The largest cats from the cat family. The largest wild cat in the world: description, habitat, features, dimensions, photos
Almost all wild cats, from huge and rather menacing to small and adorable, are in one way or another endangered. We invite you to pay attention to these amazing graceful animals, which are a real rare treasure of wild nature.
1. Asiatic cheetah
This magnificent cat once graced the expanses of the Middle East, Central Asia, Kazakhstan and southeast India.
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Currently, due to the destruction of their habitat, poaching and excessive hunting, there are approximately 70-110 individuals of Asiatic cheetah left on the entire planet, living in wildlife. All of them live in the arid conditions of the central plateau of Iran.
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2. Irbis (snow leopard)
Found in the rugged mountains of Central Asia, snow leopards are well adapted to the cold desert landscapes of their habitat.
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Unfortunately, the luxurious fur of the snow leopard attracts a huge number of hunters. For this reason, there are only 4000-6500 of these beautiful cats left in the world.
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3. Fishing cat (speckled cat)
Unlike many brothers in the family who prefer to avoid water treatments, this cat is a professional swimmer, living on the banks of rivers, streams and mangrove swamps.
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In 2008, this species joined the list of endangered animals because favorite places The habitats of fishing cats - swamps - are gradually drained and become the object of human attention.
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4. Kalimantan cat
Also known as the Borneo cat, this animal can only be found on the island of Borneo. This extremely rare representative of the cat family is listed in the Red Book by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The photograph in front of you is one of the few photographs of such a rare species.
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5. Sumatran cat
This cat with a slender body and an unusual (slightly flattened) head shape loves to feast on fish and walks by itself in the vast expanses of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Sumatra. It has been listed in the Red Book since 2008 due to habitat destruction. The current number of individuals living on the planet is estimated to be less than 2,500.
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6. Andean cat
Among two dozen small species wild cats existing in the world, one of the rarest, information about which is rather scarce, is an animal called the Andean cat. Alas, while preserving the populations of its larger relatives from cat family While millions of dollars are allocated, there are hardly thousands left from the budgets of protective organizations to support such small cats.
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7. Iberian lynx
The Iberian lynx or Iberian lynx is considered the most endangered species of wild cat. Also this view of this moment is one of the rarest mammals on the planet.
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A disease called myxomatosis in the 1950s wiped out Spain's rabbit population (the mainstay of lynx's diet) on a huge scale. There are now only about 100 individuals of this wild cat species left in the wild.
8. Pallas's cat
These beauties prefer to spend the morning hours in caves, crevices and even marmot holes, going out to hunt only in the afternoon. Due to the impoverishment of their habitat, a decrease in food supplies and incessant hunting, in 2002 this species became endangered.
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9. Long-tailed cat (margay)
Margai are created to be ideal tree climbers. Only these cats have the ability to rotate their hind limbs 180 degrees, which allows them to run upside down through trees, like squirrels. Margay can even hang from a branch, clinging to it with only one paw. Every year, people kill about 14,000 long-tailed cats for their skins. This predation trend is fatal for margays because it takes them two years to produce offspring, while the risk of kitten mortality is 50%.
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10. Serval (bush cat)
These cats love to roam the African savannah. The serval has the longest paws in relation to the body compared to any other representative of the cat genus. Unfortunately, in pursuit of their elegant skin, hunters do not skimp on bullets and traps, subsequently offering tourists serval fur, passed off as leopard or cheetah.
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11. Caracal
Also known as the desert lynx, this cat is capable of making barking sounds that serve as warning signals. The caracal is considered an endangered species in North Africa and is considered rare in Central Asia and India.
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12. African golden cat
Only relatively recently have people been able to obtain photographs of this rare nocturnal resident in its habitat.
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The golden cat is only twice the size of our usual domestic cat. Life expectancy in natural conditions in individuals of this species has not been established, but it is known that in captivity they can live up to 12 years.
13. Temminka the Cat
This cat lives in tropical and subtropical moist evergreen and dry deciduous forests. Deforestation, as well as hunting for skins and bones, have become the reasons why this species is under threat of total extinction.
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14. Dune cat
This unique cat has an extended head shape and fur growing between its toes to protect it when walking on hot surfaces. The sand cat is listed as a threatened species, and therefore hunting it is prohibited in many countries.
