Interesting facts about big cats Is a great opportunity to learn more about large predators. Few people know that the measure of belonging to big cats is not their size, but morphological details, in particular, the structure of the hyoid bone. For this reason, this category does not include, for example, cougar and cheetah.
So, here are the most interesting facts about big cats.
- As of today, the largest cat in the world is considered a liger named Hercules, a hybrid of a tiger and a lion.
- In history, there is a case when a male tiger independently left abandoned kittens of a domestic cat.
- The Amur tiger (see interesting facts about the Amur tigers) is the most rare big cat species on the planet.
- Black panthers are not considered a separate species, but only a manifestation of melanism (black coloration) in leopards or jaguars.
- Did you know that there are more tigers in American zoos than they live in nature on the whole earth?
- It's no secret that ostriches can run fast and also have a strong kick. There are many known cases when an ostrich, driven to a dead end, inflicted a fatal kick on a lion.
- It turns out that all big cats have spots on their fur, even if they are not visible to the naked eye.
- Caracals (desert lynxes) have long been tamed by the Arabs. Today, some people also keep these predators in their homes.
- An interesting fact is that in Ancient Egypt, cheetahs were used for hunting, like dogs.
- Lion claws can grow up to 7 cm.
- The main threats to the life of big cats are poaching and loss of natural habitat.
- The pupils of tigers are not vertical, as in ordinary cats, but round, since cats are nocturnal animals, and tigers are not.
- Through roaring, tigers communicate with their relatives.
- Did you know that snow leopards (see interesting facts about snow leopards) cannot growl or even make any kind of purr?
- Leopon is a hybrid of a leopard with a lioness, and a jagopard is a hybrid of a jaguar with a female leopard. In addition, there are pumapards - crossed leopards with pumas.
- Leo devotes about 20 hours a day to sleep.
- All white tigers have blue eyes.
- The jaguar can mimic the voices of monkeys, which helps him hunt primates.
- Shortly before attacking prey, the tiger begins to snort softly.
- Scientists have managed to prove the fact that all tigers have unique voices. However, the human ear is unable to notice such a feature.
