11
Other Members of
the Cat Family
There are many species of small to medium-sized cats other than the ones talked about in the last chapter. There are also the larger felines, who fascinate many people. Unfortunately, this fascination has led to the slaughter of many cats for their fur and their bones, which are believed to have curative powers.
If a man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve the man but deteriorate the cat.
—Mark Twain
There are two very definite behaviors separating the big cats and the smaller ones. In both the Old and New Worlds, the big cats leave their feces uncovered and lie with their front legs straight out before them. The small cats of the Old World curl their paws under their chest when reclining and cover their feces. The instinct regarding the feces is probably determined by the size of the cat. After all, the larger ones are strong enough that they don’t care who knows they are around; the smaller ones are using their cunning to avoid predators.
African Golden Cat
Approximately twice the size of a domestic cat, this animal ranges through the mountains and deciduous forests of central and western Africa. Its short, dense coat comes in shades of brown, red, and gray; spotting is common. The ears are black on the backsides. The head is small, the legs fairly long, and the body sturdy. About thirty-five inches in length, this cat weighs an average of thirty-four pounds.
Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) in the wild.
The African Golden Cat (Felis aurata) is seen infrequently as it hunts during twilight, dusk, and at night. Some of the Pygmy tribes consider the tail of this cat a good luck symbol, especially when hunting large animals.
Black-Footed Cat
Smaller than a housecat, this animal (Felis nigripes) is the smallest wild feline in the world. The average length is only about sixteen inches and the weight about four pounds. This cat has rows of round, dark spots on a sandy-brown coat; the tail (about seven inches long), however, has black stripes and a black tip. The small ears are black on the outside with a little dash of white.
This wild feline is found throughout south, southeast, and southwest Africa and through the Kalahari Desert. It seems to prefer the arid, desert areas. Known as the Sebulabulakwana116 in Africa, the ferocious Black-footed Cat feeds on small mammals, rodents, birds, and reptiles. It has been known to kill an animal four times its size.
Bobcat
Known scientifically as Felis rufus, the bobcat resembles the lynx. In fact, the bobcat is also called the bay lynx and the American wild cat. It is thinner and smaller than the lynx, with smaller feet and ears that have less of a tuft on them. Its short tail hampers the bobcat in communications, but it makes up for this disadvantage by the use of its long, black ear tufts. Its basic coat color can range from yellow-brown to buff or gray. It is spotted with black, with a black streak on its head. About twenty-one inches high, the bobcat seldom weighs more than thirty-two pounds. This feline is the only wild cat that can purr while inhaling or exhaling, the same as a domesticated cat.
The most numerous of North American wild cats, the bobcat can be found from southern Canada, through the US, and into parts of Mexico. They hunt at night, using their extraordinary vision to catch rodents, birds, and deer. The bobcat prowls a smaller personal territory than the lynx, only ranging long distances from its den during hard times.
Caracal Lynx
The caracal117 (Felis caracal) is only about twenty-nine inches long and weighs about thirty-eight pounds, but is very powerful. This animal is similar to the lynx in body, except that it has a long tail and different coat markings. Its dense, short fur is in various shades of reddish brown, with white marks on the chin, throat, belly, and around the eyes. A thin black line runs from the nose and over the eyes.
The caracal is found throughout Africa and southern Asia, primarily in arid land, but not in the deserts. Known also as the desert lynx, this animal hunts during both day and night. It is an expert climber and the fastest feline of its size.
Cheetah
Today, the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is primarily found in Africa, although it does have a limited range in Asia; it is extinct in India. This unique member of the feline family has non-retractable claws. Its long legs and lean body make it an extremely fast runner for short periods of time; it has been known to reach speeds of forty-five miles per hour in three seconds and sixty miles per hour about two seconds later.118 The cheetah uses its speed, rather than stalking, to catch its prey. The bare pads on its feet are grooved, thus giving the cheetah better control when running.
An average cheetah is about four feet long and can weight 88 to 157 pounds. It has a darkly spotted, tawny to fawn coat of coarse fur. The feel of the fur and the look of the feet resemble the dog family. Like lions and other big cats, the cheetah greets another of its kind by rubbing cheeks.
Clouded leopard (Panthera nebulosa).
At one time in the ancient past, cheetahs were trained to hunt gazelles and antelopes in Assyria and Egypt. The Eastern conqueror Kublai Khan is said to have kept a thousand cheetahs just for hunting. In a record of an Egyptian festival procession (c. third century BCE) honoring Dionysus (Greek god of wine, the woodlands, pleasure, and rebirth) there were lions, cheetahs, and leopards.
