The revised cats are divided into a total of 2 subfamilies, 8 lineages, 14 genera, 41 species and 80 subspecies, of which 6 species are in the leopard subfamily and the remaining 35 species belong to the cat subfamily. The leopard subfamily is generally referred to as a big cat, and the cat subfamily is a small cat, but there are also relatively large species in the small cat family, and the top three are: mountain lions, cheetahs and Eurasian lynx.
puma
Puma/puma concolor is the only species in the genus Puma, and it is the supreme cat in the cat world. Its body length is 130-200 cm, the tail length is about 100 cm, the shoulder height is 55-80 cm, and the weight is 35-100 kg. Slightly inferior to the leopard, and the snow leopard in between Bo Zhong, the force of the cloud leopard, can enter the ranks of large predators. However, mountain lions do not roar, but purr like cats, and the usual calls are bright and high-pitched, which is characteristic of the cat subfamily.
The cougar is large, and its appearance and body color resemble a lion, so it is named after the lion. On the single challenge, it is second only to the Jaguar on the American continent, and its absolute strength is above the North American gray wolf. However, mountain lions usually come and go alone and cannot withstand the attack of gray wolves, so in addition to humans, gray wolves are their most important natural enemies.
Mountain lions have been divided into thirty-two subspecies, six based on geographic systems studies, and only two subspecies have been identified according to the latest genetic studies: puma concolor concolor in South America and puma concolor cougar in Central and North America.
cheetah
The second most prominent member of the cat subfamily should be the cheetah/acinonyx jubatus, the only species in the genus Cheetah that is named "leopard" because of its large size and covered with black spots. Ranking it second in the cat subfamily, it is in terms of size, its trunk is 1-1.5 meters long, its tail is 0.6-0.8 meters long, its shoulder height is 0.7-0.9 meters, and its weight is 50-80 kg, which is different from that of mountain lions, and is generally inferior to mountain lions.
With a slender body, long head and calves, and a very soft vertebrae, the cheetah is the fastest animal on earth, with a maximum speed of 115 kilometers per hour. Due to too much dependence on high speed, the cheetah's combat strength is not strong, the canine teeth are relatively underdeveloped, can not bite through the throat of the prey at once, can only bite to make it suffocate. Cheetahs are often bullied and even preyed on by lions and leopards in the African savannah, and sometimes hyenas also come to grab prey, which is very miserable...
In the old classification system, because cheetahs were too special, there were many characteristics close to the canine family, such as the inability of claws to retract the lamp, so it was listed separately as a cheetah subfamily. Later, genetic studies determined that the cheetah's closest relative in the cat family was a mountain lion, which was placed in the mountain lion lineage of the cat subfamily.
It is currently divided into four subspecies: acinonyx jubatus hecki living in west and north Africa, acinonyx jubatus jubatus living in eastern and southern Africa, acinonyx jubatus soemmerringi living in northeastern Africa, and acinonyx jubatus venaticus living in Iran (which previously included the region from north Africa to India).
Eurasian lynx
Tanhualang of the subfamily cat must be found in the genus Lynx, which in turn is dominated by eurasian lynx/lynx lynx. It resembles a cat, but is much larger than a cat, weighs about 15-30 kg, has a body length of 80-130 cm, and a tail length of 16-23 cm. Medium-sized beasts can be included. Eurasian lynx is not as large as the top two cat subfamily, but its combat power is amazing, and it likes to hunt medium and large beasts such as roe deer, and the hunting method is mainly sneak attack.
The lynx has a thick body , long limbs , a very short and thick tail , a blunt rounded tail tip , and black towering tufts of hairs at the tip of the ear , which is a more prominent feature of the genus. It has been suspected that the short-tailed family of domestic cats and maine cats (with tufts of lynx-like tufts at the tip of the ears) are mixed with lynx ancestry, but genetic analysis has shown that lynxes are not related to domestic cats, and lynx species and domestic cats cannot produce hybrid offspring.
The Eurasian lynx is currently divided into six subspecies: lynx lynx in northern Europe and western Siberia, lynx lynx carpathicus in central and eastern Europe and the Carpathians, lynx lynx balcanicus in the Balkans, lynx lynx dinniki in the Caucasus mountains, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, lynx lynx lynx and East Siberia in Central Asia, Lynx lynx wrangeli in northeast China.
Mountain lions, cheetahs and Eurasian lynx are the three big names in the cat subfamily, that is, small cats. Of the three, I've seen cheetahs at the Beijing Zoo and Eurasian lynx at the Qingdao Zoo, but the cougar has no chance to see them. It is said that there is a village-run zoo in Yantai with mountain lions, and you have to take time to visit.