When we pet a cat snoring on the couch, few people think that our ancestors and its ancestors once competed for dominance on this planet — our ancestors were once their prey.
About 30 million years ago, the first real cat appeared in the forests of Europe. It is called the first cat and officially separates from carnivores as a new category. After another 10 million years, the first cat gradually diverged into two taxa, one of which developed into a saber-toothed tiger family. Our ancestors were able to see these horrible cats about 10,000 years ago, some of which were the largest cats in history and weighed almost twice as much as tigers do today. Unfortunately, today's Earth has lost these bizarre-looking saber-toothed cats.
Another taxon has gradually evolved into the cat family we know: tigers, lions, leopards, cheetahs, cougars... And the domestic cats we're familiar with. But the Chio leopard, the earliest member of the cat subfamily, appeared early but did not develop for a long time — perhaps suppressed by saber-toothed relatives. It wasn't until about 10 million years ago that species in the cat subfamily developed, gradually spreading throughout The Continents of Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, and gradually becoming the most successful group of hunters on land due to their excellent hunting ability and adaptability to the environment.
Today, 40 species of wild cats are found on both the old and new continents except Antarctica and Australia. Their footprint coverage is astonishing: from seaside beaches to alpine mountains above 5,000 meters above sea level, felines are present in almost all ecosystem types.
In the mangroves of Sundarbans, India, Bengal tigers swim between small islands, and the sea does not constitute an obstacle to their hunting; from here, heading inland, all the way to the Himalayan pass above 4,000 meters above sea level in Bhutan, tigers still appear on snow-capped mountain roads. This powerful adaptability is reflected in different cat species: in the rainforests of Southeast Asia, clouded leopards rely on more sensitive bodies than monkeys to catch them in trees; African cheetahs have evolved the world's fastest running speeds to catch antelope in flat desert grasslands; serval cats can use a pair of incongruous ears to find tracks of rats in the grass; and snow leopards use a gray-white fur to make themselves completely invisible in the highland rocky mountains.
Depending on the environment in which they live, cats gradually form two major flower color types, spotted cats and striped cats, typically such as leopards and tigers. These brilliant markings, combined with the well-proportioned bodies created for hunting, make cats the most beautiful mammal species.
But it is precisely because of their beauty and carnivorous nature that cats gradually declined after humans gained the upper hand in competition, hunting them first to protect themselves and their domestic animals, and then to obtain their fur, bones and even just for entertainment.
Today, there are very few big cats left that once ruled several continents: only about 20,000 lions remain in Africa, and their numbers may fall by half in the next 20 years; wild jaguars have fewer than lions and have lost nearly two-thirds of their habitat; three of the eight tiger subspecies have been completely wiped out by humans, and the remaining thousands of tigers remain in some forests in Asia, and a large part of them are still on the road to disappearing. The situation is not much better for small and medium-sized cats, the vast majority of which are in distress due to habitat loss, some of which are already endangered.
As the top species in the food chain, the disappearance of felines actually means that the environment in which we live is changing dramatically. What this change, caused by us humans, will ultimately bring to all species on Earth, we are not sure right now. But what we can be sure of is that if we lose these charismatic wild cats and only the domestic cats that Are around us are called, then the earth will no longer be the colorful planet we are familiar with, ecological destruction, and humanity will live alone on the ruins.
The illustrations for this article, all from a book, cover the distribution, evolution, habits and current status of all cats in the world. Who is it? There have been small partners who are very keen in the previous article (please care for Shen Gonggong... Leopard) finally discovered the mystery -
This book is the bible for the study of wild cats. In 2017, volunteers from the translation team who took leopard home and many scientific consultants cooperated with China's National Geographic Books to translate the English version into Chinese. After a year and a half of review, editing and printing, it's finally coming out!
The pre-sale of the new book will be launched at the interesting museum, the annual theme event of Fruit Shell, and will be held on August 17-18 (this weekend) at the Chaoyang Planning Art Museum in Beijing, and a wave of benefits is waiting for everyone!
All the partners present had the opportunity to receive the Super Pre-Sale Early Bird Price: 40% off. The original price is 198, get the coupon on the spot, only need 118 to take this feline treasure book home.
Place an order on the spot to buy at the same time to get a chance to draw a lottery, buy more and get more. Prizes are limited and subject to availability.
South China Tiger Award (a) 2, "Wild Birds of China" wall chart 1 volume
North China Leopard Award (b) 2, "My Curiosity Cabinet" 1 volume
2 Winners of the Siberian Tiger Award (c), 1 volume of Notes on The Sea Mistake Map
Sand Cat Award (d) 2, "Garden in the Palm" 1 volume
Rabbit Prize (e) 50, "Who Can Eat Whom" 1 volume
Ocelot Award (f) is not limited, China National Geographic Sticky Notes 1 volume
In addition, Cat Alliance provides free exhibition area electronic tickets for everyone, and the background reply to "Interesting Museum" fills in the information to get it!
Poke the big picture and find "Meet wild North China", that's where we are
For details of the event, please poke: the 48-hour event that swept 30,000 people came again| Fruit Shell Interesting Museum
Not bitter in Beijing? Babies don't cry!
Scan the QR code with the "Mobile Taobao App" to receive a coupon and enjoy a 40% discount to purchase the signature version of "World Wild Cats" of Cat Alliance. The promotion period is from 0:00 on August 17 to 24:00 on August 18, and the pre-sale books will be shipped before September. Same offer as on-site.
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This article is reproduced with permission from Cat Alliance cfca (feildchina)
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