The Big Cats

Most of large cats are in danger of extinction. The beautiful coats of animals such as leopards and cheetahs have long been prized by people throughout the world. As a result, hunters have greatly diminished the number of these cats. Other cats, such as the lion, have been driven from the open plains they prefer as man has settled there.

            Four genera are represented here: Neofelis, Leo, Uncia, and Acinonyx.

The Big Cats 

The Clouded Leopard (Neofelis nebulosa)

inhabits southeast Asia, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo. It is a great climber and seems to prefer to remain unseen, hiding in the thickest jungle and branches of threes.

The Clouded Leopard (inhabitat.com)

            The clouded leopard is graceful and slender. Its head and body measure about 3 feet; the tail adds another 30 inches. It weighs about 45 pounds, which is light for so big an animal.

            Clouded leopards are night hunters, preying on birds and small mammals. They have also been known to attack sheep, pigs, goats, and even dogs.

            The body is covered with thick, soft fur that is light gray or brown in color. The marking are large spots with a black border that is ringed in white. Nothing is known of its breeding habits in the wild. In zoos, litters of from one to four cubs have been born.

            The canine teeth of this feline are proportionately much longer than those of the other cats. It is therefore not placed in the genus Felis but in a separate genus, Neofelis. There are also other dental and cranial features that make the clouded leopard distinctive.

            In Borneo, the canine teeth of clouded leopards are used by certain natives as ear ornament, and seating mats are made from the skin. The Chinese for centuries have used dried parts of the body for medicinal purposes.

            In captivity, the clouded leopard is gentle and playful and likes to be petted by its keepers. Several zoos in the United States have been successful at breeding them.

The Lion (Leo leo)

is the commonly called the “king of the beats.” Within historic times it lived in southern Europe and the Middle East, as well as in India and Africa. But man has driven this majestic animal from all but a very small part of its old area. Today the lion is relatively common only in east-central Africa. Only 200 exist in Asia; all of these are in the Gir Forest game preserve in India.

The Lion Family (theconversation.com)

            Not all lions look alike. There is quite a variety in appearance between individuals. In general the males, by the time they are 5 years old, have a mane of specialized long hairs on their heads, shoulders, chest, and elbows. However, the distribution and color of the mane varies from lion to lion. The color of the fur is yellowish gray, with a black tuft on the tip of the tail.

            Like other members of its subfamily, the lion has the ability to make quite impressive – and frightening – sounds. This ability is due to an elastic ligament associated with the bone that supports the tongue and its muscles. Felines, such as the domestic cat do not have this ligament.

            The lion is a noisy animal. His sounds range from a slight moan to a mighty roar. He uses both teeth and claws to make a kill, but sometimes a mere swat of his paw will down an animal the size of an antelope.

            A lion has thirty teeth. It uses its four canines to hold the prey, kill it, and tear off the meat. The four carnassials cut through tough skin and tendons. Lacking flat teeth for chewing, the lion has to swallow its food in large chunks.

            Once a kill has been made, lions proceed to dine on the spoils in a very systematic way. First the blood is licked up, then the favorite parts are attacked – the kidneys, liver, thigh muscles, and ribs. One large meal can serve a lion for a week, since he is capable of consuming about 50 pounds of meat at a sitting.

            Lions are most active at night. They hunt individually, in pairs, or in loosely organized packs. When in pairs, the female hides in the grass while the male stalks its prey upwind. At the crucial moment, when the quarry catches its scent, the male roars and the leaps, taking care to drive the terrified victim into the waiting claws of the female.

            Charging, a male can reach the speed of 35 miles per hour. Lions will defend their prey but rarely fight over a kill among themselves. They kill only what they need.

            Lions hunt a great variety of prey. They feed mainly on hoofed mammals, such as zebra, gnu, and antelope. They eat carrion if game is not available, and they have also been known to kill rats and mice.

The Lion Eat Buffalo (abdlaziz498.wordpress.com)

            In inhabited areas, lions will attack domestic animals and even man himself. Lions who have eaten human flesh may lose their fear of man. They will even initiated their cubs to this taste, and after that the pack can become a serious menace to an entire region. Essentially, however, the lion is not a man-eater.

