adaptations A set of features—anatomical structures as well as behaviors—enabling animals to survive and reproduce successfully in the habitats in which they live.
allometry How the proportions of various parts of an animal change as the animal’s size changes.
altricial young Young born helpless, naked, blind, and incapable of survival independent of their mother for a relatively long time after their birth. Altricial and its opposite, precocial, are actually the ends of a continuum that describes the relative maturity of animals at the time of their birth. Compare precocial.
arboreal Living in trees; adapted to life in trees. Compare terrestrial.
basal metabolic rate The rate at which energy is used by an animal at complete rest. Basal metabolism is the minimum amount of energy needed to maintain vital functions in an awake animal at complete rest in a comfortably warm place.
binocular vision The ability to focus both eyes at once on an object. This ability enables cats to pounce on prey accurately.
biomass The total weight of the organisms or of a particular group or type of organism living in a particular area.
birds of prey Flesh-eating birds, such as hawks, eagles, and owls.
boreal Of or relating to the forests of the northern North Temperate Zone, dominated by coniferous trees such as spruce, fir, and pine.
caching Storing food so that it can be eaten at a later time.
camouflage The way an animals blends into its environment in order to sneak up on prey and hide from predators. The coats of most cats help them to blend into the habitat in which they live and hunt.
canid A member of the family Canidae, which includes dogs, wolves, and foxes.
canine teeth The teeth between the front incisor teeth and the side molars. Long, sharp canine teeth are a feature of all cats, which use them to kill prey.
carnassials Scissorlike premolar and molar teeth that tear chunks of meat from a carcass.
Carnivora An order of mammals, most of which are meat-eaters, including cats, dogs, bears, and others.
carnivoran A member of the order Carnivora; used to distinguish these member species from other meat-eaters, or carnivores. Compare carnivore.
carnivore Any animal that eats meat or flesh. Many animals, including humans and eagles, are carnivores but do not belong to the order Carnivora. Compare herbivore.
clade A group of animals whose members all derived from a common ancestor; also called a lineage. The family Felidae (cats) is a clade, and each lineage within the cats is also a clade.
closed habitats Areas with a significant amount of plant cover, such as forests. Compare open habitats.
coalition A small group of male cheetahs or lions, often brothers, that live, hunt, and defend a territory together.
competitors Two or more animals that may fight for the same food, territory, habitat, or mating partners.
conservation The effort to maintain the earth’s natural resources, including wildlife, for future generations.
convergent evolution Similar features or behaviors evolved independently by distantly related animals. The saber teeth of saber-toothed cats and saber-toothed marsupials are an example of convergent evolution.
crepuscular Active at dawn and dusk. Compare diurnal and nocturnal.
desert Dry region receiving less than 250 millimeters of rain annually. Desert-living cats include sand cats and black-footed cats.
digitigrade stance Walking on the toes, so that the heels do not touch the ground. The foot bones of cats are modified so that only their toes touch the ground. Human stance, walking with the foot flat on the ground, is called plantigrade.
diurnal Active during the day. Compare crepuscular and nocturnal.
dispersal The process of an animal leaving the place of its birth to find a home range elsewhere.
endangered species Species that are likely to die out (become extinct) unless people take action to prevent this. In casual usage, many species are called endangered, but the word has a legal and scientific definition under the US Endangered Species Act and a strict scientific definition on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
estrus The period when a female mammal is ready to copulate with a male. Estrus usually occurs around the time a female ovulates, or produces an egg or eggs that can be fertilized by male sperm.
extinct No longer living. When the last living member of a species dies, the species is extinct.
felid A member of the family Felidae, or cats.
flagship species Flagship species are popular, charismatic species that serve as symbols and rallying points to stimulate conservation awareness and action. Tigers and giant pandas are flagship species.
flehmen A behavior in which cats curl their lips into a grimace after sniffing another cat or its scent mark. Flehmen may serve to draw chemicals into the vomeronasal organ. See vomeronasal organ.
genome An animal’s genetic material.
habitat The place where an animal lives in the wild, such as a forest or grassland. An animal’s habitat provides food, water, shelter, potential mates, and the right environment for the animal’s survival.
herbivore An animals that eats primarily plant material. Many of the species that cats prey on, such as deer, antelope, and rabbits, are herbivores. Compare carnivore.
home range The area that an animal travels over during the course of a year to find food and shelter, to find mates, and to rear young. Compare territory.
hypercarnivores Animals that eat only meat. Cats are hypercarnivores.
incisor teeth The front teeth. Cats use their incisor teeth for fine work such as plucking feathers from a bird carcass.
indicator species Species whose presence, absence, or a change in their distribution and abundance reflects changes in environmental quality or other measures. For example, in environments where the seasons are marked, changes in the time of flowering of some plant species or in the birth season of mammals may indicate that the climate has changed.
