One Feline Per Continent
From the warmest to the coldest ecosystems, this family spans the entire world. In order to admire its diversity, we want to compile one feline per continent. We can find felines almost all over the planet, let’s go to them!
Asia: bengal tiger
In Asia we can find very different felines, but unquestionably the king is the Bengal tiger.
This is a subspecies among the Asian tigers, and is considered the national animal of India and Bangladesh.
The Bengal tiger is one of the largest cats that exist: males can reach three meters in length, not counting the tail, and weigh more than 200 kilos.
They are an orange-red color with black spots, and there is a strange mutation that sometimes turns them white, like the one pictured in this article.
Like all felines, it is a carnivorous and hunting animal.
This type of tiger hunts as much as it can and does not specialize in a specific type of prey: its diet ranges from Asian buffaloes to turkeys or other birds.
In captivity, it has been observed that they can eat up to 30 pounds of meat a day.
Africa: leopard
It is known that, for centuries, the leopard has lived in much more territory than it occupies today.
It spanned the entire southern half of Asia and almost all of Africa, with the exception of the Sahara.
However, today there are fewer specimens and their habitat is reduced to the central margin of Africa.
The leopard is the fifth largest feline species on the planet.
They are almost as tall as tigers, as they measure between 60 and 90 centimeters in cross and more than two meters without counting the tail.
However, they are much more stylish and slimmer, and usually don’t weigh more than 200 pounds.
Europe: common european cat
The cat is the feline species by continent with the largest population and the best known.
This domestic cat is one of the most common pets, and the common European cat is the most abundant.
This breed is characterized by short, soft and shiny hair. They have a straight snout and wide-spaced triangular ears.
They are agile and relatively healthy, as, except for being prone to obesity, they suffer few illnesses.
They can come in several colors: like mottled or marbled, in gray color variations with black stripes and spots.
They can also be a single color, such as white, orange or black; and bicolor, in combinations of orange, white and black. Tricolors are almost always female.
North America: Canadian Lynx
Another member of our compilation of one feline per continent.
As the name suggests, this lynx lives in territories that belong to Canada ; although some small populations descend to the South , to Washington and some other states.
This animal is prepared to live in snow and under extreme temperatures, so its coat is longer than that of the rest of the cats; it is also more abundant and woolly.
It has fur-covered paw pads, which not only help keep you warm, but also help you not slip on the ice.
South America: Ocelot
The Ocelot is a species of medium feline that lives in the northern half of South America, up to Argentina and part of Central America.
In this area live many other animals of the same family (jaguar, puma, wild cat, Andean cat…), but in this case we only collect one feline per continent.
It measures between 70 and 90 centimeters in length, in addition to the tail, which can add up to another 30 or 40 centimeters.
They weigh around 11 kilos, so they are far from the big cat species, but they are not as small as domestic cats.
The skin of the Ocelot is very characteristic: it is a color between yellow and cream, on which bands and black dots rest.
Its ears are large and rounded, and its facial features appear more striking than in other species, due to the stripes of the skin.
A few years ago, this animal was heavily hunted by the fur industry.
Oceania: none
There are no native wild cats in Oceania! In other words, all the cats that currently live on any of the islands that make up this continent were introduced artificially recently.
Australia is an island sadly known for the invasions of foreign animals, which become pests or dangerous to native animals due to the lack of predators.
This happened, for example, with the domestic cat: domestic cats escaped or were abandoned and reproduced in that territory.
Cats are a big family, but here we only list one feline per continent.
Some are bigger than others, but they still have things in common: they are carnivores, hunters and have big expressive eyes.
