Cat Species
It is estimated that there are about 36 species of wild cats and the species of cats are spread all over the world excluding some continents. Cat’s species are found on different region with different nature and characteristics. Every species has its own living ranges like leopard with living range from the southern tip of Africa, across Asia to china. Most of wild cats are found in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Today a great work is done to classify the cat species and has discussed the relationship between the individual species which are separated by continents and oceans.
African is also famous for its cat species and there are many species of cat found in Africa like African golden cat, African wildcat, black-footed cat, caracal, cheetah, leopard, lion, sand cat, and serval. The African golden cat has medium size and its body can grow up to 90 cm, and the color of cat varies and it ranges from a golden to silver grey. The African wildcat is classified into many subspecies and it depends on which school of thought is considered. The blacked-footed cat is the smallest cat species which has the shoulder height of about 22cm and the length of body is 50cm, the average weight of male cat is about 2.2 kg while the weight of female cat is 1.5 kg.
The major region where the cat species are found, are sub-Saharan Africa, north Africa and southwest Asia, tropical Asia, Eurasia and the Americas. North America has also some no of species like bobcat, puma, Canadian lyrux, jaguar, jaguarondi, and ocelot. Bobcat is different species in the lynx genus but there are some characteristics common between Canadian lynx and bobcat.
Asia is one of the largest continents in the world and there you will find many species of cats, the names of the cat species are Asian golden cat, bornean bay cat, Chinese mountain cat, clouded leopard, fishing cat, flat-headed cat, iriomote cat, jungle cat, leopard, leopard cat, lion, marbled cat, Pallas cat, rusty-spotted cat, snow leopard, tiger and wildcat. The Asian golden cat mostly found in south East Asia and these cats share some of its characteristics with the golden cat found in east and central Asia. Bornean bay cat is rare found and these cats are grown up to two feet in length and the color of fur is chestnut brown.
There are many kinds of cats and there are some characteristics which are considered to classify the cats into groups like some cats have long hair while some cats have short hair. The color of fur is also different for different species of cats like some of the cats are silver tabby Persian cats with points, single color cats, bicolor cats, tricolor cats with marks and patches and most of the cats have tails except Manx which has no tail.
The 36 species of wild cats are divided into three basic groups like felinae, pantherinae and acinonychinae. Now the sub families are further divided into various groups. There are thirteen genera in felinae and four genera in the pantherinae.
