Big Cats or Small Cats?

Are big cats really big and are small cats really small? These two are the most important questions that come to one’s mind when he sees the words ‘big cat’ and ‘small cat’ in various books and articles. This division is not a biological division. The family ‘Felidae’, informally called the cat family, contains 37 species including the domestic cat. Among these, only seven species are considered as ‘big cats’ because of their superior size and power compared to other cats, but still two more cats, puma and cheetah, despite being quite large in size, are considered as small cats because they resemble the small cats in their body form rather than big cats. So one should remember the fact that the terms ‘big’ and ‘small’ don’t exactly refer to their body size here. No doubt that the biggest of the big cats is more than thrice heavier than the biggest of the small cats, but there are some big cats which are more than thrice smaller than the biggest of the small cats!

Now let us consider the division of the family Felidae. This family has been divided into three subfamilies, namely Pantherinae (big cats or great cats), Felinae (small cats) and Acinonynae (cheetah or hunting leopard). Earlier cheetah was also included in the subfamily felinae of small cats, but later scientists discovered that the cheetah differs significantly either from big cats or small cats, so they placed it in its own subfamily. Currently, seven species in three genera, which belong to the subfamily Pantherinae, are considered as big cats. Let us take a look at these great cats.

       1) Genus Panthera: This genus contains four species and they are the   only members of the cat family which are able to roar. So they are called ‘true big cats’ or ‘roaring cats’. A flexible hyoid bone and other morphological modifications of their larynx enable them to roar. Tiger, Lion, Jaguar and Leopard (Panther) belong to this genus. They are the supreme hunters in their habitat and undoubtedly the perfect hunting machines designed by the nature. Among them, Tiger, Lion and Leopard are old world big cats whereas Jaguar is the big cat of new world and incidentally it is the largest cat of western hemisphere and the apex predator of new world jungles. Let us learn about these great cats briefly.

a)     Tiger (Panthera tigris): This is the largest extant cat on the earth today. There are eight recognized subspecies of tiger, out of which three are extinct today. Siberian tiger or Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) is the biggest among them; full grown males reaching as much as 11 foot in length and can weigh 300 kg. the average weight is around 230 kg for males and 170 kg for the females. The largest ever recorded Siberian tiger weighed 384 kg. this is a critically endangered cat now, with only about 350-400 tigers remaining in the wild. They have thick fur and paler coats. Since the prey species are very scarce here, the density of tigers in Siberian jungles is very low compared to our Indian jungles. It is possible that only one tiger can be ruling an area as large as 500-600 sq.kms. the second largest is the Royal Bengal tiger. The average weight of these tigers is 205 kg. A tiger named Khali of Corbett national park, though not measured accurately, was estimated by its appearance to be 10 feet long and about 300-340 kg in weight. It’s common for the males to reach a weight in excess of 220 kg. Indo-china tiger or Corbett tiger, South China tiger, Sumatra tiger, Caspian tiger, Bali tiger and Java tiger are the other subspecies of tiger, out of which the last three are extinct now. recently, the Malayan tiger has been placed separately from south china tiger, making the total number of extant tiger subspecies to six.

b)    Lion (Panthera leo): Lion is the second largest extant cat. This cat is unique in having a mane, the hair that grows around the neck and face of males. This big cat exists in Asia and Africa and the African lions are slightly bigger and have denser manes than the Asian lions. Their average length ranges from 9-9.5 feet and weight ranges from 140-180 kg. some outstanding African males can reach 250 kg also. The largest lion ever seen in the wild weighed 313 kg and the largest known lion in captivity weighed 375 kg. they are the most sociable of all cats and they can bring down much larger prey due to their priding habits. In Africa, they can kill huge animals like cape buffalos, giraffes, hippopotamuses and sometimes even elephants also. In India, they are restricted to the gir reserve forest of Gujarat. Only about 400 lions are left there today. Like tigers, lions also have nine subspecies, out of which Barbary lion, the largest subspecies, is extinct now.

