50 articles
Mountain lions in the Santa Monica Mountains
Mountain lions (Puma concolor) in the Santa Monica Mountains, an isolated NPS-studied population near Los Angeles; famous lion P-22, low genetic diversity, rodenticide and vehicle deaths, Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing.
North American cougar
North American cougar (Puma concolor couguar), also called mountain lion or puma: the single recognized cougar subspecies of North America, genetically homogeneous after late Pleistocene recolonization; breeding populations now mainly western, plus Florida panther and recent Midwest recolonization.
Panthera
Panthera is the big cat genus of Felidae holding lion, tiger, jaguar, leopard, and snow leopard, sister genus Neofelis; tiger and snow leopard form one clade, lion, leopard, jaguar the other.
Panthera hybrid
A Panthera hybrid is the crossbred offspring of two different big cat species, chiefly the liger and tigon, which occur only in captivity because humans house the species together.
Panthera spelaea
Panthera spelaea, the cave lion, an extinct Holarctic felid of the Eurasian and North American Pleistocene, distinct from the modern lion with over 1.7 million years of independent evolution, reindeer-focused diet, and extinction 13,000–14,000 years ago.
Pantherinae
Pantherinae is a subfamily of the cat family Felidae containing the big cats: the tiger, lion, jaguar, leopard, and snow leopard, plus two clouded leopards.
Puma (genus)
Puma (genus), Jardine 1834, is a Felinae cat genus whose only living species is the puma/cougar (Puma concolor), ranging across the Americas with the broadest latitudinal distribution of any terrestrial mammal; fossil Puma pardoides lived in Eurasia.
San Francisco Zoo tiger attacks
San Francisco Zoo tiger attacks: Siberian tiger Tatiana mauled keeper Lori Komejan in December 2006, then escaped on Christmas Day 2007, killing Carlos Sousa Jr.; enclosure wall was 12.5 feet, below AZA standards.
Siberian tiger
Siberian tiger (Amur tiger, Panthera tigris altaica), the largest and northernmost tiger subspecies of the Russian Far East and Northeast China; preys on sika deer, wild boar, roe deer; recovering sixfold in SW Primorsky since 1996 but genetically bottlenecked.
Smilodon
Smilodon, often called the saber-toothed tiger, is an extinct genus of large saber-toothed cats that lived in the Americas, best known for its greatly elongated upper canine teeth.
Snow leopard
The snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is a large cat living in the high mountains of Central Asia, where it hunts wild sheep and goats on steep, rocky terrain.
South China tiger (华南虎)
The South China tiger (华南虎), also known as the Amoy tiger, is a tiger subspecies native to southern China that is possibly extinct in the wild and survives only in captivity.
Sumatran tiger
Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), also called the Sunda island tiger, the smallest and most critically endangered tiger population, found only on Sumatra, Indonesia, with roughly 400 left, threatened by snaring, poaching, and oil palm deforestation.
Tiger
Tiger (Panthera tigris), largest living cat, Endangered on the IUCN Red List. About 3,726–5,578 wild tigers (2022 estimate) survive in Asia, under 7% of historic range, recovering in India and Nepal but declining in Southeast Asia.
Tiger attack
Tiger attack: incidents where Panthera tigris bites, mauls, or kills people, mainly in the Sundarbans, India, and Nepal. Key facts: 1,047 recorded attack cases worldwide, mostly predatory in the Sundarbans, rising with tiger numbers in India.
Tigon
Tigon: hybrid of a male tiger (Panthera tigris) and a female lion, the reciprocal of the liger; smaller than either parent due to imprinting, males sterile, famously bred at Alipore Zoo, Kolkata.
Tsavo Man-Eaters
Tsavo Man-Eaters: two maneless male lions that killed railway workers building the Uganda Railway bridge at Tsavo, Kenya, in 1898; shot by John Henry Patterson; victim counts range from 28 to 135, with isotope analysis suggesting about 35; skins and skulls at Chicago's Field Museum.
White panther
White panther: informal term for a white big cat (leopard, jaguar, lion, or tiger) with leucism or albinism, counterpart of black panther; not a species, and captive white tigers descend from Mohan, captured in Rewa, India, in 1951.
White Tiger (China)
White Tiger (China), 白虎: captive leucistic Bengal tigers bred at Chinese safari parks, notably Chimelong's 1,000-plus population; caused by an SLC45A2 recessive mutation, descended from Mohan (1951), and criticized as having no conservation value.
Zanzibar leopard
Zanzibar leopard (Panthera pardus adersi), island leopard endemic to Unguja, Zanzibar; hunted to likely extirpation by the 1990s after a 1964 government eradication campaign; six museum specimens; 2024 genomics found close East African mainland affinity.