How Many Big Cats Species Are There In The World

Historically these big cats were found throughout India.

How many big cats species are there in the world. Scientists agree that the common house cat is a. Most like the margay are relatively small. The definition of which species are big cats varies between different organisations with some considering just the five species in the Panthera genus to be big cats and others including pumas also known as mountain lions and cougars and cheetahs.

But somethe lion tiger leopard snow leopard clouded leopard jaguar lynx and cheetahare big. The term big cats generally refers to lions tigers leopards and jaguars the four wild cats. From the biggest to the smallest there are 38 cat species found worldwide.

With a typical weight of 21 to 72 kgs 46 and 159 lbs it is the seventh largest big cat species in the world. Most scientists recognize 36 or 37 species of cats depending upon how they define a species and the latest knowledge of cat evolution. Several other government and non-government organizations also run extensive research.

This includes leopards jaguars cheetahs lions snow leopards and tigers. Cheetah is the fastest land animal. This list of largest cats shows the 10 largest extant Felidae species.

However a more liberal and extensive definition of the term also includes species outside of Panthera including the clouded leopard cheetah Sunda clouded leopard and sometimes several species of lynx. Big cat species that have a wide range and live in a variety of habitats include leopards mountain lions ocelots and jaguars. While there are 38 species of cats on the planet the term big cat is usually used to refer to five living members of the genus Panthera namely lion tiger leopard snow leopard and jaguar.

Biologists around the world consider just six species of feline to be big cats. There are in fact a number of different ways that people define which of the 38 cat species around the world should be classed as big cats. Cat Populations Around the World.