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15. Far Eastern leopard
The Amur (Far Eastern) leopard is endangered due to the destruction of its habitat, as well as the constant danger posed by people. According to the latest data, in the wild there are currently Only 30 individuals of this species were recorded.
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16. Sumatran tiger
The Sumatran tiger is the last existing tiger species in Indonesia to survive in the wild.
Despite the active policy of protective organizations in the fight against poaching, these tigers are constantly hunted, dooming them to extinction. World markets are constantly being replenished with products made from these wild cats. Under these circumstances, there are fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers left in the world.
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17. Clouded leopard
The clouded leopard is considered an intermediate evolutionary link between large and small cats. This species is facing gradual loss of habitat as a result of large-scale deforestation. Commercial poaching aimed at the wildlife trade also contributes to the extermination of this species. The total clouded leopard population is currently believed to be less than 10,000 adults.
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18. Marble cat
This cat is often mistaken for a marbled leopard, but its size is much more graceful and its tail is different. high degree fluffiness. The destruction of the habitat conditions of this species in the forests of Southeast Asia, as well as the reduction in food supply, lead to a rapid decrease in the population of marbled cats in the world.
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19. Bengal cat
The color of the beautiful Bengal cat's skin can vary from gray to red and white with a very light chest. This is the first species to successfully undergo an experiment of crossing wild and domestic cats. The result was a beautiful and quite friendly beast.
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20. Maltese (blue) tiger
This species in the East is considered almost mythical. Most Maltese tigers belong to the subspecies of the South China tiger, which is endangered due to frequent use body parts of this beast in traditional medicine. Individuals distinguished by their “blue” skin may currently have been completely exterminated.
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21. Golden Striped Tiger
“Golden Tabby” is not a species name, but a definition of color deviation.
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As a rule, such individuals are the result of targeted breeding of animals in captivity, but in India there is evidence of a meeting with a golden tiger dating back to 1900.
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22. White Lion
White lions are not albino. They are the owners of a rare genetic set that was distributed in only one place on Earth, the Kruger National Park in South Africa. Two decades before the creation of the Society for the Protection of White Lions, this species was almost completely exterminated, so a unique program is now being carried out to restore the population in their natural habitat.
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23. Anatolian leopard
For the past 30 years, this Turkish leopard species was thought to be extinct. However, in 2013, a shepherd in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir killed a large cat that attacked his herd. Biologists later determined that it was an Anatolian leopard. Although this story has such a sad outcome, yet it gives hope that the rarest species may still exist.
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24. Rusty cat
A rusty or red-spotted cat, whose length, including the tail, is only 50-70 cm, and whose weight is about 2-3 kg - the smallest wild cat in the world. Humans know practically nothing about this species, whose representatives lead an extremely secretive life. Unfortunately, despite this, the rusty cat has already managed to be included in the list of “vulnerable” species, since most of its natural habitats have now been turned into farmland.
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25. Scottish forest cat
Known in the UK as the "Highland Tiger", the Scottish Forest Cat is now critically endangered, with a recent population estimate of fewer than 400 individuals.
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26. Black-footed cat
The smallest of all African wild cats, the black-footed cat has black fur on the soles of its paws to protect it from the hot desert sand. These animals are no strangers to rummaging through garbage in search of food, and this habit exposes them to great danger, because in this way they fall into traps set for other animals.
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Everyone loves cats. Well, or almost everything.
We are in the editorial office website We simply adore these graceful and majestic creatures that truly adorn our planet. Today we invite you to get acquainted with rare cats, many of which we have never even heard of. Until this day.
1. Black-footed cat
One of the smallest felines, the black-footed cat is native to southern Africa. Its weight rarely exceeds 2.5 kg, and its length including tail is 50 cm. The lifestyle and habits of these cats are poorly studied, but it is known that they choose abandoned termite mounds and porcupine burrows as a home.
2. Fishing cat
Unlike most members of the family, the fishing cat is an excellent swimmer and catches fish. Their paws are also not the same as everyone else's - fishermen have membranes between their toes that help them swim well, but do not allow them to retract their claws. Although their body size is not so large - the length of the male rarely exceeds 1.2 m, these cats have gained a reputation as fighters: once a cat kept in one of the zoos broke out of its cage and killed a leopard.
3. Iberian lynx
The Iberian lynx is one of the most rare species felines whose existence is under threat. Once upon a time these big cats inhabited all of Portugal and Spain, but today their habitat is practically limited to the Coto Doñana National Park. Despite the name, it is distantly related to the ordinary lynx and is 2 times smaller in size.
