The Ragdoll Cat (Felis catus) is a breed of domesticated cat in the Felidae family. It is called Ragdoll because it goes limp (floppy) and relaxed when it is picked up. It is often known as an ‘apartment cat.’
The Ragdoll Cat has a semi-long, silky, soft coat of hair. It has blue eyes, thick limbs, a soft body, and a long, bushy tail. It has a wide space between the ears. Some have upside-down V-shaped markings on their forehead.
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Which animal was domesticated first – the cat or the dog?
Domesticated animals are those that have been tamed and bred by humans. Humans began keeping animals as companion pets (such as cats and dogs), work animals (such as horses, donkeys, and camels to carry things), and livestock (such as cattle, sheep, pigs, and goats for food and skin, fur, or wool).
It is not easy to tell exactly when different species of animals were domesticated. Domestication occurred gradually, so there is no exact moment in history.
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Cheetahs are the fastest land mammal but cheetah cub survival rates are low. Why is this?
Previous studies of cheetah cub survival rates on the Serengeti Plains of Kenya and Tanzania in Africa in 1994, 2000, and 2004, found that it was exceptionally low because of the lion population attacking them. The survival rate was only 4.8% of cubs – that is 5 cubs out of every 100 cubs born survived beyond 14 months of age.
Researchers from the Zoology Department of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom conducted a similar study on cheetah cub survival rates in 2013 and published the results in the Journal of Zoology. They compared the cheetah cub survival rate in the Kgalagadi (Kalahari) Transfrontier Park on the border of Botswana and South Africa with the Serengeti study.
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The Chartreux Cat (Felis catus) is a mammal in the Felidae family of cats. It is a rare domestic cat. A cat is a felid, or a feline.
The Chartreux Cat has short, thick, silver-grey fur, which is called blue fur. Unlike most other cats, it has water-resistant fur due to a double layer of medium-length, slightly woolly hair. It sheds its fur moderately. It is large and muscular with short ears and a fluffy tail. It has distinctive orange or amber eyes. It is considered to be highly intelligent.
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The Eurasian Lynx (Lynx lynx) is a medium-sized wild cat: a feline mammal. It is a felid.
The Eurasian Lynx has short reddish or brown fur in summer and thick, silky silver-grey to greyish-brown fur in winter, with a long grey and white ruff. Its underbelly, neck and chin are white. Its fur has black spots, although some Lynxes have dark-brown stripes on their forehead and back. It has black tufts of hair on its ears. It has powerful long legs with large webbed, furred paws to enable it to swim and to walk on snowy ground. It has a bobbed tail with a black tip.
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The Clouded Leopard (Neofelis nebulosi) is a wild cat; a feline mammal (a felid).
The Clouded Leopard has dark-grey to ochre-brown fur, with black and dark-coloured markings. It has black spots on its head, and broken stripes from the corner of its eyes over its cheek, from the corner of its mouth to the neck, and along its shoulders. Its sides have dusky-grey irregular blotches. Its underbelly and legs are spotted.
Its ears are black, and its tail has large, irregular, paired spots. It has short legs with large paws. Its back legs are longer than its front legs. Its eyes have vertical slits with brownish-yellow to greyish-green irises. It has long, sharp canine teeth.
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What is a toe tuft?
A tuft is a bunch of hair or fur – usually at the end of the tail of some animals.
Toe tufts are bunches of hair between the toes of some animals. The fur usually sticks out for 1-2 centimetres beyond the paw pad.
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What is a felid? What is a feline?
A felid is an animal that belongs in the Felidae family of cats.
A feline is a cat or an animal that is cat-like.
A felid or a feline is a carnivorous mammal known as a cat – such as a domestic cat or a wild cat.
A wild cat includes a bobcat, caracal, cheetah, cougar, eyra, jaguar, jaguarundi, kodkod, leopard, lion, lynx, margay, ocelot, oncilla, panther, puma, serval, tiger, and tigrillo.
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What is the difference between the African Lion and the White Lion?
The White Lion (Panthera leo) is a feline, or felid, mammal – a wild cat. It is different from the African Lion (Panthera leo leo) and the Asiatic Lion (Panthera leo persica), but it is more similar to the African Lion.
The White Lion is not albino. It is leucistic, which means that it has reduced colouring, but not complete albinism. An animal that is albino lacks colour and has pink eyes. A leucistic animal does not have pink eyes.
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The Caucasus Jungle Cat (Felis chaus chaus) is a sub-species of the Jungle Cat. It is also known as the Reed Cat or the Swamp Cat. It is a medium-sized feline, or felid, mammal. It looks like a lynx.
The Caucasus Jungle Cat has sandy, reddish-brown, or grey fur without spots. It has a long, narrow face with a white nose. Its eyes are yellow, and it often has white fur around its eyes. It has large, pointed ears with small tufts of black hair. It has long legs and a short, black-tipped tail. It has sharp teeth.
The Pallas’s Cat (Otocolobus manul) is a near-threatened wild cat, and a mammal. It is also known as a Manul. It is a felid, or a feline.
The Pallas’s Cat has a shortened ‘squashed’ or flattened face. It is a stocky cat with long, dense grey fur with dark vertical bars on its body and front legs. Its winter coat is darker. It has white cheeks with narrow black stripes from the corners of it grey-green eyes. It has a white chin and a white throat. It has black rings on its tail. Its legs are short and its claws are long.
What are the similarities and differences between Cheetahs and African Leopards?
The Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) and the African Leopard (Panthera pardus) are both felines – wild cats from Africa.
The Cheetah has a sway-back and the Leopard does not.
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The Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is a large feline, a wild cat. It is a mammal.
The Cheetah is tawny-coloured with clear solid round and oval black spots and with a white underbelly. Its spots are on its fur and also on its skin. It is a ‘sway-backed’ cat with a thin waist, and long legs. Its head is rounded and small, with a unique black ‘tear’ stain below each eye. It has dog-like feet with blunt claws that cannot retract – their claws cannot go in and out; the claws are always visible. Its tail is long and spotted, with several closely-spaced black rings near the end. It has short, thin whiskers.
The African Leopard (Panthera pardus) is a large feline, a wild cat. It is a mammal.
The African Leopard has a short coat of cream-yellow fur with dark-brown or black spots grouped into rosettes all over its body – on its fur and on its skin. Inside the rosettes is a yellowish-cream spot. It has short powerful legs with heavy feet, a strong body, thick neck, and a long tail. Its claws can retract (move in and out). Its ears are short and rounded, and its eyes have white underneath. It has thick whiskers.
The Masai Lion (Panthera leo melanochaita) is the second largest feline (cat) species, after the tiger. The Masai Lion is found in East Africa, mainly in Kenya, so they are also called East African Lions.
Male lions can grow to 2.5-3 metres (8-10 feet) long (including their tail). Female lions, called lionesses, are smaller, with no mane.
A group of lions is called a pride.
Prides of 2-40 individuals are made up of related females and one to two males. Members of the pride come and go and are rarely all together at once.