Chinese Desert Cat
Also known as the pale desert cat (Felis bieti), this animal ranges inside an area encompassed by the outer borders of China, eastern Tibet, and Mongolia. Although this creature is called a desert cat, it roams the steppes and forested mountains. Ferocious, hardy, and agile, this cat lives a secluded life.
A rather large, yellowish gray cat, this feline is about thirty-three inches long, with the tail alone being over thirteen inches. This cat is darker on the back and sides, with stripes extending to the flanks. The fur grows longer in the cold winter months.
Clouded Leopard
An endangered species, the small clouded leopard (Panthera nebulosa) lives in southeast Asia, from the Himalayas to Formosa, including southern China, Indochina, Nepal, and Burma. In Borneo and Sumatra it is called RimoauDahan.119 It can be over a yard in length, with its yellowish coat marked with wide, dark disks of a dark blue-gray to an almost black. The upper canines grow to a length relatively greater than those of any other feline, resembling those of the ancient saber-toothed tiger.
This leopard lives in forests and is a remarkable climber. In its native habitat, it prefers hunting at night.
Cougar
The cougar (Felis concolor), also known as puma and mountain lion, is almost as big as a leopard. Found in North and South America, the cougar is a formidable hunter. The pumas of South America are much smaller. It can adapt to most terrains and conditions and is a strong hunter, although it seldom hunts humans. The cougar is an excellent climber, whether on trees or rocks, and has a wide hunting range.
The muscled body can average sixty-three inches with a thirty-three-inch tail. Males often weigh up to 185 pounds. The head is relatively small in comparison to the body, and is rather bullet-shaped and rounded in the face; its ears are small. The rear legs are longer than those in front. Its coat can be almost any shade of brown, with the muzzle and tail tip black; some of the facial points and the underbelly are white.
For centuries there have been reports out of western Mexico of a species of large, long-legged felines called the onza, which is similar but not identical to the puma. In 1986 the existence of the onza was confirmed.
Fishing Cat
The Fishing Cat (Felis viverrinus) is a small, stocky feline who feeds off fish, crustaceans, mollusks, and water snakes. It weighs about twenty-five pounds and has a large, broad skull. Its short, coarse coat is typically grayish brown with dark spots and longitudinal stripes. The front feet are webbed, and the claws are not fully retractable. It will fight to the death rather than flee; one captive Fishing Cat got loose and killed a leopard twice its size.
The Fishing Cat is widely found throughout southern and southeastern Asia. It has also been discovered in such places as Sumatra, Siam, Indochina, Taiwan, Ceylon, and Nepal.
Jaguar
The jaguar (Panthera onca) is found in Central and South America; it is known to the natives as el tigre. The Mayas and Aztecs considered it a very magickal animal, capable of shifting its shape in order to cause fear and kill people. They had a Jaguar God to whom they made sacrifices.
Mayan priests wore jaguar-skin tunics and headdresses representing these animals during certain rites; some of their movements during these rituals were imitations of the jaguar’s stealthy movement through the jungles. The special god of the Aztec warriors, Tezcatlipoca, was often pictured as a jaguar. The Toltecs associated the jaguar with rain and thunder, which were called his “voice.” His yellow skin represented the sun. The Toltecs believed that the Sun God became a jaguar when he went underground at night.
On rare occasions, a pure black jaguar will be seen. These black cats are sometimes called panthers by the natives.
A massive cat, the jaguar has an orange coat with black circles on the back and flanks. The head is very large, the chest deep and powerful. It can measure up to seventy-three inches in length with a thirty-inch tail. It rivals the tiger in strength and cunning. Like the tiger, the jaguar is a superb hunter in the water and has been known to kill caiman.
Jaguarondi
The jaguarondi (Felis yagouroundi) is found throughout Texas and Arizona and from Mexico to Paraguay. It is the most unfeline-looking member of the cat family and actually resembles an otter. A forest-dwelling animal, the jaguarondi prefers thick undergrowth, where it can prowl the ground during early morning and late evening to hunt rodents, birds, and small mammals.
The individual hairs of the jaguarondi are tri-colored. At the root they are dark gray; this deepens to black and then becomes a light gray at the tips. This solitary animal communicates with bird-like chirps and purring. Some South American Indians keep the jaguarondi as pets to kill rodents.
Other climbing, tree-living cats of South America are the kodkod, the mountain cat, Geoffrey’s cat, and the Pampas cat. Within these species alone, there may be thirty to forty or more varieties.