c)     Jaguar (Panthera onca): This robust cat looks similar to our leopard, but it is stockier and has shorter legs. The rosettes are darker than that of leopards and they have small black dots at the centre of the rosettes which the panther lacks. On an average, they weigh around 60-100 kg and enormously built males can reach 160 kg also, almost as large as a full grown tigress or lioness. It is common for the males to cross 100 kg. they have the strongest bite among cats and stand next only to hyenas among the carnivores. They bite their prey into its head and can split its skull with its powerful jaws, directly piercing the brain of the animal. They are the supreme and apex predators of Amazon rainforests. Melanism is frequently observed in jaguars. Melanistic jaguars are jet black in color, but still their rosettes are visible on closer inspection. They have the shortest tail of any big cats which is just 45-75 cm in length. The main prey of jaguars includes tapirs, peccaries, capybaras, turtles, sloths etc and sometimes even as large and powerful animals as caimans and anacondas also. Numerous subspecies of jaguars were proposed by many biologists earlier but recent studies have revealed just three subspecies.

d)    Panther (Panthera pardus): The words panther and leopard are used interchangeably to this animal. This is the most widespread member of the family, probably with the exception of domestic cat. The average weight of panthers is around 40-70 kg. some large males can reach 90 kg also. A gigantic male named Balaji in Sri Venkateshwara zoological park in Tirupathi weighed 139 kg. probably that could be the largest panther ever recorded, for it is very rare for these cats to reach 100 kg.  being smaller than other big cats, they can easily climb trees and that exceptional ability helps them to protect themselves against other carnivores like tigers and wild dogs. But despite their smaller size, they can easily drag a prey twice as heavy as itself onto the top of a tree to feed on it leisurely. They are much more intelligent, agile and cunning than their larger relatives. If a panther turns into man eater, it’s extremely hard to bring it to book. The infamous case of The man-eating leopard of Rudraprayag can be remembered here. That deadly leopard terrorized the entire north India from 1918 to 1926. The fact that it took eight long and dreadful years to hunt this leopard. The famous big game hunter Gim Corbett hunted it in 1926, ending a nightmare and trail of blood that stretched for eight years. According to the government documents, this leopard had killed and eaten 124 people in this period, but Corbett says that many of the killings that took place there were never reported and the actual number could have been twice or thrice this number. Eight subspecies have been considered to be valid today.

1)    Genus Uncia:

a) Snow leopard (Uncia uncia): This was previously called as Panthera uncia, but later it was placed in        its own genus Uncia,                       because despite having a flexible hyoid bone like other big cats, it can’t roar, because it lacks other morphological modifications that are found in the above mentioned big cats. So the scientists placed it separately from the roaring cats. However      recent molecular studies have shown that this great cat is a close relative of tiger and must be renamed as Panthera uncia. The debate is still hot. They can grow up to 5-7 feet in length, including their thickly furred tail and can weigh between 27-55 kg. Large males can reach up to 75 kg also. Even though they are smaller than the roaring cats, they are capable of killing animals much larger than themselves in size.  This species is limited to south and central Asia.

         3) Genus Neofelis:

a) Clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa): This is the smallest of the big cats. The weight range is between 12 to 23 kg. The largest males can reach the size of a leopardess or snow leopardess, with 35 kg, but it is very rare. They have the longest canine teeth of any cat. This is also the most acrobatic of any cat. It has the ability to climb the trees, hang upside down to the branches and is capable of doing many other acrobatic activities which no other cat is capable of doing.

b) Bornian clouded leopard or Sunda clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi): For long this animal was regarded the same as the mainland clouded leopard, but recently, in 2006, detailed DNA studies have revealed that it has more than 40 differences in the genes when compared to mainland clouded leopards. So they are regarded as a separate species. In size, shape, habits and appearance they are very similar to mainland clouded leopards.

So, to put it in a nutshell, all the cats belonging to the subfamily Pantherinae are big cats and all those cats belonging to the subfamily Felinae and cheetah are small cats. Puma, also called cougar or mountain lion, which looks very similar to a lioness in appearance, is the second largest cat of Americas after jaguar, but despite its much larger size, it is regarded as a small cat, because its body structure resembles the small cats rather than big cats. So it is regarded as the largest of small cats. An average puma weighs around 50-100 kg, with 136 kg being the maximum weight recorded. So the name ‘mountain lion’ is actually a misnomer for this animal. Similarly cheetah, which is almost the same size of a leopard, is also a small cat owing to its rigid hyoid bone.