            Lions live in social groups called rides, composed of an adult male, females, and young. Within the pride life is generally peaceful. Lions rest about 20 hours a day. Lionesses are usually 3 to 4 years old when they bear their first litter. There is no particular mating season, for lions can breed at any time of the year. The gestation period lasts about 108 days, after which the mother gives birth to 1 to 6 cubs. As lions do not have permanent dens, the mother must move her cubs from one place to another by carrying them in her mouth one at a time.

            The cubs are weaned after several months. Then they are led by their mother to a recent kill to feed. After that, their education is a good example of how young carnivores learn hunting techniques. First the cubs observe the pride hunting and feeding from the spoils. The young begin to hunt on their own when their teeth are well developed, which is when they are about 10 months old. At first their parents stand by to help if necessary. The cubs may remain dependent on the pride until they are two years old and capable of capturing their own game. Lionesses usually wait until their first litter is independent before having a second litter.

            Having already been eradicated in most areas where it once was king, the lion is now disappearing from non protected areas throughout Africa. Aside from the hunter’s gun, the major menace to the lion is the disappearance of the large herds of herbivorous animals that it needs for food.

           In order to prevent the complete extinction of this magnificent animal, measures have been taken to protect it. In the national parks of southern and eastern Africa, where hunting and trapping are forbidden, lions are frequently observed on roads, unconcerned by cars and visitors, to whose presence they are now accustomed.

            The lion is also rather easy to keep in captivity, and they quite readily reproduce in zoos and circuses. Although a lion cannot really be domesticated, it can be trained, as everyone realizes watching circus performances.

            Lion training is one of those incredible feats that must be seen to be believed. The precise scientific basis on which it is done is a matter of argument. Most likely, training involves a distortion of the lion’s ordinary social behavior. Animals that live in groups naturally have a relationship with others of their kind. They may, as a result of fighting or of bluff, lord if over their fellows, or they may be subordinate in position.

            When in contact with members of other species, a social animal sooner or later starts to treat the outsiders as if they were members of its own kind. A lion tamer, then, becomes accepted by a group of lions as another “lion.” He does this gradually from outside the cage, and he must learn to read the mood of each animal from the signals it makes. He must impress on each one that he is the superior and dominant animal. When the time comes for him to step into the cage, there must be no doubt. The trainer must establish his position by bluff, for in actual physical combat he would certainly have no chance at all.

The Tiger (Leo tigris) 

is the largest of the great cats. Male Indian tigers may measure 9 feet or more from nose to tip of tail and weigh as much as 400 pounds. The tigers of Manchuria and Siberia are even larger. The Siberian tiger is the largest living cat, weighing up to 550 pounds.

            The fur of tiger is red-gold with black stripes. There may also be white patches with black markings around the muzzle, eyes, and ears, and on the chest. In general, tigers living in northern regions are paler than those of the south. These differences in color may have arisen because they were advantageous in terms of camouflage in various environment. A small number of tigers are whitish with dark brown stripes and ice-blue eyes, but they are very rare. A few of these white tigers have been captured and live in zoos.

The Tiger (www.yorkshirewildlifepark.com)

            Tigers will attack almost any animal, including large elephants, lions, leopards, and even other tigers. Although they live in forest, tigers are not particularly good tree climbers. They hunt on the ground. They hunt mainly at night and generally alone. Tigers attack large pray in a terrifying silent rush, but they prefer to pounce on small prey. After a kill, they eat what they want and then hide the spoils. They return to the carcass again and again until in it is all eaten.

            Despite their fearsome reputation, tigers are not man-eaters by nature. However, when they are stalking prey or when a female who is guarding her cubs is disturbed, tigers are especially dangerous. Perhaps two or three in a thousand become eaters of human flesh. Probably, these man eaters are either old, relatively feeble individuals who are too slow to capture faster prey or females who are raising their young in areas where wild game is scarce.

            Like the lion, tigers have useful and powerful vocal cords, and their noises range from a bark, a cough, or a hiss, to a great roar.

            Tigers are found in an area extending from central Asia through northeast China, parts of Iran, India, and Burma. Southward to the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian Island of Java, Sumatra, and Bali.

Tiger Walk (tigertime.info)

            The tiger moves with a sinuous and elegant action that hides its tremendous strength. Its body is so powerful that it can bring down an animal the size of a buffalo with a quick spring.

            Its sense of hearing is very acute, but its sense of smell and sight are less well developed. Curiously enough, although most live in tropical regions, they suffer from the heat and like to immerse themselves in water to cool off. This preference for bathing sets them apart from other cats.