Jungle Cat
The Jungle Cat (Felis chaus) can be found in the East Indies, Asia, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Israel, Iran, Afghanistan, and western China as well as northern Africa. A magnificent but shy creature, the Jungle Cat lives at an altitude ranging from 8,000 feet to sea level. It lives and hunts in forests, cultivated fields, and on plains. Also known as the reed cat, the Jungle Cat may have been used by ancient Egyptians to hunt wild fowl. In fact, the Jungle Cat has been identified in ancient Egyptian wall paintings.
The coat color of this feline ranges from grayish yellow to reddish brown; all the shades are ticked (closely resembling the appearance of the Abyssinian), as well as the legs and tail being marked with dark stripes. It has small black plumes of fur at the tips of its ears.
Leopard
A cat with a larger area of distribution is the leopard; it lives in a variety of climates, from eastern Siberia through Pakistan to southeast Asia.
For pure malice and savagery, the leopard (Panthera pardus) outdoes even the lion and tiger. Pard was another name for the leopard. The black leopard, called a panther, is fairly common in Ethiopia and the East Indies.
A graceful but deadly animal, the leopard can reach sixty inches in length and weigh 90 to 122 pounds. Its coat colors range from pale yellow and buff gray to brilliant ocher and chestnut. Black rosettes dot its coat. An accomplished stalker of its prey (including humans), the leopard also is an excellent swimmer. In Egypt, Osiris and his priests were sometimes pictured wearing leopard skins. Initiates of the Osirian Mysteries were sometimes called scarabs, other times panthers and lions; the panther’s skin was used during initiations. The goddess Nafdet was a panther who was called on for protection against snakes and scorpions.120
The leopard (panther) was the traditional mount of the god Dionysus in Greece; sometimes it walked beside him, sometimes he rode it, and other times it pulled his chariot. Some myths say that Dionysus was nursed by panthers as a child. His priests often wore panther skins. In the Greek language, the panther’s name meant “all-beast”. The words panther and all-beast also connect it with the god Pan.
In Africa, the panther (leopard) was a sacred animal to the Ibo and at times was considered to be inhabited by the souls of the dead. The Chinese said it represented bravery and intense ferocity. The Arabs called it Nimir, which means courage, boldness, and grace.
Lion
As the largest carnivore in Africa, the lion (Panthera leo) can weigh 400 to 500 pounds, be nine feet long, and stand three feet at the shoulder. The males have a thick mane around the neck, which darkens with age. The tail ends in a black tuft. A powerful body, broad face, and round ears complete the commonly known image of this feline. In the wild, the lion lives only about twelve years at most.121
The polygamous lion is the only truly social cat and lives in prides, consisting of a number of females and their young. A patient cat, the lion prefers to stalk prey rather than run it down.
Some ancient rulers in the Middle East trained lions for hunting. Egyptians placed portraits of lions on doors or their statues before the gates of their temples as protectors and guardians. In Egyptian art, a lion with a solar disk represented the god Ra; if shown with a crescent, it represented the god Osiris. The statues of two lions facing opposite directions symbolized the past and the future.122 The lion’s original Egyptian home was very likely in the Delta. During the time, this region had similar vegetation and conditions to southern Nubia; lions also existed in the deserts on both sides of the Nile.
The lion-goddess Tefnut, top; Egyptian Lion Gods of Yesterday and Today, bottom.
Male lions were usually associated with solar gods,123 especially in Greece, Rome, and Persia, while lionesses were companions of Great Mother goddesses, often drawing their chariots. Apollo Chrysocomes (He of the Golden Locks) was a solar god connected with the lion; the lion’s mane was said to represent the long hair-rays of the sun. The lion was also associated with the Greek hero Heracles and the Hebrew Samson.124
In connection with the Great Mother, the lioness symbolized both maternity and the capacity for vengeance. Representations of Mother Goddesses with their guardian-companion lionesses have been found in Crete, Mycenae, Phrygia, Thrace, Syria, Lycia, Sparta, Sumeria, India, and Tibet. Lionesses aided the Great Mother in childbirth and were protectors of the dead who returned to Her earthly body.
The Egyptians believed that the lion presided over the annual Nile floods. The goddess Mut, as consort of Amun at Thebes, was both a lioness and a warrior deity; in her Theban temples she was shown wearing a lion mask. Tefnut, in her role as Sekhmet, was a lion goddess, as was Mekhit.
Strangely enough, the Babylonians and Sumerians considered the lion to be a member of the dog family. In their literature, the lion is a metaphor for a war king or fierce deity. Stone lions guarded the temple entrances of the god Enki at Eridu and of Ishtar at Kalhu.
The zodiac signs of the Babylonians contained the Lion-or, as they called it, the Great Dog. The Egyptians and Greeks borrowed the zodiac from the Babylonians, making minor changes to suit their culture, but keeping Leo the Lion.