The Filter Feeding Giants of Deep Ocean

             In the animal kingdom, whales constitute a group of animals with the largest and heaviest body. There are two types of whales, namely baleen whales and toothed whales. They all belong to the order cetacea and baleen whales belong to the suborder mysticeti. There are fifteen species extant species are there in this suborder in four families. With the support of water to bear their weight, whales can grow to enormous sizes. All the baleen whales are several times larger and heavier than the largest land animal, the African elephant. Even the pygmy right whale, which is the smallest of the baleen whales, is also about three times heavier than a full grown male African elephant, and the largest one, the blue whale, can reach a length of hundred meters and weighs as much as thirty full grown elephants.

Let us take a look at these magnificent giants of ocean in brief:

1)      Family Balaenopteridae

i)                    Subfamily Balaenopterinae

a)      Genus Balaenoptera

a)      B. acutorostrata (Common minke whale)

b)      B. bonaerensis (Antarctic minke whale)

c)      B. omurai (Omura whale)

d)     B. brydei (Bryde’s whale)

e)      B. edeni (Eden’s whale)

f)       B. borealis (Sei whale)

g)      B. physalus (Fin whale or Finback Whale)

h)      B. musculus (Blue whale)

ii)                  Subfamily Megapterinae

b)      Genus Megaptera

a)      M. novaeangliae (Humpback whale)

2)      Family Balaenidae

a)      Genus Balaena 
      a)      B. mysticetus (Bowhead whale)

                              b)   Genus Eubalaena

                                    a)    E. glacialis (North Atlantic right whale)

                                    b)    E. japonica (North pacific right whale)

                                    c)    E. australis (Southern right whale)

            3)     Family Neobalaenidae

                              a)   Genus Caperea

                                    a)    C. marginata (Pygmy right whale)

            4)      Family Eshchrictiidae

                              a)    Genus Eshchrictius

                                    a)    E. robustus (Gray whale)

The most important feature of the baleen whales is their baleen plates, which help them to filter-feed on the planktons floating on the sea water, unlike the toothed whales which feed on other marine animals by hunting them. Baleen whales gulp in an enormous quantity of water and their baleen plates filter that water. Water is ejected out and the planktons and krill present in that water are left inside the mouth of the whale, which it swallows. The substance present in their baleen is keratin, the same substance that is present in our fingernails and hair.  

Blue whale is not only the largest animal on our planet today, but it is the largest animal that ever known to have existed on our planet. A full grown female can be as long as a hundred feet and can weigh 180-200 tons. The largest known specimen was 113 feet long and weighed 209 tons. Strangely enough, unlike the terrestrial mammals, females are always larger and heavier than the males. Being the largest animal, blue whale holds the record for several organs which are the largest in the entire animal kingdom. Its heart is as large as a family car. Its tongue is as large as an elephant and its blood vessels are so large that a full grown man can easily swim inside it!

Fin whale or finback whale comes next to blue whale in length. A fin whale can reach a length of 85 feet. The largest specimen ever found by man was a female which was 89 feet long. They can weigh between 100-130 tons. They are famous for their distinct V-shaped blow. Their beautiful streamlined body makes it one of the most beautiful of all the whales.

Bowhead whale, a member of family Balaenidae, even though shorter than the fin whales, has a round and sturdy body which makes it as heavier as fin whales. They can grow 65-70 feet in length and weigh as much as 100 tons. They got their name from their bow shaped head, which is about one fourth to one third of their entire body length.

Humpback whales, which can grow from 40-50 feet in length and weigh 30-36 tons, are famous for their long fins, which are as long as one third of their entire body length. They are also famous for their acrobatics, even though all baleen whales are capable of leaping out of water.

Pygmy right whales are the smallest among the baleen whales. They grow just about 20-21 feet and can weigh between 3-3.5 tons. Common minke whale, Antarctic minke whale and Omura whale come next in the list of smallest whales. They average between 30-38 feet in length and weigh up to 10 tons.

Right whales are named so because they were considered to be the right whales for hunting due to their behavior of staying close to the surface and their extremely lazy behavior. Gray whale, which is the sole member of the family Eschrictiidae, is named as devil fish because of its fighting behavior.

The status of all baleen whales is critically endangered now because of the indiscriminate hunting for their blubber, which serves as a protection to them against the extreme cold of ocean water. The blubber is nothing but fat. Nowadays, due to the conservation efforts, these enormous and magnificent animals are being drawn away from the brink of extinction. If we allow the largest animal that ever existed on our planet to go extinct, it is surely one of the greatest tragedies in the history of life on the earth.

