There are at least fifty species of cats, belonging to the family of Felidae (mammalian order of carnivores). They are built on much the same plan, but for convenience are divided into the big and the not so big cats. Those designated as the big cats (genus Panthera) include the lion, tiger, leopard, jaguar, clouded leopard and snow leopard. The cheetah, however, is a somewhat different kind of feline. The cat known as the American, Mexican, or mountain lion is a New World member of the genus Felis (see puma).
The
lion (Leo, or Panthera, leo): large, powerfully built cat of the family Felidae,
and the second largest of the big cats (after the tiger). The proverbial "king
of beasts," the lion has been, since earliest times, one of the best known
of wild animals. It is now found mainly in parts of Africa south of the Sahara.
A few hundred lions, constituting an Asiatic race, live under strict protection
in the Gir Forest National Park in Gujarat state, India. The preferred habitats
of lions are grassy plains and open savannah.
The lion is a well-muscled
cat with a long body, short legs, and large head. It varies considerably between
the sexes in both size and appearance. A full-grown male is about 1.8-2.1 m
(6-7 feet) long, excluding the 1-metre (3-foot) long tail; stands about 1.2
m (4 feet) high at the shoulder; and weighs 170-230 kg (370-500 pounds). The
female, or lioness, is smaller, with a body length of 1.5 m (5 feet), a shoulder
height of 0.9-1 m (3-3.5 feet), and a weight of 120-180 kg (265-390 pounds).
The lion's coat is short and varies in colour from buff yellow, orange-brown,
or silvery grey to dark brown, with a tuft on the tail tip that is usually darker
than the rest of the coat. Lionesses are more consistently tawny or sandy in
colour. The male's outstanding characteristic is his mane, which varies in different
individuals. It may be entirely lacking; it may fringe the face; or it may be
full and shaggy, covering the back of the head, neck, and shoulders and continuing
onto the throat and chest to join a fringe along the belly. The mane and fringe
of some lions are very dark, almost black; that gives the animals a majestic
appearance.
Big cats are outstanding among the carnivores, or flesh-eating animals, for
their unsurpassed combination of muscular power and grace of movement. These
magnificent creatures generally catch their prey by clever stalking or ambush.
They must be on the alert and tensed to make the kill; at the same time they
must remain quiet enough not to frighten the intended victim. Sometimes they
pursue game that they can neither smell nor see; in such cases they rely upon
such clues as footmarks.
The cat's body has great elasticity. Because the vertebrae of the spinal column
are held together by muscles rather than by ligaments, as in humans, the cat
can elongate or contract its back, curve it upward, or oscillate it along the
vertebral line. The construction of the shoulder joints permits the cat to turn
its foreleg in almost any direction. Cats are powerfully built animals and are
so well co-ordinated that they almost invariably land on their feet if they
fall or are dropped.
The
long and lithe bodies of the felines are wonderfully specialised for their hunting
activities. A good deal of the weight is carried on the forelimbs. Strong back
and hindleg muscles enable the animals to make sudden leaping movements as they
pounce upon the prey. The cats are not as sturdy runners as the dogs; instead
of steadily pursuing the prey for minutes at a time, they make rapid dash followed
by a sudden leap. Cats are digitigrade; that is, they walk on their toes; there
are five toes on each front and four on each hind foot. Unlike the dog and horse,
the cat walks or runs by moving first the front and back legs on one side, then
the front and back legs on the other side; only the camel and the giraffe move
in a similar way. The smaller cats are adept at climbing trees; the large felines
live mostly on the ground.
A cat's head is large, while the face is relatively short and rounded. There is a bony crest at the top of the skull for the attachment of the powerful temporal muscles that manipulate the lower jaw. The animal has highly specialised teeth. The front teeth, or incisors, serve to bite off flesh; the fangs, or canine teeth, are efficient daggers for piercing and slashing. Finally, there are modified teeth, the carnassials, which shear flesh and cut though sinews.
The cat's teeth are adapted to three functions: stabbing (canines), anchoring
(canines), and cutting (molars). Cats have no flat-crowned crushing teeth and
therefore cannot chew their food; instead, they cut it up. Except for the canines
and molars, the cat's teeth are more or less non-functional; most of the cheek
teeth do not even meet when the mouth is closed.
The carnassials, which are shaped like cutting blades, are a combination of
the last premolar of the upper jaw and the first molar of the lower jaw. As
the jaws close, the upper blade moves past the lower one; the action suggests
that of a pair of scissors.
