Felines are the most popular animal group, whether it is a variety of domestic pet cats, or large and small wild cats, have countless fans, they are charming in appearance, posture, rapid movements, and strong personality. Pet cats were domesticated by small wild cats about 5,000 years ago and are now the most common pets, with about 600 million domestic and stray cats in the world, 76 million cats in the United States alone, and more than 50 million cats in China. Nearly one-third of households in the United States own cats, one in the United Kingdom and one in five in Australia. There are so many domestic cats, but the number of wild cats is not even a fraction of the number of domestic cats, and the protection of wild cats is the top priority of ecological protection.
In the past, there were 37 species of wild cats recognized worldwide, and even if domestic cats were abandoned or escaped from human families, they could only be considered stray cats, not wild cats. Not long ago, the Cat Classification Task Force (CCTF) revised the world's felines to 41 species (excluding subspecies and variants, all breeds of domestic cats count as one). We usually divide cats into large, medium and small categories according to the size of the cat, the big cat family is referred to as "big cat", which has a high popularity on the Internet and is synonymous with "beast" in nature, but many netizens still do not know much about big cats.
It is generally believed that there are 7 species of big cats, tigers, lions, jaguars, leopards, and snow leopards of the leopard subfamily Leopard genus. The puma of the genus Jaguar of the genus Jaguar of the subfamily Cat, the cheetah of the genus Cheetah (the cheetah subfamily has been incorporated into the subfamily Cat). This article introduces the five species of big cats in the leopard subfamily Leopard family.
<h1>tiger</h1>
Light red historical distribution, dark red existing distribution
The tiger originated in eastern Asia about 2 million years ago and then spread to the Asian continent, and the traditional taxonomy divides the tiger into 8 subspecies, namely the Bengal tiger, the Siberian tiger (Siberian tiger, Amur tiger), the South China tiger, the Indochinese tiger, the Sumatran tiger, the Balinese tiger, the Caspian tiger (Xinjiang tiger), and the Javan tiger. In 2004, the tiger population in the Malay Peninsula broke away from the Indochinese tiger and became a separate subspecies, the Malay tiger, so the subspecies of the tiger increased to nine, but not long ago biologists proposed merging the tiger into two subspecies , the continental tiger and the island tiger (Sunda tiger).
At the beginning of the last century, there were about 100,000 wild tigers, and under human hunting and environmental destruction, Balinese tigers, Caspian tigers, and Javan tigers became extinct, and by the beginning of this century, only more than 3,000 of the remaining 6 subspecies remained. In 2010, 13 tiger-distributing countries held a "Tiger Summit" and decided to join forces to protect wild tigers, pledging to reach more than 6,000 wild tigers by 2022 and designating 29 July as Global Tiger Day (World Tiger Day).
Wild Bengal tiger
Indian tigers increased their numbers
At present, the number of wild tigers has reached about 5,000, of which the number of Bengal tigers is the largest, India alone has nearly 3,000, accounting for 60% of the total number of wild tigers in the world, Indian tiger conservationist Ulas Karans released a bold statement: to protect 300,000 square kilometers of forest for tigers, so that the number of tigers increased to 10,000-15,000!
Wild Siberian tiger
The number of Siberian tigers once fell to less than 100 at the end of the last century, and now the wild number has grown to nearly 600, and the number of Siberian tigers in China's Siberian Tiger and Leopard National Park has reached 37.
South China tiger in the breeding center
The South China tiger has basically disappeared in the wild, and there are fewer than 200 more in the breeding center, all of which are descendants of six South China tigers captured in the middle of the last century.
Indochinese tiger in a Thai temple
Malay tiger
A fierce-looking Sumatran tiger
The number of Indochinese tigers, Malay tigers and Sumatran tigers is around 300-500, and the situation is not optimistic.
Balinese tiger hunted/Photographed in the last century
Caspian tiger in the zoo / Photographed in the last century
Javanese tiger/Photographed in the last century
And the Balinese tiger, the Caspian tiger, and the Javan tiger are gone forever.
The image above is a table of wild tiger body sizes, from top to bottom:
Bengal tiger (excluding Sundarbans tiger) averages 220 kg for males and 137 kg for females;
Siberian tiger (wild), male average 190 kg, female average 121 kg, Siberian tiger has been due to population reduction, habitat shrinkage, serious body size degradation, is now recovering, zoo Siberian tiger body size is very large, but not representative of wild population;
Indochinese tigers in Thailand, with an average of 182 kg for males and 115 kg for females;
Malaysian Tiger, with only one male tiger, weighs 120 kg;
Sundelbens tiger (a regional population of Bengal tigers, affected by the island effect, very small), 114 kg for males and 76 kg for females;
Sumatran tiger, male 127 kg, female 75 kg.
The highest weight recorded for a South China tiger was 190 kg of wild weight measured in Foping, Shaanxi Province in the last century, and the current male weight of the South China tiger in the breeding center is about 150 kg.