The magnificent pachyderms of Sakrebylu

It was February 28, 2012. All the banks had called for a one-day strike and I had nothing to do on that day. So I decided to go to Tavarekoppa lion safari. But my friend told me that Tuesday is the weekly holiday for lion safari. So I had to alter my plans slightly. I decided to go to Sakrebyl elephant training camp and Mandagadde bird sanctuary. I started from Kadur at 7 a.m. and reached Shimoga by 8:30. From there I boarded a private bus and went to Mandagadde first. But I had done an utterly foolish thing. In February no birds can be seen there. I hadn’t referred to anybody before, so I had to come back without seeing any bird there. In the paddy field on the roadside, I saw a red wattled lapwing, which was the only bird I saw there. Then I decided to visit Sakrebyl.

I got a private bus and reached Sakrebyl. I realized that I was near the elephant camp while walking on the road itself by looking at the huge masses of elephant dung all over the roadside. As soon as I entered into the area, a man stopped me asked what I was going for. I was surprised to hear his question, because anybody going to an elephant training camp goes with the intention of seeing elephants, what else? Since I am physically handicapped, I was allowed to enter without any fee. The mahouts there told that there are overall 18 elephants, but on that day, there were only 5 of them. They told that the others have gone to the forest and will come back only the next morning. But I was satisfied with those five elephants, two of which were big tuskers.

I wanted to take some photographs of elephants. I didn’t have a camera then but I took some photos with my mobile. One of the mahouts asked me to stand beside a tusker holding one of its tusks and took 2-3 photos with my mobile. I had never touched an elephant before in my life. So there was a lot of fear in my mind while walking towards the elephant. The mahout observed that and said smiling ‘Don’t worry, it will not do anything. It is not a wild animal. Besides that, it is the most humble one among all our elephants’.

Then the mahouts took two of them to the river for bathing. It was a spectacular scene for me. I had never seen elephants bathing before. Once one of them exhaled in the water and the water ripples produced by it spread to at least a hundred feet or even more. I wondered at the might of these magnificent creatures.  The mahouts were rubbing the body of elephants with some rough fiber type substance. After a few minutes, the elephants completely submerged under water, except the tip of their trunk. They bathed in that manner for more than half an hour.

When all the elephants departed from that area, I decided to leave the place and started towards the gate. Then I saw a mother elephant coming with her calf. So I decided to stay for some more time. The mahouts took both of them directly to the river and they too bathed for more than half an hour. A couple of goats were grazing nearby. I took the videos of these two elephants as they departed, but the clarity of videos was not good since it was taken with mobile from a great distance.

The Shettihalli wildlife sanctuary lies nearby Sakrebyl and the mahouts told that after bathing the elephants in the morning, they will be left in Shettihalli to feed and walk. They will come back again in the evening and sometimes in the early morning. But on that day, nearly a dozen elephants hadn’t turned up. One of the mahouts, who seemed to have a good sense of humor, laughed loudly saying that the elephants had gone to honeymoon trip with the wild elephants.

By 1 p.m. I left Sakrebyl physically, but not mentally. Even though there was not much to see there, I was satisfied with what I saw there and thought in my mind that I should visit it once again. I came back with the sweet memories of elephants and my dreams that night were full of elephants! Now I have purchased a camera and planning to visit the place again. I don’t know when I go there again, but surely I will visit within the next month.

A day with the big cats of Tyavarekoppa

            On the morning of April 4, I thought of two ideas to enjoy the holiday. First one was to go to my native place and spend time with my family, and the second one was to go to Tavarekoppa lion and tiger safari. Finally, I decided to go to Tavarekoppa. I searched in internet and learnt that it will be opened at 10 a.m. in the morning. So I decided to be there before that time. I started from Kadar at 7:30 a.m. but I had or wait for more than twenty minutes for the bus. Then I got a car and went up to Tarikere in car and then from there got the bus and reached Shimoga.

 In Tavarekoppa, as soon as I entered the premises, I was welcomed by a common languor. I was very happy to see that, because it was for the first time in my life that I was seeing that beautiful monkey. I took my camera to take its photograph, but being shy in nature, it bounded into the nearby bushes. They usually live in dense jungles. So, unless the common monkeys we find everywhere in our surroundings, they try to avoid human beings as much as possible. Then I went inside the zoo and was welcomed by a large number of common monkeys that we find all over in our surroundings. These monkeys are so bold that they often snatch food and other items from the hands of those who visit the place.