            A female tiger gives birth to four or five cubs after a pregnancy of about 3 ½ months. Generally, only two of the cubs in a litter survive. The young are born with woolly striped fur. They remain with their mother until they are two years old and have learned how to hunt alone.

            Lions and tigers occasionally interbreed in zoos. If the father is a lion, the offspring are called ligers. If the father is a tiger, second generations of ligers or tigons is usually not successful because most of them are sterile.

The Leopard (Leo pardus) 

The Leopard (en.wikipedia.org)

is the smallest of the big cats. It is smaller but no less fierce than the Jaguar. One the most versatile of jungle animals, it has been able to adapt to encroaching civilization better than most cats, for it lives both in tropical rain forests and in drier open country of Africa and Asia.

            Around settled areas the leopard prefers to prey on domestic animals from farms rather than stalk wild prey. Because of this preference, a leopard can be very troublesome to man.

            Whether it is hunting wild game or tame farm animals, its technique is the same. The leopard hunts at dusk, by sight or by smell. Both sense are acutely developed. A leopard is a silent and efficient stalker. It kills either by breaking its victim’s neck or by severing the jagular vein with its teeth. Leopard prefer to hunt alone.

            Having made its kill, a leopard then establishes a larder, much like a dog that buries a half-finished bone for a latter meal. First it licks up the blood. Then it eats the entrails before dragging off the rest of the carcass to a hiding place. Sometimes it even pulls the remains up into a tree, where it lodges them in a forked branches; here the carcass is safe from such hungry scavengers as jackals and hyenas.

            During the Ice Age Leopards were found from the British Isles to Japan and southern Asia. Now they are extinct in Europe and Japan but persist in Africa, southern India, Ceylon, and Java.

            Because of the market value of leopard fur, the animal is actively hunted or trapped at night when it goes after domestic animals that have been set up as bait.

            In general its coat is pale ochre, depending sometimes to a reddish hue spotted with black rosettes. Some leopards are black and are called black panthers. Others have different markings and coat colors. The Persian leopard is gray, the Java leopard is reddish-brown, the African leopard has more concentrated spots, and the Chinese leopard is larger and has longer hair.

            A good-sized leopard will measure 4 ½ feet in length. Its tail adds another 3 feet. It weighs about 100 pounds, although animals weighing 200 pounds have been known. Smaller and lighter than either the tiger or the lion, it is gracefully proportioned.

            Leopards will breed at any time of the year. Two to four cubs are born at the end of a three-month gestation period, but it is rare that the whole litter survives to maturity.

The Jaguar (Leo onca) 

is not only the biggest cat in the New World, it is also the only large spotted pantherine to be found in the Americas. It ranges from the southwestern United States through Central America and south to Chile and Argentina.

            The jaguar bears a strong if superficial resemblance to African the Asian leopards. It is about the same length as a leopard, but may weigh up to 300 pounds. Its shape is quite different from that of the graceful leopard; the jaguar is almost clumsy looking, with its large head, heavy body, and ponderous stomach. It has a short tail in comparison to its length, and walks with a curious rolling gait.

The Jaguar (headwaylearning.co.uk)

            The fur is yellowish in color, with markings deep black rosettes. Toward the tip of the tail, the markings become circles. Whereas leopards have rosettes bearing no center spot, jaguars have several small additional spots within each rosette. There are rare cases of pure black jaguars. As among the leopards, these animals are the product if hereditary factors, and they can occur in any litter of normally spotted cats.

            Jaguars live in forested or brushy areas. They are particularly good climbers and often feed on birds. They are also very good swimmers, sometimes catching and killing turtles and alligators. Jaguars use the same hunting methods as other big cats; they stalk their prey and then make a leaping, short-range, surprised attack. They kill many different types of animals for food, including large rodent, deer, tapirs, and even fish.

            After a gestation period of about 100 days, a female gives birth to from two to four cubs. These cubs are more heavily marked than the adults, bearing random spots that later form rosettes. They reach maturity in about the same time as other big cats – two years.

            The jaguar rarely attacks man, and it seems to be less feared than other large felines.

The Snow Leopard (Uncia uncia) 

The Snow Leopard (www.middaydaily.com)

belies its name, for it is neither a typical leopard nor does it live in regions of year-round snow. Also known as the ounce, the snow leopard roams the mountain ranges of the USSR, Mongolia, and western China, especially the Altai and Sayan ranges. Adapted to the thin, cold air of such regions, it never goes below 6,000 feet in summer and generally lives at altitudes between 10,000 and 20,000 feet. It migrates vertically with the seasons and can always be found at the snow line during the winter.

