Dear All, We may be familiar with the names of the cat family animals. Some of them look alike. Here are some pictures and their description. You and your children / grandchildren may find this educative and interesting.
Fast facts -- The big cats! Do you know the difference between a leopard and a cheetah? Here's you chance to find out! Learn something interesting about the famous members of the cat family [image: Fast facts -- The big cats!] *Tiger* -- Tigers are the largest and heaviest living species of the cat family. Siberian tigers are the heaviest subspecies at 225 kgs or more. -- There are five different species of the tiger: 1) Siberian; 2) Indochinese; 3) South China; 4) Bengal; 5) Sumatran. And no, white tigers are not a separate species. -- The white tiger is not a separate sub-species, but only a colour variation. -- Tigers are an endangered species with only about 5,000 to 7,400 tigers left in the wild. Three tiger subspecies, the Bali, Javan, and Caspian tigers have become extinct in the past 70 years. -- A tiger's stripes act as camouflage, and help tigers hide from their prey. The Sumatran tiger has the most stripes of all the tiger subspecies, and the Siberian tiger has the fewest stripes. Tiger stripes are like human fingerprints; no two tigers have the same pattern of stripes. [image: Fast facts -- The big cats!] ** *Lion* -- With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, the lion is the second-largest living cat after the tiger. -- Lions will rarely eat their entire kill. The remainders go to hyenas and vultures. A male lion will eat first, even though it's the female lions who make the kill. -- After it eats, a thirsty lion may take a drink lasting up to 30 minutes. -- Lions are the most social of all cats. A pride of lions may contain up to 40 members, with over half being young adults and cubs. -- When an animal is killed, lions will eat virtually every part of it-the skin, meat, intestines, even the eyeballs. But they don't eat the stomach. It must smell bad to lions because they often bury it. -- Lions are by far the loudest of the cats, with a roar that can be heard as far away as 5 or 6 miles. A lion is incapable of roaring until it is about 2 years old. [image: Fast facts -- The big cats!] *Jaguar* -- The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. -- This spotted cat most closely resembles the leopard physically, although it is usually larger and of sturdier build and its behavioral and habitat characteristics are closer to those of the tiger. -- The jaguar has an exceptionally powerful bite, even relative to the other big cats, that allows it to pierce turtle shells and to employ an unusual killing method: it bites directly through the skull of prey between the ears to deliver a fatal bite to the brain. -- It is strongly associated with the presence of water and is notable, along with the tiger, as a feline that enjoys swimming. -- A condition known as melanism occurs in the species found in about six percent of the population.Jaguars with melanism appear entirely black, although their spots are still visible on close examination. Melanistic Jaguars are informally known as black panthers, but do not form a separate species. [image: Fast facts -- The big cats!] *Leopard* -- The leopard is similar in appearance to the jaguar, but is smaller and more slightly built. Its fur is marked with rosettes similar to those of the jaguar, but the leopard's rosettes are smaller and more densely packed. -- Like the jaguars, leopards are also melanistic (completely black or very dark) and are also known as black panthers. -- The leopard is so strong and comfortable in trees that it often hauls its kills into the branches. By dragging the bodies of large animals aloft it hopes to keep them safe from scavengers such as hyenas. -- The most secretive and elusive of the large carnivores, the leopard is also the shrewdest. Pound for pound, it is the strongest climber of the large cats and capable of killing prey larger than itself. [image: Fast facts -- The big cats!] *Cheetah* -- The cheetah is the fastest land animal on the planet. It can reach speeds of up to 120km/h and has the ability to accelerate from 0 to 103km/h in just three seconds. The cheetah however cannot endure such high speeds for long durations, usually tiring after a few hundred meters of sprinting. -- The cheetah cannot roar like other big cats such as the lion or tiger. It does however purr. -- It used to be a popular pet in ancient Egypt. It also became a popular pet among royalty in India who used them as hunters and as a symbol of exclusivity. Mughal emperor Akbar reportedly adopted 1000 cheetahs. -- Cheetahs became extinct in India by 1940 but the government intends to bring back the cheetah by breeding them in captivity. -- Cheetahs have black lines known as "Tears" near their eyes that run down the side of their nose that help to block the sun's glare and they can reportdly see upto 3 miles away [image: Fast facts -- The big cats!] ** *Cougar* ** -- The cougar, also known as puma, mountain lion, mountain cat, catamount or panther, depending on the region, is native to the Americas. -- This large, solitary cat has the greatest range of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere, extending from Yukon in Canada to the southern Andes of South America. -- The cougar is found in every major American habitat type and is the second heaviest cat in the American continents after the jaguar. Although large, the cougar is most closely related to smaller felines. -- Cougar is extremely agile and can leap up to 20 feet using their tail as a rudder. -- Like domestic cats, cougars vocalize low-pitched hisses, growls, and purrs, as well as chirps and whistles. [image: Fast facts -- The big cats!] *Lynx* -- A lynx is a medium-sized wildcat native to European and Siberian forests, USA, the Iberian Peninsula in Southern Europe. -- Lynx inhabit high altitude forests with dense cover of shrubs, reeds, and tall grass. Although the cats hunt on the ground, they can climb trees and can swim swiftly, catching fish. -- Lynx are usually solitary, although small groups of lynx may travel and hunt together occasionally. -- They have extremely good hearing and have 28 teeth, which stab deeply into their prey. This can be especially helpful to the lynx because they are not the most efficient hunters and they lose most of their prey to a variety of factors. Source: India Syndicate Images: Reuters -- With best wishes S Chander
