stolen kills from snow leopards without the leopard reacting, except once when it played tug of war. Snow leopards cannot roar, but they can growl, purr, and snarl. Tibetans view the snow leopard as a pest and persecute it for killing their herds. The National Zoo in Washington D.C. should seriously consider obtaining one in addition to their clouded leopard for the Asia trail exhibit.
Pumas:
Pumas, cougars, Florida panthers, catamounts, mountain lions, mountain painters, or whatever you call them are America's native cat. I have been out west many times without seeing one except for a bighorn sheep skull in California. Cougars rival the snow leopard in leaping ability and prey primarily on deer and rabbits. They are also the north American carnivore most likely to kill people as neighborhoods infringe on their territory. Cougars used to live from coast to coast and from Canada to Tierra Del Fuego. Now they are absent from the east except for the panthers in Florida. Cougars cannot roar, and are in the same genus as the domestic cat, though some scientists put them in the genus puma instead. Unlike other big cats cougars do not scavenge, preferring fresh meat they kill themselves. Their gaze is that of a professional hit man and can give any bear or wolf a run for their money. Cougars are not really endangered in North America, but they have been wiped out of the eastern U.S. and Canada, except for southern Florida. They are found in all of mainland Latin America all the way to Tierra del Fuego. This give them the largest north-south distribution of any wild mammal (excluding rodents and people of course). Florida Panthers are a subspecies of cougar that used to live in the eastern U.S. They are very inbred because there are less than a hundred left in the wild, and western cougars have been brought in to bolster their populations but it is likely that in a very short time there will be no purebred Florida panther's left. The loss of red wolves, grey wolves and cougars in the east has led to the increase of white tailed deer, which are eating everything they can possibly digest. They are destroying shrubs and understory trees, which some birds and mammals feed on, and they are thinning the natural rodent population. This is an excellent example of why we need big cats around to control the populations of large animals and encourage plant and small animal diversity.
Clouded Leopards:
The smallest of the big cats, the clouded leopard is also the most poorly known to the masses as well as to science. They live in southeast asia from as far west as northeast India and the himalayas, to central China and Indonesia. Clouded leopards have the biggest teeth in relation to their body size of any cat and their skull is specially adapted to house them. They are the best tree climbers of all the cats and can even walk upsidedown on a branch and hang from its hind feet alone. Like snow leopards, clouded leopards have long tails that give them balance as they climb through the trees. Their main prey is monkeys and birds, but also deer and pigs on the ground. We know nothing of their social structure. It is debated whether these cats spend most of their time in trees, or use them as resting places and travel primarily on the ground like leopards and Jaguars. We also don't know whether they hunt monkeys and birds, by persuing them through the treetops like some small cats, or whether they jump on the backs of small deer and pigs from an overhanging branch. Clouded leopards have oval blotches on their fur which are not quite stripes but not quite spots. They are considered endangered species and the Taiwan clouded leopard is extinct. In zoos, mother clouded leopards have a bad habit of grooming their newborn infants to death literally so they are hard to breed in zoos. Also males are much larger than females and in some instances have killed them during mating. This is a problem with small cats as well because we know even less about them than many other carnivores that no one has heard of.
