The Cats (Felidae)

The animal family of the cats nowadays ranges over 36 known cat species that are subdivided into the genera big cat, medium sized cats and small cats.

The mutual ancestor of the common domestic cat and all other cats today is the proailurus.
This animal was compact and small – tiny bit larger than the domestic cat and weighing about 9 kg (20 lb).

In the Miocene (25 to 7 million years ago) the Pseudaelurus has developed as successor of Proailurus. The representatives of that group had the size of a lynx and lived at first in the forests of Eurasia before they reached Africa – a continent thus far unknown to the cats. The Pseudaelurus later also reached North America.

The chances are that the present successors of the real cats became native approx. 5 million years ago. They originate from Asia and spread over the whole globe, except Madagascar and Australia, during the Pleistocene until 14,000 years ago.




Classification of cats

The classification within the family of cats runs like a read thread through the different types of cats – from the biggest to the smallest type. The systematization comprises the anatomy as well as the behaviour to the point of marginal differences. Alone among the small cats there are nowadays nearly fifty known types.
The family of cats includes the big cats with tiger, lion, leopard and jaguar; the medium sized cats with clouded leopard (neofelis nebulosa), African golden cat (profelis aurata), puma/cougar (felis concolor) and snow leopard (uncia uncia), servals (leptailurus serval) and the group of Lynxes ; the small cats with the Geoffroy's cat (oncifelis geoffroyi), Pallas' cat (otocolobus manul), ocelot (leopardis pardalis), pampas cat (leopardus pajeros), jungle cat (felis chaus), marbled cat (felis marmorata), jaguarundi (puma yaguarondi) as well as the family of Viverridae, the wild cats and all domestic and breed cats.

The cheetahs have a special rank among the cat family. They can be regarded as a link between cats and dogs.

All cats have a lot in common. They all walk on toes; their morphology enables them to a fast but not too long lasting speed; all cats normally have five toes at the front paws and four at their back paws – a pad at each toe and a ball in the middle; all new born kitten have fur and are blind as their eyes are sealed.



The Big Cats

The very single and clear sign of the big cats is the elastic hyoid bone – a horseshoe shaped little bone at the root of the tongue – connecting the tongue with the skull. The construction of their hyoid apparatus enables the great cats to roar. In big cats this bone has an elastic segment, while that of small cats is hard all over.



Besides that difference the big cats just differ from the small cats by variations of anatomy and behaviour.

Big cats normally lie down when eating. The parts of the prey are normally not held by their front paws. Pieces of meat are cut off with their molars but also grabbed with their front and canine teeth and ripped off by throwing back their head.



Big cats or great cats are: lion (panthera), tiger (panthera tigris) and leopard (panther, panthera pardus).




Cats with an exceptional postion

The cheetahs (acinonyx jubatus) have a special rank among the cat family. They can be regarded as a link between cats and dogs. The only cat-like thing is the head and the long tail. The rest of the body, mainly the long legs, are rather dog-like.

There are nine subspecies of cheetahs. They live in Africa, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Turkmenistan, Persia and parts of India. Cheetahs have a beautiful reddish-yellow fur with black spots. In short distances the cheetah can reach a speed of up to 110 km/h.




Medium sized cats

The medium sized cats is the link between big and small cats.

The difference can only be made by means of anatomy and behaviour. The criteria are, however, sometimes blurred and cannot be fixed. Nonetheless, a differentiation is wise, as in the narrower sense, the types being alike our domestic cat are labelled as small cats.

Medium sized cats are: clouded leopard (neofelis nebulosa), African golden cat (profelis aurata), puma/cougar (felis concolor) and snow leopard (uncia uncia), servals (leptailurus serval) and the group of Lynxes.