4. Jaguarundi
Jaguarundi is one of the few felines that leads daytime look life. Jaguarundi live in Central and South America, but it is quite difficult to see them in the wild, which is why the animals have been little studied. Scientists do not even have data on their life expectancy - it is only known that in captivity they live up to 15 years.
5. Chilean cat
The Chilean cat, which lives in the southern region of South America, spends most of its life in the dense canopy of trees, from where it stalks its prey. Among the locals, the Chilean cat is considered a real vampire due to the two fang punctures it leaves on pets it fails to kill.
6. Long-tailed cat
The Chilean cat's neighbor in South America, the long-tailed cat, also spends most of its life in treetops. These cats have an amazing feature: they can jump from branch to branch and climb down from a tree head down - just like squirrels do. In addition, her hind legs are so strong that she can hang upside down from them quite for a long time.
7. Rusty cat
The rusty cat is one of the smallest felines, weighing no more than 1.5 kg. These babies, whose population does not exceed 10 thousand individuals, live only in Ceylon and India, and if “island” cats live in humid jungles, then “continental” cats live in dry, open places. The meowing of these cats is very similar to the meowing of domestic cats, and they are quite easy to tame.
8. Clouded leopard
If the length of an ordinary leopard, excluding the tail, can reach 190 cm, then the smoky ones grow to no more than 1 m. It is believed that this particular cat became the ancestor of all large modern cats, but its habits are in many ways similar to the behavior of domestic cats. Clouded leopards spend a significant part of their time in trees; in addition, females use hollows as “maternity hospitals.”
9. Oncilla
A miniature version of the jaguar, the oncilla is one of the least studied species of cats. Little is known about their lifestyle - despite the fact that they are found in Brazil, Argentina and several other countries, it is difficult to see them in their natural habitat, since their color allows them to hide well in the crowns of trees.
10. Dune cat
In addition to Central Asia, sand cats live in one of the most extreme places on our planet - the arid Sahara Desert. These cats are the smallest representatives of wild cats, whose length is no more than 90 cm, of which almost half is in the tail. Dune cats can live for a long time without water, obtaining its supplies from food.
11. Forest cat
Despite the significant difference in appearance, the forest cat is the closest relative of the sand cat. But in color they resemble ordinary tabby domestic cats, and this is not surprising, because wild cats 10 thousand years ago they joined humans and became the ancestors of our pets. However, modern wild cats do not at all strive for closeness to humans and try to stay away from them.
12. Geoffroy's cat
The size of the Geoffroy cat, which lives in the southern part of the South American continent, is the same as that of an ordinary domestic cat, moreover, they are quite capable of interbreeding with each other. However, unlike domestic cats, Geoffroy's cats can swim and can eat fish they catch with their own hands. In addition, they are able to store food by arranging storage facilities in the foliage of trees.
Everyone knows that cats can be divided into two groups: wild and domestic. You see the latter every day and know about them firsthand. But representatives of the felines, which can be called “wild cats”... You have probably heard relatively little about them. Today we will study these cats in detail.
1. African wild cat
Inhabits steppe, desert and sometimes mountainous regions of Western, Middle and Central Asia, Africa, Northern India, Kazakhstan and Transcaucasia. Very common in its habitat.
2. Bengal dwarf cat
Lives in East and South Asia. It is endangered, but in some places it has already become a rare species.
Lives on the island of Kalimantan. It is a rare and little-studied species.
Few people have not heard of the cheetah. This is the fastest wild cat and, in general, land animal in the world. In the Middle Ages, cheetahs were distributed throughout Asia, Africa and even Europe. But due to their subsequent mass extermination, today the habitats of cheetahs are only remote and protected places in Africa.
5. Gobi cat
It lives in the grassy steppes northwest of the Gobi Desert. Like the Borneo cat, it is a little-studied species.
6. Forest wild cat
The habitat of these cats is deciduous and mixed forests. Due to deforestation in many European countries, this species has completely disappeared. Today there is a struggle to preserve unique forest wild cats.
7. Geoffroy's cat
It lives throughout the territory from Southern Brazil to Patagonia. It is unknown whether she has enemies, and scientists are also in the dark about her reproduction. The specific epithet in the name of this cat is given in honor of the zoologist Etienne Geoffroy.
