Big cat
From Free net encyclopedia
- The "Big Cat" may also refer to a nickname for former baseball player Andrés Galarraga.
Big cat refers to large wild felids of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe. Australia and Antarctica have no indigenous species of big cats.
The term big cat is used to distinguish truly large felids, which can weigh several hundred pounds, from much smaller Felidae species. Despite enormous differences in size, the various species of cat are amazingly similar in both structure and behavior. All cats are carnivores and efficient predators.
The very largest cats are members of the genus Panthera. One definition of big cat includes only the four species of Panthera (the lion, the tiger, the leopard and the jaguar). Members of this genus can roar while other cats cannot. Consequently, the ability to roar is sometimes considered a distinguishing characteristic of big cats.
In addition to the four species of Panthera, three other species (the cheetah, the snow leopard and the puma), with adult males weighing as much as 150 pounds (70 kg) or slightly more, are often considered to be big cats, although none get as large as lions and tigers and none can roar.
Medium-sized cats like the lynxes and the ocelot, which may weigh as much as 55 pounds (or 25 kg), are generally not considered big cats although they are considerably larger than small cats like the domesticated housecat.
Species
Genus Panthera:
- Tiger (Asia)
- Subspeacies of Tiger
- Bengal Tiger
- Indochinese Tiger
- Malayan Tiger
- Siberian Tiger
- South China Tiger
- Balinese Tiger
- Javan Tiger
- Caspian Tiger
Lion (Africa, Gir Forest in India; in southeast Europe and the Middle East in classical times) Subspeacies of Lion
- North East Congo lion
- European lion
- Katanga lion
- Congo lion
- South African lion
- Barbary lion
- Massai lion
- Cape lion
- East African lion
- Asiatic lion
- Abyssinian lion.
- West African lion, or Senegal lion
- Somali lion.
- Kalahari lion
- Jaguar (the Americas; from Mexico to northern Argentina)
- Leopard (Asia and Africa)
Other "big cats":
- Snow Leopard (mountains of central Asia)
- Cheetah (Africa)
- Clouded Leopard (Southeast Asia)
- Puma (other names: catamount, cougar, mountain lion, painted cat, panther) (North and South America)
- Tigon (male Tiger/female Lion)
- Liger (male Lion/female Tiger)
- Jagulep (male Jaguar/female Leopard)
- Lepjag (male leopard/female jaguar)
- Congolese Spotted Lion (Jagulep or Lepjag/Lion)
- Marozi (male Lion/female Leopard)
- Leopon (male Leopard/female Lion)
- For other hybrids see Panthera hybrid
Big cats of unconfirmed status (either a new species, a subspecies of a known type, or legendary):
Medium-sized cats (much smaller than "big cats"):
- Lynx
- Eurasian Lynx (Europe and Asia)
- Bobcat (Lynx rufus) (North America)
- Canada Lynx (North America)
- Iberian Lynx (Europe)
- Ocelot (Mexico, Central and South America, and southwestern Texas, USA)
- Caracal (Africa)
- Serval (Africa)
- Fishing Cat (Asia)
- African Golden Cat (Africa)
- Asiatic Golden Cat (Asia)
External links
- How big are the Big Cats - an article at Big Cats Online which includes a chart comparing the body lengths of several cat species.
- ARKive - images and movies of endangered big catsde:Großkatzen