            Some cats do not have a specific breeding season. The snow leopard does, however, possibly because of its rigorous living conditions. Mating occurs in late winter, followed by a gestation period of about 100 days. This permits the cubs to be born in April, just as the weather becomes warmer. There are generally two to four cubs, which live with their mother in a den for two months. The cubs are then permitted to go on hunting trips with their mother. They continue to live with her for about a year until they become accomplished hunters.

            The total length of the snow leopard is slightly more than 7 feet, including its 3-foot tail. It is thought to weigh about the same as the African Leopard. Compared to the leopard, the snow leopard appears to have a smaller head and a longer body with smaller legs. Often it is thought that the snow leopard is bigger than it actually is because its fur is unusually thick.

            The fur of the snow leopard is yellowish-gray in color, often with white undersides. In winter, the coat is much denser and slightly grayer in tone. The markings consist of large, black rosettes having an indefinite outline. The tail has dark markings and looks extremely long because the hair on it is at least 2 inches in length. The back of the ears are dark at the base and much lighter at the tip.

           Snow leopards are usually night hunters. They are capable of killing mountain goats, gazelles, deer, wild boar, birds, rabbits, and ground squirrels.

            As far as we know, snow leopards will not attack man. However, this is hard to prove because of the remote areas in which they live. In fact it is difficult to ascertain not only the habits of snow leopards but also their numbers because of their preference for hunting by night and the remoteness of their territory.

            Unfortunately their skins are highly valued in the fur trade, and many are trapped for this reason. They are caught in pits made wider at the bottom than at the top and baited with young sheep. Sometimes, iron traps are used to capture these magnificent mountain cats.

The Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) 

has some characteristics that make it unique among the big cats, and it is therefore classified in a separate genus. Unlike the other cats, the cheetah bears some superficial similarities to the dog. These similarities include the length of its neck, the appearance of its paws, its inability to fully retract its claws, its running ability, and its method of hunting. In spite of these characteristics, the cheetah’s ancestors are the same as those of other large cats, and there is no doubt that it is a member of the cat family.

            The overall length of the cheetah is about 7 feet, including the 2 ½ -foot tail. It can measure up to 3 feet at the shoulder, but for its size it is quite light, usually weighing from 100 to 150 pounds. The head of a cheetah is small and round, and the jaws are weaker than those of a leopard or jaguar. However, in general appearance the shape of a cheetah’s head, the length of its tail, and the markings on its fur are very much like those of a leopard.

The Cheetah (en.wikipedia.org)

            The fur of the cheetah is yellowish in color, marked with solid black spots, not rosettes, that are distributed equally and densely over the whole body. The tail has rings and the short ears are dark with light tips. Two dark lines run from the forehead across the eyes and down the sides of the face to the mouth. On the nape of the neck, in both sexes, there is a small mane.

            The cheetah’s range in Africa was from the Cape of Good Hope to Egypt. In Asia it is now found only in Iran, southern Russia, and Afghanistan. Wherever it lives, it frequents grasslands. Formerly the cheetah had the same range as the lion, but hunting has severely reduced its number and distribution.

            The cheetah does not attack like the other big cats. It uses a very cautious approach to its prey. It slithers on its belly until it is as close as it can get on its victim, and then quickly leaps upon it. If they prey happens to get away, the cheetah chases after it at speeds up to 70 miles an hour – the fastest speed of any mammal.

            Unlike many of the other big cats, cheetahs hunt during the day, chiefly in the early morning and early evening to avoid the heat. Their favorite foods include gazelle, spring-buck, hare, and guinea hen.

            In India, cheetahs have been trained and used in hunting big game – a remarkable achievement considering the independence of spirit and savage ways of wild cats such as these. Although cheetahs, if caught young, respond better than most felids to captivity, their experience in hunting must be preserved intact if they are to serve as hunters for man. For this reason, only mature animals can be used, and these are trained in much the same manner as dogs or falcons, they are taken to the hunt with hoods over their eyes and released only when the game is near. Once let loose, they pursue they prey just as their wild brethren would.

            The gestation period of the cheetah is about three months. The cubs, born blind, are able to retract their claws for about ten weeks. They are born with a long gray mane that is soon lost, but the hair on the nape of the neck remains for live.