Among the 6 existing tiger subspecies, according to body size, The Bengal tiger and the Siberian tiger are large tigers, the Indochinese tiger is medium-sized, the South China tiger is medium-sized, and the Malay tiger and Sumatran tiger are small tigers.
<h1>lion</h1>
Lions are very special, being the most pronounced and the only cat with large groups of hermaphrodites. In february 2014, the BMC Journal of Evolutionary Biology pointed out that the lion finally took shape in Tanzania in eastern Africa about 120,000 years ago, and spread to Eurasia at the beginning of the last large-scale ice age about 20,000 years ago, occupying southern Europe, reaching as far east as India, and north into the hinterland of Central Asia.
There were lions distributed in the ancient Onion Ridge area of China, and the Warring States "Biography of Mu Tianzi" recorded: Fox Day walked five hundred miles. The Great Han Dynasty was powerful and mighty, and the western feudal states came to pay tribute with lions through the Silk Road, and the records of lions in historical records increased dramatically. With the widespread spread of Buddhism in the Central Plains, lion culture began to become popular in China and continues to this day.
Because lions are so widely distributed and the geographical boundaries of the various groups are not obvious, subspecies divisions have been controversial. The earliest unknown popular science articles proposed the thirteenth division, in 1971 Simither proposed the twelve-divisional method, in 1974 Hemmer proposed the eighth division, all based on the traditional morphological taxonomy, the most influential is the eight-point method. The genetics taxonomy divides lions into two major clades: the North-Southwest Asian clade and the South African clade. As early as 1987, Brien proposed merging lions into two subspecies: the African lion and the Asiatic lion, and many authoritative scholars and even the IUCN support this division, but recently the trichotomy has proved to be the most scientific, namely the Asiatic lion, the Southern African lion and the Barbary lion in between.
Red is the historical distribution, blue is the existing distribution
40 years ago, the total number of lions exceeded 100,000, and now there are about 20,000 wild lions in Africa, and the most optimistic estimate is no more than 25,000, and the number of African lions has declined by 43% between 1993 and 2014 alone. In contrast, the number of African elephants is more than 400,000, the number of hippos is around 150,000, and the number of white rhinos in southern Africa is 18,000.
Asiatic lion in India
Wild lions in Asia are found only in The Gil Forest Park in Gujarat, northwestern India, and the number has recovered from 13 at the beginning of the last century to more than 600.
The figure above shows the weight record of lions by region, with the average weight of males ranging from 145-216.4 kg and the average weight of females between 93 and 149 kg. Because lions have small differences in intraspecific body size and tigers have large intraspecific body sizes, it is generally believed that lions are the cats with the largest average weight, and tigers are the cats with the largest extreme weight.
<h1>jaguar</h1>
Jaguar, also known as jaguar, is actually not a leopard non-tiger, but a cat between tigers and leopards, its Chinese scientific name is not clearly defined, call it jaguar or jaguar all depends on personal preferences.
Adult Bengal tigers and jaguars in the zoo
The jaguar is the largest cat on the American continent, but it is far from the tiger lion.
Jaguar distribution map
The jaguar's habitat is one-third smaller than in 1990, concentrated in the area between Mexico and Argentina. Jaguars in the U.S. are already very rare, but in 2012, a jaguar entered Arizona and killed an American black bear.
Wild jaguars entering the United States
A family of three wild jaguars in South America
According to data released by the International Wildlife Conservation Association (WSC), conservationists have set up 400,000 square kilometers of field research sites in Latin America, and between 2002 and 2016, the number of jaguars in all study sites has increased, with an average annual growth rate of 8%, which can be estimated that there are about 60,000 wild jaguars in existence.
The figure above is a weight record table of jaguars by region, the largest population is Venezuela, with males averaging 95.3-104.5 kg, followed by the famous Pantanal, with males averaging 96-99.5 kg. The Jaguar of Central America is the smallest, averaging 56.1 kg for males and 42.1 kg for females.
Pictured above is the largest wild jaguar confirmed by the expedition team, found in Pantanal, weighing 315 pounds, equal to 142.88 kilograms.
<h1>leopard</h1>
Leopards, that is, real leopards, jaguars, snow leopards, cheetahs, and clouded leopards are not leopards, but are named after "leopards". Because leopards are so common, the genus is named after "leopard", and it cannot be said that the five species in the leopard genus are leopards. In the past, it was customary to call leopards in Africa and South Asia leopards in documentaries, and leopards in China used the ancient name of golden leopard, but now, leopards and golden leopards have been used to refer to leopards everywhere.
Leopard once divided into 27 subspecies, in 1996 merged into 8 effective subspecies, in 2001 added Arabian leopard, so leopard has 9 subspecies, from west to east are African leopard, Arabian leopard, Persian leopard, Indian leopard, Ceylon leopard, Indochina leopard, Java leopard, North China leopard, Far Eastern leopard (Northeast leopard). In 2017, the IUCN Cat Expert Group (CSG) proposed to merge the North China leopard into the Far Eastern leopard, which is currently out of sight.