The Persian religion of Mithraism used a lion head surrounded with a mane of sun rays as their emblem. One grade of their initiates was called the Lion.
The Mithraic Sun god Mithras was sometimes portrayed with a lion’s head and two pairs of wings.125
The Hindus considered the lion to be a guardian of the north. This animal also represented strength, courage, and energy to the Chinese; they even had a lion dance during their Feast of Lanterns festival.
In England, the city of Caerleon is the “Lion’s Place”. Cornwall’s old name, Lyonesse, means the “country of the she-lion”. “City of the Lion” is a translation of the name Singapore; its founder, Sri Tri Buana, built the city where he saw a lion with a white breast, red body, and black head.126 The Lion Throne (Simhasana) of Buddhism is still sacred.
By medieval times, the image of the lion was said to possess great healing magick. Doctors would prescribe that their patients carry or wear a jasper amulet carved with a lion’s image; this was supposed to cure fevers and protect against poisons. If the lion was carved on garnet, it supposedly cured all diseases and protected against all dangers during travel.127 An engraved lion’s head was said to impart strength to the wearer.128
There is also an Asiatic lion, an endangered species which is now confined to the scrub and thorn forests of the Gir Forest National Park in Gujarat, in west-central India. Once, the Asiatic lion was found all over Asia. Hunting of this animal in the early 1900s reduced its numbers to just twelve; today that number has risen to 250.
Little Spotted Cat
Another small Central American cat, who lives only in the hottest areas, is the little spotted cat (Felis tigrina). Since it is known by a wide variety of names, it is possible that there are several varieties of this species.
There are also the little Mexican oncillas and the Margay cats (Felis wiedi) from Central America. The ocelot, Margay (an endangered species), and little spotted cats are all found in South America as well.
Lynx
Canadian lynx (Pelis lynx) in Flathead National Forest, Montana.
Two kinds of lynx inhabit Asia: the Northern Lynx and the Caracal Lynx. Although the Northern Lynx (Felis lynx) is also found in North America, the two are of the same species but different breeds.
To Native Americans, the lynx was a keeper of secrets and occult knowledge; a powerful and silent animal, they believed it had the ability to unravel mysteries. The lynx and the bobcat always seem to be smiling in a secretive way, making one think of the expression “the cat that swallowed the canary”.
The Welsh bard Gwion in Can Y Meirch says that “I have been a spotted headed cat in a forked tree;” a reference to the lynx.129
Europeans during the Middle Ages had a strange belief regarding the lynx. It was said that its urine could harden into precious stones called Lyncurius (lynx piss) or lynx stone, sometimes identified as a carbuncle and sometimes as amber.
The Northern Lynx (Felis lynx) is a medium-sized wild cat. In the Western hemisphere, it can be found from southern Canada, through the US, and into parts of Mexico.
This member of the cat family is yellowish brown with patches of darker brown on its coat; the fur is long and soft. It has tufted ears and a short tail tipped with black. The short tail hampers the lynx in communications, but it substitutes its long, black ear tufts.
The lynx hunts at night, using its extraordinary vision to catch rodents, birds, and deer. The lynx will attack larger animals, such as the moose and reindeer, especially in deep snow where it can move easily. Greek mythology says that the lynx had the ability to see through stone walls.
The Spanish lynx lives in remote mountainous regions down to coastal areas in southwestern Spain and Portugal. This species of lynx is now endangered because of hunting; its numbers have dwindled to less than 400.
Ocelot
In Central America, the best known of the cat family is the ocelot (Felis pardalis). Found in Arizona and Texas in the north to as far south as Paraguay, northern Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, and northern Peru, the ocelot is too unpredictable for a pet, and so far has proved untamable. Although the ocelot can live in a variety of climates, it does best in the dense forest, marshes, and jungle heat.
The ocelot’s fur is a pale yellow marked with black chain-like spots. The head resembles that of a leopard in shape, but the ears are small. The ocelot averages about eighteen inches at the shoulder and weighs up to twenty-nine pounds. Able to leap from tree to tree, it hunts monkeys and birds, as well as other small mammals on the ground. It also is a competent swimmer.
Pallas Cat
Pallas cat (Felis manul) can be found in Russia, China, the Tibetan steppes, Mongolia, Iran, Afghanistan, and around the Caspian Sea. This animal sleeps in burrows during the day, coming out at night to hunt. It depends on its sight for hunting mouse hares and pikas in fairly open country. When the pallas cat calls its mate, the sound is similar to the scream of an owl. When it is annoyed, instead of a hiss it gives a shrill sound through its closed teeth.
