Our planet is inhabited by 37 species of representatives of the cat family. Most of them are large animals, predators. Lions and tigers, panthers and cougars, leopards and cheetahs are considered the largest wild cats in the world. Representatives of this large family have distinctive features in behavior, color, habitat, etc.
In nature, there are animals that amaze with their incredible size. In this article we will talk about some of them, also you will learn the name of the largest wild cat in the world.
Cheetah
An animal that combines the features and characteristics of both cats and dogs. Long and slender legs, like dogs, a short body and the ability, like cats, to climb trees. This is not the largest cat in the world. Her height does not exceed 90 cm with a weight of 65 kilograms. A slender body with well-developed muscles and almost no fat deposits may even seem fragile.
The cheetah has a small head, with high eyes and small rounded ears. The short cheetah coat is sand colored with black spots.
Most of the population of these predators falls on the countries of Africa: Angola, Algeria, Botswana, Benin, Congo, etc. In Asia, there are not very many cheetahs: according to unconfirmed reports, habitats are preserved only in central Iran.
Animals prefer even and large spaces, since the manner of hunting these wild cats is rather unusual: they are able to imperceptibly approach prey at a distance of less than 10 meters, and then make a rapid jerk, while developing tremendous speed. However, they can not pursue their victim this way for long - only 400 meters. If she managed to slip away during this time, the cheetah rests and waits for a new victim.
Cougar
It is one of the largest wild cats in the world and the second largest in America. The height at the withers is about 70 cm with a trunk length of 180 cm. The average weight of the predator is 100 kg. The body is elongated, rather massive, the hind legs are longer than the front, the head is small, proportional to the body. Color - gray or reddish.
Puma inhabits mainly in South America or in the west of North America, as well as in Yucatan. The animal settles in almost any locality - from the plains to the mountains. This cat is not too picky in food, can feast on ungulates, does not disdain insects. Cases of attacks on people have been recorded, as a rule, these were people of short stature, walking alone, or children.
Leopard
Of the largest wild cats in the world, the leopard is considered the most insidious predator. Despite the fact that its size is smaller than that of a tiger or a lion, it is not inferior to them in the power of the jaws. Growth at the withers does not exceed 80 cm, and weight - 100 kg. The length of the body can be more than 195 cm. Leopard is common in the savannahs, mountainous regions of Africa and in the southern half of East Asia.
The predator has its own characteristics:
- Climbing trees perfectly;
- overcomes water obstacles without difficulty;
- can eat fish;
- sits in ambush for a very long time;
- goes hunting alone at night;
- to save his prey, drags it to a tree.
Leopards are considered more aggressive, in whose color the black color predominates, which animals get due to the high content of the hormone melatonin.
a lion
This powerful animal is one of the largest wild cats in the world. A lion whose weight reaches, and sometimes even exceeds 250 kg, with a height at the withers of 123 cm and with a body length of up to 250 cm is a formidable and dangerous predator. Thick coat with a dense undercoat varies from sand to dark brown. The characteristic features of the lion is a luxurious mane, which only males possess, and a brush on the tip of the tail. These predators live mainly in Africa, small populations survived in India.
The lion informs the district about the exit to the hunt by a formidable roar, which is heard several kilometers from the location of the animal. These are the only representatives of the family living in prides (large families), led by the leader of the pack, a young and strong lion. During the hunt, the males are ambushed, and the females drive the prey.
Tigers
These beautiful animals are considered to be the largest wild cats in the world. The size and weight of these giants is impressive. Often, the weight of the tiger exceeds 250 kg, and the height of the animal at the withers is 1.2 meters. The body length of an adult male often exceeds three meters.
Predators have a strong and muscular body, a large round head with a convex skull, a beautiful and bright color - rich red with black stripes. These animals today are preserved in 16 countries - Bhutan and Bangladesh, India and Vietnam, Iran and Indonesia, China and Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Pakistan, Nepal, Thailand and Russia. It is believed that a small population is in the DPRK, but this information is not officially confirmed.
Tigers live in tropical rainforests, bamboo thickets in the tropics, mangrove swamps and dry savannahs, semi-deserts, on bare rocky hills and in the north in the taiga. Their food territory extends in different areas for 300-500 km. The predator hunts in the evening and in the morning. He attacks from an ambush, sniffing his victim in the wake.
Tigers are amazingly clean. Before each hunt, the predator must bathe in order to discourage the smell, which could frighten the future victim. Man can be the easiest prey for this cat. But she attacks only when people violate the boundaries of her territory or the predator’s food supply runs dry. These days, tiger attacks on humans are extremely rare. This is due to a decrease in the population of almost all species of this animal. All subspecies of tigers are steadily reducing their numbers and end up in the Red Book.
Ligers and Tiglons
And finally, the largest wild cat in the world (photo you can see below) is a hybrid of a female tiger and a male lion. Ligers are growing rapidly, gaining up to 500 grams per day. Offspring received from a lioness (mother) and a tiger (father) are called tiglons. Such animals are as rare as ligers, but inferior to them in size.
Ligers usually grow larger than their parents, and tiglons are close in size to tigers. Ligers, like tigers, love to swim, but are more sociable, which is typical for lions. They can live only in captivity. It is natural that this hybrid cannot be born in nature, since tigers and lions do not have a common habitat, in the wild they do not intersect.
Liger, this is the largest wild cat in the world. More recently, there was an erroneous opinion that it has been growing all its life due to hormonal characteristics. But then it was found that at the age of six, this animal ceases to grow, like tigers and lions.
Standing on its hind legs, the liger reaches a height of four meters. The females of these cats weigh 320 kg, and their body length is three meters. Quite often, they retain the ability to reproduce, while males are infertile. This is one of the problems of reproduction of such hybrid offspring.
Cubs that were born from a mother of a ligrant are called ligra. There is evidence of a maximum weight of such an animal at 540 kg, and in the USA, in the state of Wisconsin - 725 kg. The Guinness Book of Records in 1973 was replenished with information about the largest liger at that time. The weight of this hybrid cat was 798 kilograms. The animal lived in South Africa, in one of the zoological centers.
Hercules
Today in Miami Park lives the largest wild cat in the world - Hercules. The animal is 16 years old. He was born in 2002 from the union of a lion and a tigress. He took a worthy place in the Guinness Book of Records due to the weight of 408 kilograms. The height of the animal is 183 centimeters, and the diameter of the muzzle is 73 centimeters. Hercules is a unique liger, because he was born only because his parents were kept in one enclosure.
Scientists believe that the artificial breeding of these animals is associated only with geographical features. In the distant past, when the habitats of tigers and lions coincided, in the wild, ligers were not something special and these giants regularly updated the population. And today there is no possibility of mating the largest wild cats in vivo.
Reasons for tremendous growth
The genetic material of the lion-father conveys the ability to grow cubs, and in the female tigress genes do not interfere with the growth of offspring. As a result, the size of the ligraine actually remains without control, and the cub is actively growing.