8. Golden cat
It lives mainly in the Congo Basin and surrounding areas. Due to the degradation of the forests of Equatorial Africa, in 1996 there were only 10,000 adult individuals left in the world. Now in all countries hunting for golden cats is prohibited.
Lives in Central and South Asia. Estimates of the number of this species due to its secretive lifestyle and inaccessible habitat are indicative, but it is reliably known that due to poaching its numbers decrease annually.
10. Iriomotey cat
It lives only on Iriomote Island, which is located 200 km east of Taiwan. Due to its small number (less than a hundred) and small habitat, this subspecies of the Bengal cat is listed in the International Red Book.
11. Jungle cat
Distributed throughout Asia. Adapted to living in thickets of reeds and thorny bushes. It was listed in the Red Book of Russia.
12. Caracal
Found in the deserts of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and Turkmenistan. Caracals have excellent hearing and hunt rodents, reptiles and small mammals at night. Asian subspecies of caracals are very rare and considered endangered.
Who doesn’t know the lion - the king of beasts? Males of this species can be distinguished by the long mane that frames its neck. Lions are the only wild cats that do not live alone, but in special groups - prides. Due to their declining numbers, lions are a vulnerable species.
14. Leopard
Lives in Africa and East Asia. The leopard has long been considered a hybrid of a lion and a panther. Listed in the Red Book of the IUCN and Russia as an endangered species.
15. Clouded leopard
Distributed in southeast Asia. Clouded leopards live alone and in bushes. This species is endangered - of its four subspecies, only three remain.
Distributed in Central and Central Asia. In different areas it is classified as a rare, extremely rare and endangered animal.
Lives in moist, dense evergreen forests of South and Central America. Margs are endangered. Hunting them is prohibited everywhere.
18. Oncilla
Found in the northeast of mainland South America. It is not protected, but its numbers are very small.
19. Pampas cat
Lives on the plains of South America. It hunts mainly at night on rodents, birds and lizards.
Lives in the USA and Canada. Four subspecies of puma are listed in the IUCN Red Book.
21. Dune cat
Lives in Western Europe and Central Asia. Their total population size is unknown. Due to frequent hunting and deforestation, where they live, they are listed in the IUCN Red Book.
22. Fishing cat
Found in tropical and subtropical regions of southeast Asia. Distinguished by the ability to swim and fish well.
All cats are beautiful, but the big cats of the wild are perhaps the most beautiful animals on Earth. In zoos, the only place where you can easily observe large representatives of the cat family, cages with tigers, lions, and leopards are always surrounded by a crowd of spectators. It's hard to say why people like these ferocious predators so much. Perhaps for us they are the embodiment of an unattainable harmony of strength, beauty and dexterity.
Cheetahs are very fast animals, but they are not ideal hunters
Photo: Philip J. Briggs/PantheraCheetah cubs are born with a "mantle" - a stripe of long hair along the back. This helps them hide in the grass.
- Are you proud of your car's powerful engine and the fact that you can take off from a traffic light, leaving everyone far behind? This is because a cheetah has never stopped next to you in front of a zebra. This animal reaches speeds from zero to 64 km/h in just a few jumps, and accelerates to 96 km/h in just three seconds! The maximum recorded running speed of a cheetah is 103 km/h.
- Although cheetahs are very fast animals, they are not ideal hunters. Only in half of the cases does the pursuit of a cheetah end with the capture of prey. To grab the prey, the predator makes a final super-effort, which can last only 20–60 seconds, and if the animal misses, then all that remains is to retreat. Thus, huge energy expenditures on pursuit are wasted. In this sense, ambush hunting is much more economical and effective.
- A fossil species of cheetah, now extinct, was discovered in North America. One piece of evidence that cheetahs once lived there is a living species of ungulate found on the continent. This pronghorn is the fastest of the antelopes, capable of reaching speeds of up to 48 km/h. Now such speed of the pronghorn is excessive - none of the current predators is able to catch up with them, but once it saved them from ancient cheetahs.
- Cheetahs can survive on very little water; they can only drink once every three to four days.
- The cheetah as a biological species is millions of years old, but its future fate is under great threat. In 1900, there were about 100,000 cheetahs in the world; now only 9–12 thousand remain in the wild, of which about 200 are in Iran.
Cougars are masters at hiding; it is very difficult to notice this big cat in nature.