Almost
3/4 of this 10 cm (4 inch) long lion tooth is its root, which holds the tooth
in place as the animal bites and subdues its prey.The dental formula in all
cats, for either side of both upper and lower jaws, is incisors 3/3, canines
1/1, premolars 3/2, and molars 1/1. The total number of teeth is 16 in the upper
jaw and 14 in the lower. Primary, or milk, teeth number 24; these are replaced
by the permanent teeth at about five months. Each half of the jaw is hinged
to the skull by a transverse roller that fits tightly into a trough on the underside
of the skull, making grinding movements impossible even if the cat had teeth
suitable for grinding.
The toes are armed with long, curved and sharp claws, which can be drawn back, or retracted, when not in use. The claws are primarily utilised for seizing prey. There is a remarkable mechanism for retracting the cat's claws when they are not in use. The claw is retracted or extended by pivoting the end bone of the toe, which bears the claw, over the tip of the next be.
The action that
unsheathes the claws also spreads the toes widely, making the foot more than
twice as broad as it normally is and converting it into a truly formidable weapon.
This claw-sheathing mechanism is present in all species of the cat family except
the cheetah. Although there are no nerve endings in the nail itself, blood capillaries
are present in the inner part.
Cats are generally
nocturnal in habit. The retina of the cat's eye is made extra sensitive to light
by a layer of guanine, which causes the eye to shine at night in a strong light.
The eyes themselves, large with pupils that expand or contract to mere slits
according to the density of light, do not distinguish colours clearly, but they
are perfected for gathering the maximum amount of reflected light available
to them at night. In open country, especially, cats use their eyes to detect
quarry. Cats have a third eyelid, or nictitating membrane, commonly called the
haw. Its appearance is used frequently as an indicator of the cat's general
state of health.
The cat's sense of smell, particularly well developed in the adult, is crucial
to its evaluation of food, so that a cat whose nasal passages become clogged
as a result of illness may appear to lose its appetite completely. Cats can
distinguish the odour of nitrogenous substances (e.g., fish) especially keenly.
The sense of touch is acute in cats. The eyebrows, whiskers, hairs of the cheek,
and fine tufts of hair on the ears are all extremely sensitive to vibratory
stimulation. The functions of the whiskers (vibrissae) are only partially understood;
however, it is known that, if they are cut off, the cat is temporarily incapacitated.
The toes and paws, as well as the tip of the nose, are also very sensitive to
touch.
On the tongue there are backward curved prickles that provide a rough surface
for rasping particles of meat from a bone and has the appearance and feel of
a coarse file; the spines help the cat to lap up liquids and also to groom itself.
The disposition to cleanliness is well established in cats, and they groom themselves
at length, especially after meals.
Cats also have an acute sense of hearing. Their ears contain almost 30 muscles
(compared with 6 in humans); as a result, they can turn them many times more
quickly in the direction of a sound than can a dog. The ears of cats, although
receptive to ultrasonic frequencies up to 25,000 vibrations per second, are
slightly inferior to those of dogs, which register 35,000 vibrations per second.
A cat's brain is large and well developed, making the animal extremely alert
and controlling its highly co-ordinated actions.
Cats prey on any
animal that they are quick enough to catch and strong enough to subdue. Lions
prey on a large number of animals ranging in size from gazelles and baboons
upward to buffalo and hippopotamuses, but they prefer to hunt such medium- to
large-sized hoofed animals as wildebeest, zebra, and impala and other antelopes.
Lions readily eat any meat they can find, including carrion and fresh kills
that they scavenge from hyenas through the use of force or intimidation. Although
felines are almost exclusively meat eaters, the lion and leopard are known to
feed on vegetable matter, principally fallen fruit. The lion will also eat rotten
wood and ashes, when the animals it preys on become scarce.
It is the lionesses of a pride that do most of the hunting. When hunting, the
cats pay no attention to the wind's direction, which can carry their scent to
their prey, and they also tire after running only short distances; a high proportion
of their hunts thus end in failure. Normally a male is circling around the herd
of prey animals, while the lionesses patiently wait in ambush, using every bit
of available cover.
The hunters keep in communication by emitting grunts every so often. The male
gets upwind of the quarry so that his scent is carried to them. He singles out
several individuals, mostly the weakest animals and tries to cut them off from
the rest of the herd, meanwhile driving the prey toward the hidden lionesses.
Once a victim us within range, there is little hope of its escape. The lioness
makes a short, high-speed charge, up to fifty miles an hour, and usually leaps
at the shoulder area and uses the powerful forepaw with claws extended to wrench
back the victim's head violently, as the teeth sink in the back of the neck,
until the animal is strangled. The kill is swift and clean. Other members of
the pride quickly crowd around to feed on the kill, with males obtaining the
most meat in the resulting scuffles and the smaller cubs acquiring little or
none. The carcass is disembowelled, the heart and liver being especially prized.
