Cats
Felidae
INDEX
WHAT ARE CATS?
TYPES OF CATS
CAT FEATURES
WHERE DID THEY COME FROM?
CATS AND CONSERVATION
CATS OF ARDASTRA GARDENS
WHAT ARE CATS?
Cats are mammals that belong to the order Carnivora (meat eaters). There are 37 species of cats, coming in all shapes, sizes, colors, habitats, and behaviors. But there are several things that link them all together as cats. All cats, both wild and domestic, from the Siberian tiger (the largest living cat) to the rusty spotted cat (at 2 lb., the smallest living cat), are all in the family Felidae, or the cat family.
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TYPES OF CATS
There are four main groups of cats (depending on which classification system you use):
- The small cats (includes the domestic cat, caracal, serval, ocelot, etc)
- The cheetah
- The clouded leopard
- The large cats (includes the jaguar, tiger, lynx, leopard, lion etc)
Small cats differ from large cats not only because they are smaller but also because they are unable to roar. Small cats whether wild or domestic tend to live on their own and hunt by night. They are found all over the world in a great variety of habitats.
CAT FEATURES
Big cats are perfectly adapted for the role they play in nature. There must be hunters to keep animal populations in balance, and the magnificent predators are well equipped for the purpose; they have powerful, muscled bodies, attuned senses, with teeth and claws ideal for bringing down prey.
In order to pounce, climb, run and groom, cats must be amazingly supple. The muscular connections between bones of the neck and back allow the cat to stretch in all directions. The nerve responses in cats are faster than in any other living animal that scientists have tested, giving cats the ability to suddenly dart after prey.
The skull of a cat is highly specialized for killing and devouring prey in the shortest time possible.
A cats tongue is used for lapping, grooming and eating. It is covered with hard, tiny hairs called papillae. The papillae point backwards and are used to scrape meat off bones and push it down the throat. The tongue can also be curved in to a cup for lapping up water, or used as a comb for grooming the fur.
All cats have highly developed senses for pinpointing prey. They have large orbits containing very large eyes, which are in the front of the head like most predators, but the eyes are set further apart,
giving the cats a better feild of vision as well. In darkness, the pupils expand to an enormous size in order to allow as much light to enter as possible. In bright light, they narrow to tiny slits in small cats and to tighter circles in big cats. Cats can see six times better than humans at night because they have an extra layer of reflecting cells (tupetum lucidum) which acts like a mirror, helping to increase the amount of light inside the eye. This is why a cat’s eye shines at night.
Their ears are very sensitive and are especially useful to cats that are night hunters. By turning their ears in different directions to pick up sound, cats can easily tell the direction of the sound. Also a sensitive organ, the nose, helps cats to hunt in tangled bush or where visibility is limited. Whiskers are long stiff hairs with sensitive nerve endings at their roots. They spread out around the cats face so they are able to judge distances and spaces accurately. In bad light they act as a back up to eyesight.
Claws are formed of keratin, the same protein that is found in human nails. All cats except the cheetah have a unique arrangement for the protection of their claws. When the claws are relaxed, they are covered with a bony sheath, which is an extension of the last bone of the toe. Special flexor muscles
can rapidly extend the claws as the toes spread out for maximum exposure. To allow it to approach its prey silently, a big cat retracts its claws while it runs. When it
is ready to attack the cat extends its claws to grasp its prey. Cheetahs cannot retract their claws.
WHERE DID THEY COME FROM?
The first cats appear in the geological record some 50 million years ago.
These earlier cats were more massive and fierce than those living today and some, like the Saber-toothed tiger, had canine teeth more than twice the size of the canine teeth of the largest cats today. The cats were a successful group of hunters and survived the ice ages to become the top predators of every continent except Australia. These ancestors evolved into the species of large and small cats living today.
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CATS AND CONSERVATION
For many years man has hunted large cats for their beautiful coats but also as a show of strength and courage. Even though most cats are protected by law many of these beautiful creatures will be killed illegally to satisfy the large, lucrative and ever-escalating black market trade of animal parts. This market has effected the tiger the most. Three species of tiger have become extict in the last half of the 20th century and the rest of the world’s tigers are likely to follow the same fate. There are around 4,000 tigers left in the world and the majority of these are found in India.
If the illegal traffic of tigers does not stop then the trade will move on to the other cat species until they are all gone forever.
The next cat in trouble for its skin is the cheetah but it is the loss of habitat and the increasing competition with larger cats that is causing their numbers to dwindle.
Jaguars are the only big cats found in the Americas and they once roamed throughout most of the tropical Americas but as they live in thick forest habitats they are in great danger of becoming extinct because the forests are being cut down for wood, farming, housing etc.
CATS OF ARDASTRA GARDENS
Caracal
(Felis caracal)
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Threatened species
The caracal in appearance resembles the lynx in having characteristic dark tufts on its large, pointed ears and is often referred to as the African lynx or Desert lynx, however the caracal is not closely related to the true lynx species. The backs of its ears are black – the name caracal is derived from the Turkish word ‘karakulak’, meaning ‘black ear’. Habitats range from arid savanna to woodlands throughout Central to Southern Africa, as well as parts of Asia. These largely nocturnal predators are strong and fast for their size, often leaping vertically to snatch birds from the air. Caracals
have also been known to take down larger animals such as deer. Their sandy colored coat enables them be invisible in the grasses when hunting.
Serval
(Felis serval)
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Threatened species
The medium-sized serval is one of the most striking cats of the savanna. With a small head, spotted coat and long legs, it looks like a small cheetah. It lives in grasslands near water where it hunts rodents and birds. Servals are specially adapted for hunting for prey in the tall grasslands of Africa. Their long legs, acute
hearing and narrow paws make pinpointing, leaping and grasping prey effortless. Like the ocelot, the serval is mainly solitary. The species is nocturnal and is hard to observe even at daytime because the color pattern of the serval is hard to distinguish in the long grass. This is one of the reasons why much of the species’ life style remains a mystery.
Ocelot
(Leopardus pardalis)
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Endangered species
Although mainly a forest dwelling cat, the ocelot is also found in grass and scrubland, ranging from Arizona to Argentina. This small cats' underlying coloration varies with its habitat. Forest ocelots have a darker coat than those that live in the scrub. This is adaptation of the species to camouflage in their environment. This shy, mainly solitary cat is opportunistic but tends to do the majority of its hunting at night, feeding on small mammals, birds, fish and reptiles. Ocelots are excellent swimmers,and although they are not as adept at climbing as some small cats, will occasionally sleep in the lower braches of forest trees. The ocelot has long been hunted and prized for its fur. Today, hunting along with deforestation in much of its habitat, has led to the cats’ virtual extinction in some of its range.
Jaguar
(Panthera onca)
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Endangered species
The jaguar is the only large cat to be found on the American continents. They are most at home in the dense tropical forests of South America. Forest jaguars, which are darker than grassland jaguars, swim well and have been known to kill crocodiles. River turtles are also a favorite food. In comparison to leopards, jaguars are generally larger and much stockier, with a broad heavy head, and massively powerful but shorter legs. A good visual description might be a leopard on steroids. They are, however, generally slower and less bold as hunters. Most felids kill their prey with a throat or neck bite, jaguars on the other hand often bite through the temporal bones of the skull killing their prey instantly. Unlike other big cats, jaguars rarely roar. As more areas are developed, the jaguar is forced to compete with humans for its food. Turtles, tortoises, monkeys, capybara and fish are all part of their diet. The competition for food and habitat appears to be a larger threat to jaguars, than the demand for their skins, but their numbers are still quickly diminishing.
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