The n I went near the enclosure containing panthers. These are the most curious and nimblest creatures of the cat family. Even though panthers are smaller than tigers, this small size itself gives it a lot of advantages over his ‘big brothers’ i.e. tigers and lions. They can easily climb trees with a full grown chital (spotted deer) in their mouth, but no tiger or lion can do it. This is to eat the food in secluded place, without the competition of other carnivores which can drive away them from their food, like wild dogs, tigers or hyenas.

I tried to count the panthers there, but I could not. They were all so quick that they kept jumping and walking here and there. Twice or thrice I tried to count them, but failed. Then the guide told that there are 14 leopards. I took some beautiful pictures of these beautiful and equally agile cats as they kept jumping from here and there busily. There were a couple of foreigners, who were looking at them as if they belonged to some other world. I think they were either from Europe or Australia, as they kept exclaiming ‘wonderful!’ ‘Awesome!’ ‘I had never seen a leopard in my life before’ etc. were they from any Asian country or African country, they must have seen leopards, at least in some zoos.

The very next enclosure consisted of sloth bears. They are perhaps one of the noisiest creatures of our jungles. There were two sloth bears in the enclosure. They were making a lot of noise, including grunting and snarling. The foreigners were giving them banana chips etc. for me; these animals do not hold as much awe as the big cats hold. So I didn’t stop near their enclosure for long. I continued towards the next cage containing hyenas.

Hyenas also belong to the order carnivore. They look like dogs, but their family is different. Dogs belong to the family candidate, whereas hyenas belong to the family hyaenidae. They are mostly scavengers, seeking leftovers from a tiger or lion kill. Their peculiar shape which gives them the appearance of humpback due to their relatively long forelegs compared to their hind legs and their eerie calls has given them an image of bad omen, but there is nothing wrong with them. As far as human beings are concerned, they are perfectly harmless animals.

The next cage consisted of Indian foxes. They are also very shy creatures. In villages, they are cursed heavily by the people because they are very much destructive to the poultry. These two foxes were perfectly shy creatures as I observed them. I took some photographs of them, but my interest was primarily on lion safari. I was waiting for that. The guide there told that after a considerable number of people gathered, they will take us to safari.

Then I went to the area where there were bird cages. There were three emus. Then I saw peacocks, white pheasants, lovebirds, geese, night herons and many other birds there. One enclosure had a number of birds belonging to the parrot family. Definitely one of them was lovebird, but I don’t know the names of the other birds which were there. As I was looking at these birds, one was getting ready for taking people for safari. So I went towards that van.

As soon as we entered into the safari area, we were welcomed by a magnificent spectacle. There was a large, robust tiger which was lying down near the gate itself. I saw the tiger lying not more than at a distance of ten feet from me. It was the perfect scene that I was eager to watch there. Seeing the van, the tiger once opened its terrific jaws and yawned leisurely, showing those spectacular teeth. The guide told that it was just two and a half year old and it was undoubtedly worthy of the label ‘the king of jungle’. It placed it’s those huge forepaws on the tree trunk and yawned again and again, providing a sumptuous feast to the cameras that were brought by the people there. Even though the van moved from there, my mind was left with the tiger.

After a few meters of travel, we saw a tigress, which the guide told the mother of the previous tiger we had seen. This tigress was at a distance of some fifty feet or even more from our van. So the intervening trees disturbed its view. So I couldn’t take its photographs clearly.

After tiger safari, we were taken to the lion safari. There was a full grown lion, a lioness and one female cub. They were kept in the cage. The guide told that since they were new to that environment, they were kept enclosed, so that they could get adjusted to the new environment.

After that, we were taken to the herbivorous safari. There were sambars, chital and black bucks in herbivore safari. All those animals are familiar to me as I had seen them in the pilikula zoo many times. I had seen the lions and tigers also there no doubt, but they were kept in closed surroundings there and one had to watch them from a considerable distance. There was no safari. But I had seen the herbivores at a quite close range there.

After walking through the zoo once again, I left Tavarekoppa at 1 p.m. but my mind was totally lost in the kingdom of lions and tigers. That magnificent tiger that I had seen near the gate there still haunts me again and again. After all, he is the king of the jungle and he visits the minds of his subjects quite frequently, probably with the intention of asking them about their problems. Long may live the king of our jungles, who is also the national animal of India!