infanticide Killing young animals. In biology, this usually refers to an animal killing young of its same species (killing the young of another species is called predation).
keystone species A species that through its size, activity, or productivity has an impact on its community or ecosystem greater than expected on the basis of its relative abundance. The real impact of a keystone species is usually detected when the species is no longer present.
kleptoparasitism One animal stealing food from another animal.
lagomorph A member of the order Lagomorpha, which includes rabbits, hares, and pikas, primary prey animals of some cats, especially of lynx species.
landscape species Species whose conservation requires the conservation of entire large regional landscapes to meet their ecological needs. Tigers are a landscape species.
lean-season prey biomass The combined weight of all potential prey available when food for prey is least abundant.
leucism Light or white coloration of skin, hair, fur, and feathers, such as the white fur of white tigers and the light fur of domestic Siamese cats. Compare melanism.
lineage A group of animals whose members all derived from a common ancestor; also called a clade.
melanism Dark or black coloration of skin, hair, fur, and feathers. Melanistic cats, such as black leopards, have dark or black fur. Compare leucism.
nocturnal Active at night. Compare crepuscular and diurnal.
olfaction The sense of smell.
open habitats Areas with relatively little plant cover, such as savannas and deserts. Compare closed habitats.
pheromones Chemicals produced by animals that send a message to others of the same species, especially chemicals that convey information related to reproduction.
precocial young Animals born at a relatively advanced state of maturity and capable of survival independent of their mother very soon after birth. Precocial and its opposite, altricial, are actually the ends of a continuum that describes the relative maturity of animals at the time of their birth. Compare altricial young.
poaching Hunting animals illegally.
predator An animal that hunts, kills, and eats other animals to survive. All cats are predators.
prey Animals that are hunted, killed, and eaten by other animals called predators.
pride A group of female lions and their young. The females in a pride are usually related. Males attach themselves to prides of females.
primate A member of the order Primates, which includes monkeys and apes (of which humans are one species).
rain forest A forest that receives at least 2.5 meters of rainfall annually. Most rain forests are in tropical regions of the world. Some tigers and leopards live in rain forest.
riparian Relating to the banks of a water course such as a river or stream. Fishing cats occupy riparian habitats.
rodent A member of the order Rodentia, which includes rats and mice. Rodents are the primary prey of most small cats.
scavenger An animal that eats meat killed by predators.
savanna An area with relatively sparse mixed vegetation of grasses, trees, and shrubs. Lions are cats of the African savanna.
species A group of animals with very similar features. Individual members of a species are able to breed and produce viable young that are fertile (able to breed when they too become adults). Under usual natural conditions, individuals of different species do not interbreed, but some exceptions occur. The species is the basic unit in scientific classification of animals and plants.
subspecies Populations of a species in which individuals consistently differ in certain features from individuals in other populations of that species but not enough that the individuals can no longer breed and produce viable, fertile young. Subspecies are usually separated from one another by barriers such as seas or high mountains. If subspecies remain isolated from one another for a very long time, they may become different species.
standing crop biomass The total weight of the prey available to a predator at any one time in a defined area.
tapetum lucidum A structure in a cat’s eye that reflects light back through the eye so that the cells responding to light get a second chance to respond to and use that light. Many nocturnal mammals and most carnivorans have this structure. This is what causes the “eyeshine” of cats when they look into a light at night.
taxon (sing.), taxa (pl.) A category or group of animals. A taxon may be a species, genus, family, or other taxonomic group.
terrestrial Living on land; adapted to living on land. Compare arboreal.
territory A home range that an animal (or group of animals of the same species) lives in and defends from other members of its species, especially those of the same sex.
trophic pyramid A term that summarizes the observation that meat-eating predators, at the top of the pyramid, are less abundant than plant-eating prey, which in turn are less abundant than plants, because the higher up the pyramid, the smaller the amount of energy available. As a rule of thumb but with some variation, about 10 percent of the sun’s energy is fixed by photosynthesis into green plants, and about 10 percent of that energy passes to herbivores, and about 10 percent of herbivore energy is available to carnivores.
umbrella species A species whose areas of occupancy or home ranges are large enough and its habitat requirements are wide enough—or exacting enough—that setting aside a sufficiently large area for its protection will consequently protect many other species as well.
ungulates Large, plant-eating mammals with hooves (toes encased in thick, hard skin and having sharp edges). They include elephants, rhinoceroses, horses, deer, antelope, wild cattle, and their relatives. Ungulates are the primary prey of large cats.
vibrissae Long stiff hairs, or whiskers, that project from the face and other parts of a cat’s body. They are sensitive to the lightest touch.
vomeronasal organ Two tiny openings on the roof of the mouth through which chemicals send messages to parts of the brain concerned with sexual behavior; also known as the Jacobsen’s organ. See flehmen.