Cats have developed to this day, there are only two major categories of cat subfamily and leopard subfamily, although most of the time it is easy to distinguish these two major categories of animals from the appearance alone, but there are exceptions, such as cheetahs, mountain lions, although they belong to the members of the cat subfamily, but their size is larger, it looks more like a species in the leopard subfamily.
Although the two animals of the genus Clouded Leopard also belong to the leopard subfamily, they weigh only a dozen or twenty kilograms, which is smaller than the cheetah and more like members of the cat subfamily, so some people say that the way to distinguish the cat subfamily and the leopard subfamily is to see if they can roar like lions and tigers, if they can, then they belong to the leopard subfamily, if not, they belong to the cat subfamily.
cheetah
In fact, this method is applicable most of the time, because all species in the cat subfamily really can't roar, and most of them can only make cat-like purring, or lower than the cat's call, but far from the point where the lion and tiger roar.
Most animals in the leopard subfamily can roar, such as lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, etc., but there are exceptions, such as snow leopards, clouded leopards, etc., so this method can only be said to be applicable most of the time, but can not be used as an authoritative judgment condition.
Clouded leopard
Regarding the origin of felines, I have mentioned it repeatedly in the previous article, so I will not spend a lot of time here to repeat it, but only to make some simple explanations.
In general, modern cats can be traced back to the earliest paleonvore, of which cats are the ancestors of all cats, after several evolutions, respectively, have experienced multiple stages such as ancient cats, true cats, etc., of which there are also a large number of species such as ancient saber-toothed tigers, true saber-toothed tigers, cats and other species have been extinct, and finally divided into two branches of cats and leopards, that is, the predecessor of the modern cat subfamily and leopard subfamily.
There are nearly 40 species of modern cats, including domestic cats, most of which belong to the cat subfamily, and there are 7 species in 2 genera of the leopard subfamily, namely the clouded leopard and the Malay clouded leopard of the genus Clouded Leopard, and the lion, tiger, leopard, snow leopard and jaguar of the leopard genus.
It is worth mentioning that cheetahs, which have been a separate category before, are subfamily cheetahs, and after the new classification, the cheetah subfamily has been abolished and belonged to the cat subfamily.
Most cats have claws that can be freely retracted, but the cheetah is not, its claws are more like canines, can not be retracted, and the same fishing cat because the foot is half-webed, so the claws can not be fully indented into the soles of the feet.
All cats are excellent predators, they occupy half of the carnivorous world, according to the size of the different, their prey sources are also colorful, in general, cats have three main ways of hunting.
The first, like a lion or tiger, quietly approaches the prey or waits for the prey to enter the ambush circle, and then bites the throat of the prey, or jumps on the back of the prey and bites its spine;
The second, like a cheetah, can also bite the throat of the prey, but because of its short and thin canine teeth, it cannot directly kill the prey, and can only slowly wait for the prey to suffocate;
The third is like a jaguar, using its canine teeth to bite directly through the skull of its prey.
Tiger hunting
Cats are also very cautious, generally living far away from the human living area, when hunting, they mostly choose the prey they are sure to take, and will never touch the prey that is potentially dangerous when it is not necessary.
For example, when there are enough ungulates, lions will not prey on porcupines, and when prey is scarce, killing porcupines is a worthwhile thing to do. Another example is tigers, in the same habitat, mostly choose small and medium-sized deer, etc., and will prey on bison when necessary.
Lions and porcupines
As mentioned earlier, the distinction between the cat subfamily and the leopard subfamily cannot be determined simply by whether it can roar, and the cats that can roar are lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars, which are concentrated in the leopard subfamily, but the members of the leopard subfamily are more than these 4 species.
Among the four species that can roar, the roar of the lion is the lowest, the loudest, the most widely transmitted, can reach about 114 decibels, and the straight-line transmission range is as high as 7 or 8 kilometers.
What is this concept? Let's put it this way, 40-60 decibels is the sound we speak normally, more than 110 decibels, which can lead to permanent hearing damage for a long time, and the lion roar of 114 decibels is as loud as the sound of a jet taking off.
Sound is extremely important for cats, and it is one of the most important ways to convey and communicate information on a daily basis. For example, lions living in the African savannah, when they have their own lion group, will frequently roar, indicating that the territory has a master, while male lions who are still in the wandering stage are found to roar significantly less often.
