The cat family is ready for these two “J” months’ worth of feline Fridays!
One little kitty has its head cropped out, though, so here is the original image:
See Featured Image section for credits, links, and licenses.
All three species come in black as well as their usual colors, stripes, and/or spots, so I went with that for the image.
On the top right, that’s not Fluffy resting relaxed on a log — it is our good friend Chaus, the jungle cat.
In the following video, this jungle cat (with typical tawny coat!) was seen in India’s Ranthambore Park — apparently it missed a spot on its postprandial bath, but the video does show Chaus’s eery resemblance to house cats as well as the striking differences, like a very muscular frame, that striped tail, and those black-tipped ears:
😺😺😺
In the feature image, that’s a jaguarundi on the left. They mostly come in two shades: red and gray.
🐯🐯🐯
The bottom image, of course, is a jaguar. They look so much like leopards (which also can have the “black panther” look) that I chose this image to show the main difference between the two pantherine species: jaguars have a much more muscular build and massive jaw muscles.
I suppose leopards would be buff, too, if they had had to coexist with a behemoth like Smilodon throughout the Pleistocene.
Yes, we looked at jaguars in January, too, but they’re a big cat; they can take it.
😺🐯😺
For lagniappe:
Some YouTube videos claim that jaguars are the third largest cat on the planet. My understanding is that they are the same size as leopards, but I haven’t seen either species in person.
Perhaps it’s true if you’re looking at body mass.
Tigers and lions are the biggest of the big cats, and here is a video comparing all four big cats plus a large member of the Puma genus, the cheetah:
Featured image:
- Jungle cat, top right: Joachim S. Muller, CC BY-SA-NC 2.0
- Jaguarundi, top left: Joachim S. Muller, CC BY-SA-NC 2.0
- Jaguar, bottom: Tom Lee, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Flight To Wonder 