Photo: Brad Boner/Panthera 
Photo: Mark Elbroch/Panthera Pumas usually give birth to two to four cubs, which remain with their mother until they are 1.5–2 years old.
- This species claims the Guinness Book of Records for the number of names - only in English language- there are about forty of them. The cougar has been called a mountain lion, bobcat, ghost cat, panther, and even a mountain screamer.
- Cougars can't roar. Instead, they make chirping or drawn-out howl-like sounds, and, of course... an affectionate purr.
- Cougars hunt from ambush, often bringing their prey within range of a single, but powerful and accurate jump. Thanks to these tactics, these animals developed extraordinary abilities. In one jump, a puma can jump 4.5 meters up from a place, and when jumping on prey, especially from a hill, it can cover a distance of 12.5 meters.
- It’s not for nothing that they say: if there’s no fish, there’s only cancer. The main prey of pumas are deer, but if there is a shortage of them, they are content with everything that is edible, including insects. It seems that when catching the latter, no less dexterity is needed.
- The population of pumas in the world is quite stable, and only the subspecies living in Florida (North America) now numbers only about a hundred individuals.
Jaguars have a unique coloration compared to other big cats in the wild.
Photo: Luke Hunter/Panthera Camera traps help scientists study these elusive animals.
- The jaguar's skin is painted with intricate patterns of spots called "rosettes." Like rosebuds, such spots have a clear dark edge, a lighter core, on which the leopard has a whole series of smaller dark brown spots.
- Previously, jaguars were found throughout South and Central and North America, but now habitat loss and hunting have reduced their numbers to 15,000 individuals. So the jaguar is an endangered species.
- Cats usually don't like water, but the jaguar completely refutes these stereotypes. This big cat in nature simply enjoys water - it happily swims, dives, plays in the water and even fishes in rivers and streams. There is evidence from naturalists that jaguars submerge their tails in the water to lure fish.
- The jaguar has the strongest jaws of all cat species, their compression force is more than 900 kg! This is twice as much as that of a lion, and in this indicator the jaguar is second only to the hyena - the record holder among mammals. With its jaws, a jaguar can easily bite through the shell of a turtle, not to mention any, even the thickest bone.
- Translated from the Indian language, the word “jaguar” means “killing with one leap,” which indicates the incredible hunting skill and strength of the animal.
Leopards hunt on the ground, but they feel as comfortable as at home in the trees.
Photo: Laila Bahaa El Din/Panthera 
A leopard's spots help them blend into the colorful background of their habitat.
- Leopards live throughout Africa and Asia, and are well adapted to a wide variety of environment- from dense jungles and grassy savannas to deserts.
- Female leopards give birth to cubs at any time of the year. Usually these are one or two kittens that live with their mother for up to two years, learning to hunt.
- Leopards are not the largest cats in nature, but they are much stronger than you might expect. The leopard has a stocky, muscular body with strong muscles, and therefore they playfully drag even the most big catch to hide it from scavengers.
- Leopards are not picky and are ready to eat anyone who is within jumping distance. So their menu often includes not only wild pigs, but also snakes, monkeys and even porcupines.
- There are nine subspecies of leopards, and each of them is in danger of extinction. The most critical situation is found in the Javan leopard, which is represented on the planet by only 200 individuals, and the Amur leopard, which has only 20 animals.
The lion is the only social feline
Photo: Neil Midlane/Panthera Male lions rarely take part in hunting, but they earn their right to kill by protecting the pride.
Photo: Nick Garbutt/Panthera All females of the pride take care of the cubs, regardless of which of them is the biological mother.
- Members of a pride of lions show touching tenderness to each other on vacation, and during the hunt they act as a well-coordinated team to repel the prey from the herd.
- If conditions are favorable and food is plentiful, female lions can remain in a pride for the rest of their lives. But the males, having reached sexual maturity, leave the family, forced out by the dominant tribesman. Such loners sometimes form “teenage gangs” and roam the savannah in the hope of creating their own pride, which they will protect from strangers.
- The terrifying roar of a lion can be heard at a distance of five kilometers.
- Lions and tigers are very close species, anatomically extremely similar to each other. By looking at their skeletons, only experts will be able to determine which is a lion and which is a tiger.
- Since the 1950s, the lion population has declined by half, and the big cats are now gone from 80% of their historical range. According to the latest data, less than 30 thousand lions live in Africa today.