Tigers living in the forest can also roar, but they roar much less often than African lions, which may be related to their respective prey and prey environment.
Whether or not to roar is basically determined by the vocal structure of the animal, and more delicately, by the hyoid bone and vocal cords. All animals in the cat subfamily, their hyoid bone has been fully ossified, low ductility and not very flexible, this hyoid bone plus vocal cords together, can produce a cat's "purr" sound.
Animals that can roar, such as lions and tigers, have not fully ossified their hyoid bones and are relatively flexible. Most animals' vocal cords and vocal sidewalls will form triangles, we all know that the triangle is very stable, so the degree of stretch it can withstand is very low, and the shape of the vocal cords and vocal sidewalls of lions and tigers is square.
When air passes through the vocal tract, the hyoid bone and vocal cords will vibrate, stretch, etc., of course, the actual situation will be more complicated, when the ligament is stretched more closely, the lower the sound produced by the vibration.
In addition, the roaring animals contain hyaluronic acid and fibrin formation tissue on the inside of their vocal cords, and there are more tissues formed by elastin fiber, fat, hyaluronic acid, collagen, etc. on the sides of the intrinsic layer, which makes them bear less pressure on the lungs when they roar, and the sound is more low and loud.
cat
Animals that can roar must not make "grunting" sounds, and vice versa, they are like two ends of a number axis, never intersecting. If you let everyone choose and have one of these sounds, most people will probably choose a roar similar to that of a lion and a tiger, right?
The roar of the lion and the roar of the tiger are indeed a symbol of domineering, and can also scare away many beasts of prey, but you know what? Cats' "purring" sounds seem to be of more practical value than roaring sounds, and the latest research has found that this sound can help promote tissue regeneration and bone healing.
Now we all know that we can't simply use "roaring" to distinguish between the two types of animals in the cat subfamily and the leopard subfamily, after all, the animals of the clouded leopard genus do not roar, it can only make a sound similar to a roar and a sound similar to a cat's bark.
So can this be used to distinguish leopards from other cats? This method is possible if it was placed in the past, because at that time the snow leopard was still recognized as a monotype and classified as a snow leopard genus, but the revised feline classification report shows that the snow leopard has been classified into the leopard genus, so this method is no longer applicable.
The appearance of the snow leopard is more similar to the leopard, like a discolored version of the leopard, weighing between 22-55 kg, but its coat color is gray and white with black markings, due to the habitat in high altitude areas, some of the body's organs have undergone some adaptive evolution, such as in order to reduce heat loss, the ears have become small and round, in order to store fat and maintain balance during action, the tail has become thick and long, and the nasal cavity is short but wide, able to inhale more air at a time, and make the original dry and cold air warm and moist.
In the past, the snow leopard was considered a separate genus, mainly because they could not roar, but the snow leopard's inability to roar and the cat subfamily can not roar and there are some differences, simply put, although the snow leopard's hyoid bone is not fully ossified, but compared to the lion tiger and other roaring animals, it is not so flexible, just like the state between the cat subfamily and the lion tiger, plus the elastic tissue on the vocal cords is relatively less, for various reasons the snow leopard can not roar.
But if someone says that the snow leopard can't roar and can only make a "grunting" sound like a cat, then it is also wrong, the snow leopard can neither roar nor make a "grunt" sound, its call is like being in the middle of the two, similar to a roar, but can clearly hear the difference, let's say howl.
There are nearly 40 species of cats, we will find that although some animals are classified into the cat subfamily, but from the appearance is very confusing, it is easy to be mistaken for the same genus as the lion tiger leopard, such as cheetah and mountain lion, their weight is 21-72kg, 29-100kg, especially the mountain lion, in the environment around Mexico, most individuals weigh the same as the jaguar, and even some male cougars weigh more than the jaguar. In addition, from the name point of view, cheetahs and cougars can also make people associate with leopards and lions.
puma
Before the 90s of the last century, because the classification technology was not yet developed, according to simple anatomical characteristics, the cheetah was classified into a single subfamily, and later as the technology went deeper into the genetic level and more and more evidence, the mountain lion lineage composed of the cheetah and its close relatives, the mountain lion and the slender-waisted cat were all attributed to the cat subfamily.
In terms of size, many animals in the cheetah, cougar and cat subfamily are indeed out of place, as if they can roar, but in fact, although cheetahs and mountain lions can make a variety of sounds, they cannot roar like lions and tigers.
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