Wild Cats - Ultimate Predators - Full Documentary

Perhaps the most popular pet on Earth, the family cat is a beloved member of countless households. Millions of others abandoned or strayed are flourishing independently outdoors, where they may pose serious threats to birds and other small animals. But as familiar as the house cat is, not many people know it has 38 truly wild relatives, distinct species that include not only the iconic “king of the jungle,” the lion, and the world’s largest cat, the tiger, but also obscure felids like the flat-headed cat, fishing cat, and oncilla. Wild cats mostly live in exotic places most of us will never visit, but several species survive, often covertly, within or around villages and cities in many parts of the world.

The cat is the ultimate solo hunter, with acute senses, hair-trigger reflexes, explosive muscular strength and a supple skeleton. Protractile claws and elastic wrists give tremendous control for grasping and handling large prey, while truncated, powerful jaws deliver a precise killing bite. Social carnivores like canids and hyaenas have more robust, less flexible bodies built for stamina to tire prey over long distances but which lack the cat’s solitary killing prowess. All of which means, for example, that a lone puma is able to take down an adult elk but it takes a few wolves to do likewise.

Cats are illegally killed–poached–for their fur and body parts. The demand driven by traditional Asian medicinal beliefs for tiger body parts (which have as much medicinal value as consuming a cow) is now so intense that tigers are hunted inside protected reserves across their range. Increasingly, other large cat species–lions, leopards and even jaguars–are being killed for the same trade.