Snow leopards can travel record distances
Photo: Christian Sperka/Panthera Snow leopards live in the extreme conditions of the cold, barren mountains of Central and South Asia.
- Snow leopards have shorter forelimbs than their hind limbs and larger paws. This unique body structure allows leopards to maintain balance and move easily in mountainous areas. Thanks to their long and strong hind limbs, leopards make dizzying leaps - up to 14 meters long - along rocky ledges, chasing equally agile prey.
- Snow leopards cannot roar like a lion. The sounds they make are similar to hissing, meowing, puffing and growling.
- Snow leopards are relatively small in size, weighing only 27 to 54 kilograms, but can catch prey three times heavier than themselves.
- Snow leopards overcome huge distances. A record was recorded for one cat that walked more than 43 kilometers in one night and 150 kilometers in five days. This amazing endurance helps leopards move from one area to another in search of prey, which is quite rare in the cold mountainous areas where leopards live.
- There are between 3.5 and 7 thousand snow leopards left in the world. It is difficult to give a more exact figure due to the extremely secretive lifestyle that these animals lead. But secrecy, unfortunately, does not help them - the destruction of natural habitats, human intervention in nature and poaching are inexorably reducing the number of the species.
Tigers lead a solitary lifestyle and are the largest cats in the wild.
Photo: Nick Garbutt/Panthera Larisa Solodovnikova
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Big cats include most major representatives cat family. And yet, the main criterion for belonging to big cats is not size, but structure. All cats are the most specialized of predators, adapted to obtain animal food by sneaking.
A small selection of big cats from National Geographic.
On everyone's fur big cats there are stains, even if they are not visible at first glance. They are evident in the leopard, clouded leopard, snow leopard and jaguar. In a tiger, the stripes on the fur are elongated spots. In lions, spots appear, as a rule, only on lion cubs.
The jaguar is the most powerful predator in South America. (Photo by Joel Sartore):
Big cats differ from their smaller relatives in the structure of the hyoid bone. It consists of small bones that serve to anchor the tongue muscle in the throat. Previously, this trait was associated with the ability to growl. However, newer research shows that growling is based on other anatomical features, most notably the special structure of the larynx.
Lionesses and lion cubs. (Photo by Beverly Joubert):
In the lion, tiger, leopard and jaguar it is characterized by very long vocal cords and thick elastic fabric allowing you to growl. The snow leopard, clouded leopard and other types of cats do not have such features and cannot growl.
Lioness, Botswana. Typically, a pride of lions lives from 2 to 18 females with cubs. (Photo by Beverly Joubert):
Among the sense organs, hearing and vision are better developed; sense of smell is weaker. Cats are able to hear very high sounds - with a frequency of up to 80 kHz (humans - up to 20 kHz).
Puma or mountain lion. In this photo it resembles a kangaroo. (Photo by Jim & Jamie Dutcher):
Cats are incredible predators, their bodies are adapted to eating exclusively meat. They cannot be vegetarians. This is where their secret of cleanliness lies, unlike, for example, dogs and other mammals of the canine family, which are omnivores.
Bengal tigers. The population of this species is less than 2,500 individuals, with the prospect of decreasing. (Photo by Michael Nichols):
Cleanliness is in their genes and is determined by instinct. Cats hunt by stalking, and if felines emitted scents, they would be noticeable to their prey.
Cheetah or simply the fastest land animal. (Photo by Chris Jones):
This clouded leopard is a member of the cat family that lives in Southeast Asia. It vaguely resembles a leopard and is considered a fairly ancient species, as well as a possible ancestor of today's large cats. (Photo by Peter Weimann/Animals Animals-Earth Scenes):
The territory of the African lion, which it protects, is huge - 260 sq. km. It is unlikely that he will willingly want to be in a cage in a zoo. (Photo by Chris Jones):
The Asiatic lion was distributed throughout southern Eurasia from Greece to India. Today, only 200 individuals remain in the wild. (Photo by Mattias Klum):
Irbis, or snow leopard. There are 6,000 of them left in the wild. (Photo by Michael Nichols):
Cheetah family. (Photo by Chris Jones):
The Amur tiger is one of the smallest subspecies of the tiger, the northernmost, largest tiger. The Amur tiger is the ruler of vast territories, the area of which for the female is 300-500 sq. km., and for the male - 600-800 sq. km. There are only 400-500 of them left in the wild. (Photo by Michael Nichols)