These animals do not crush the bones, nor pick them completely clean. This leaves
enough to feed for the jackals, hyenas and vultures that always follow in the
train of the great hunters.
Of course, the male is perfectly capable of making the kill, but his function
is usually that of co-ordinating the movements of its troop. Another, less successful
strategy is to approach a herd from opposite directions and then closing in
to try for a kill in the resulting panic. The hunting group stands a better
chance when they concentrate on one victim.
Lions and lionesses typically gorge themselves on a kill and then rest for several
days in its vicinity. After consuming more than 34 kg (75 pounds) of meat at
a single meal, an adult male can rest for a week before resuming the hunt. If
prey is abundant, both sexes typically spend 20 hours a day resting, sleeping,
or sitting and only hunt for 2 or 3 hours a day.
The cat's early
ancestors were primitive carnivores called creodonts. From the creodonts evolved
a group of forest-dwelling hunters known as the miacid carnivores. The miacids
were small; they had long bodies and tails and short, flexible limbs. The cats,
civets, weasels, dogs and probably the seals and walruses as well are direct
descendants of the miacids.
The first cats appeared about 35.000.000 years ago. These animals developed
formidable upper fangs, up to 8 inches in length - which accounts for their
popular name of sabre-toothed tigers. Sabre-tooths of various kinds roamed the
forests and plains of all continents except Australia; they died out when the
thick-skinned mammoths and other herbivores on which they preyed became scarce.
The modern felines
probably evolved from early sabre-toothed cats, whose canine teeth where smaller
than those of the most sabre-tooths. While the sabre-toothed cats were specialised
for killing large, heavy and slow-moving herbivores, the true felines became
adapted for hunting and catching agile animals, both large and small. Today,
felines are among the most widespread and successful of mammalian groups. They
inhabit all major land areas, with the exception of Australia, Madagascar and
the oceanic islands. They are, however, most abundant in tropical regions.
During the late Pleistocene Epoch (1,600,000 to 10,000 years ago), lions had
an extremely wide geographic distribution and ranged over all of North America
and Africa, most of the Balkans, and across Anatolia and the Middle East into
India. They disappeared from North America about 10,000 years ago, from the
Balkans about 2,000 years ago, and from Palestine during the Crusades. Once
lions were common in Eastern Europe and the Middle East but were hunted to extinction.
The wanton slaughter of the lion (or any animal for that matter) is unforgivable.
By the late 20th century their numbers had dwindled to a few tens of thousands,
and those outside of national parks were rapidly losing their habitat to agriculture.
Their future protection in Tanzania's Serengeti and other national parks seemed
secure, however, partly because of the animals' tourist appeal.
| LEVEL | CLASSIFICATION |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Felidae |
| Genus: | Panthera |
| Species: | Leo |
Sometimes a lion
finds man's domestic animals easier to catch than its natural prey; rarely it
becomes a man-eater. But it can happen that a lion, and tiger, too, develop
a taste for human flesh because of various reasons. There is a possibility that
certain individuals lose their innate fear of man by killing a person in a chance
attack. Once successful in man-killing, these cats become less cautious toward
man and find him an easier prey than the hoofed animals on which they usually
feed. A period of famine, too, may embolden a big cat and make it a man-eater.
This is especially true of a female nursing young; it may account for the fact
that most man-eaters are females. In the Ruindi-Rutshuru plain, in Central Africa,
man-eating reached epidemic proportions among lions around 1860 and again between
1904-09. This behaviour was probably caused by an outbreak of a fatal disease
among topis and kobs, antelopes common to the area, that decreased their numbers
dramatically.
A lion will not ordinarily attack a human being unless suddenly startled, bothered,
wounded or diseased. Aged individuals are known to stalk and kill a person,
but usually old ones exist on scorpions, insects and small rodents.
There was a similar situation in East Africa at the end of the 19th century.
The notorious man-eating lions of Tsavo were two maneless male lions that killed
141 railroad workers in Kenya in 1898. Lt. Col. J.H. Patterson was the man who
finally killed the man-eating lions of Tsavo; he recounts his experience in
his booklet "The
man-eating lions from Tsavo" he wrote in 1925. Includes black and white
photographs.
In
captivity, the lion has been induced to mate with other big cats. The offspring
of a lion and a tigress is called a liger; that of a tiger and a lioness, a
tigon; that of a leopard and a lioness, a leopon.
The Philadelphia Zoo was the first in North America to display and breed the
White Lion.
The White Lion is not an albino. It is the product of recessive genes.