The figure above shows weight data for five of the leopard subspecies – the African leopard, the Indian leopard, the Ceylon leopard, the Indochinese leopard, and the Far Eastern leopard.
97 kg African giant leopard Mubawila
African leopards vary greatly in male and female size
The African leopard, the largest and most widely distributed leopard subspecies, is conservatively estimated to have a wild population of more than 30,000 and an optimistic estimate of 200,000. African leopard species vary widely, with large populations weighing more than 90 kilograms, while smaller populations weigh only about 30 kilograms.
The Russian president embraces the Persian leopard
Persian leopard coat is very light
The Persian leopard, the largest leopard subspecies, averaged 66 kg for males, 45 kg for females, and 115 kg for the largest Persian leopard, the highest weight recorded for wild leopards. Mainly distributed in Iran, Iraq and southern Central Asia, there are about 10 Persian leopards in the Caucasus region of Russia. There are fewer than 1,500 wild Persian leopards, and more than half of the population lives in Iran.
The Indian leopard (also known as the Indian leopard, the difference between the two) is the second largest leopard subspecies, with an average of 63 kg for males and 45 kg for females. The Indian leopards raised in the zoo are amazingly large, the largest weighing 139 kilograms (above), which is about to catch up with the jaguar, because it is an overweight individual, so it is not representative. The number of wild leopards in India exceeds 10,000, the largest in Asia.
Ceylon leopard, distributed on the island of Sri Lanka, is isolated from indian leopards, so it is not small, with an average of 56 kg for males and 29 kg for females.
Taihang Mountain Leopard King number M2
Wild North China leopard
The North China leopard, also known as the Chinese leopard, and the South China tiger have almost the same status, and are the largest number of large cats in northern China, with a population of about 1500, mainly inhabiting the Taihang Mountains and the Meridian Ridge in Shaanxi.
Wild Far Eastern leopard photographed in Russia
Far Eastern leopard photographed in Changbai Mountain
The Far Eastern leopard, the smallest surviving leopard subspecies, once fell to less than 50, and china's lowest was less than 10. At present, there are 48 Far Eastern leopards in China's Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park, and the total number of leopards in Russia is about 120-150, and this subspecies is getting farther and farther away from extinction. Far Eastern leopards average about 50 kg for males and 35 kg for females.
Indochina leopard, mainly distributed in the Indochina Peninsula, is also distributed in southwest China, with an average of 45 kg for males and 28 kg for females.
The Javan leopard, found on the island of Java, averages 36 kg for males and 20 kg for females.
Arabian leopard in the desert
The Arabian leopard, the smallest leopard subspecies, averages 28 kg for males and 21 kg for females, and the smallest adult Arabian leopard found is only 18 kg, but it is still larger than medium-sized cats.
<h1>snow leopard</h1>
Finally, the snow leopard, which is the last animal to be classified in the genus Leopard, cannot roar like the four above, nor can it cross with the above four (tigers, lions, jaguars, leopards can all cross between each other). As a result, it took zoologists a long time genetic comparison to confirm that snow leopards and tigers are the closest to each other, and that the two diverged about 3 million years ago, so snow leopards are classified as leopards.
In order to adapt to the high altitude, cold and low oxygen environment, the snow leopard has a high degree of specialization. The diameter of red blood cells is very small - 5.5 μm (4.73 to 6.15 μm), the hemoglobin is highly concentrated (16.4 g%), and the hemoglobin spectrometry index (i.e., the output of red blood cells is 47%) is consistent with a large number of red blood cells in the blood (14.1 to 16.8 million / mm2). The snow leopard is the highest inhabited cat, can move up to 6,000 meters above sea level, and is known as the "king of the snowy mountains".
Snow leopard distribution area
Snow leopard is the most precious flagship species in central Asia, distributed in 12 countries, the wild number is about 7,000, of which China has 60% of the snow leopard habitat and 40% of the wild snow leopard, the general distribution is as follows:
There are about 3,000 in China, more than 1,000 in the Sanjiangyuan Nature Reserve alone, 1,000 in Mongolia, 600 in India, 50-200 in Afghanistan, 100-200 in Bhutan, 100-120 in Kazakhstan, 30-120 in Uzbekistan, 250-280 in Tajikistan, 250 in Pakistan, 300-400 in Kyrgyzstan, 300-400 in Nepal, and 150-200 in Russia.
Snow leopards have been divided into two subspecies, and in 2017 they were divided into three subspecies, namely the northern subspecies, the western subspecies, and the central subspecies, but the division of snow leopard subspecies does not make much sense. The average weight of snow leopards is 38-45 kg for males and 35-39 kg for females.
Above are the five species of big cats of the leopard subfamily Leopard genus, each of which has a high popularity, they are very important to the natural environment, protecting them is a top priority for ecological protection, and how to restore their wild populations is a huge challenge facing the whole world.
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