The pallas cat is only slightly larger than a domestic cat, weighing about seven to eight pounds. It is around twenty-two inches long with a ten-inch tail. The broad, short head is topped with rounded, blunt ears that are set low; this enables the animal to present a minimal outline when peering over rocks or shrubs. Its fur is longer and denser than that of most wild cats, and is a yellowish brown with dark ticking; the tail is ringed with dark stripes.
Sand Cat
An example of one of the small cats is the Sand Cat (Felis margarita) found from the Sahara in Africa all the way to Baluchistan in Asia. A dweller of arid and desert regions, the Sand Cat hunts sand voles, jerboas, reptiles, birds, hares, and locusts. Most of its water requirement is obtained from its prey.
This small feline (about twenty inches long) has soft, dense fur, which can be in colors of pale yellow to darkish gray. The tail is striped with dark brown rings. Its face is broad and its ears large. The full cheeks have well-developed whiskers. The paws are heavily padded and feathered to protect it from burning sands.
Serval Cat
In Africa, from Algeria to the Cape of Good Hope, the Felis serval, or serval cat, can be found. It is less nocturnal than most small African wild cats, preying on several kinds of rats, hares, lizards, and birds. Superb swimmers, the serval cat prefers to live in forest and grasslands.
Taller and stronger than the European wild cat, the serval has a short tail and thick fur that is beige, tawny, or reddish with spots of black. Its large, long ears are tapered like the lynx, except the ends aren’t pointed or have tufts. These large, oval ears are so sensitive that the serval can detect burrowing rodents, yet mobile enough to flatten in sparse cover. The tail is quite short in comparison to the body. The very agile serval can get up to thirty-two inches long and weigh as much as thirty-five pounds.
Temminck’s Golden Cat
The very unusual-looking Temminck’s Golden Cat (Felis temmincki) is found in southeast Asia, Nepal, Burma, Tibet, China, Indochina, Siam, Malaya, and Sumatra. C. Jacob Temminck, a Dutch naturalist, first described the species. This feline lives in woodlands and forests. Among the Asians, it is called the yellow leopard (huang poo) by the Chinese and the fire tiger by those in Burma. Since it does not climb well, the golden cat preys on a select diet of various birds and ground dwellers.
The basic background color of its coat can be a beautiful gold, yellow-brown, dark brown, red, or gray. However, it has an elaborately patterned face, black ears, and a plain body. A long feline (up to forty-one inches), the golden cat has only a fifteen-inch tail, which does not taper. It has a large head and short, round ears.
There are a number of other Asian wild cats: the Chinese Desert Cat, Rusty-spotted Cat, Sand Cat, Jungle Cat, Marbled Cat, Bay Cat, and the Flat-headed Cat.130
Tiger
The tiger (Panthera tigris) is one of the few members of the cat family that likes to swim. For brutal savagery and feats of power, the tiger easily outdoes the lion. However, the tiger is now an endangered species because of the belief that its bones have curative powers.
The tiger ranges from Sumatra to Borneo and north to Siberia. Today, the largest populations of these savage felines are in Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and Malaysia.
The tiger has a long, massive body with the tail about half the body length. The largest is the Siberian tiger, which can weigh as much as 500 pounds. The basic background color of the Bengal tiger’s coat ranges from a shade of orange to ocher, with dark stripes. Parts of the muzzle, throat, whiskers, chest, and belly are white or cream. A few purely white tigers do exist. The Siberian tiger is also a very light or white color with black stripes, though it is a different subspecies than the Bengal tiger.
Preferring to hunt at night, the tiger feeds on just about whatever it wishes to eat that is available. There are documented cases of tigers killing and eating crocodiles.
To the people of India, the tiger represents royalty, power, and fearlessness. In Japan, this animal symbolizes courage and warrior qualities. However, to the Chinese, where the tiger is considered Lord of the Land Animals, the mythologies are full of tiger tales. Sometimes it is pictured with wings, a symbol of its supernatural powers. It represents authority, courage, ferocity, and military might.
The most interesting application of the tiger symbol by the Chinese is in their representation of the four elements, or directions. A white tiger is in the west and symbolizes autumn, the element of metal, and frightens away evil spirits and guards graves. A blue tiger is in the east, standing for plant life and spring. In the south is a red tiger, who represents summer and life. A black tiger symbolizes the north, winter, and the element of water. In the center space is a yellow tiger, emblem of the sun and the ruler.
116. James Johnson, The Mini-Atlas of Cats.
117. The name Caracal comes from a Turkish word karakal, which means “black ear.”
118. However, this speed can only be maintained for a few hundred yards.
119. Some believe this name translates as “the tiger with a fox’s tail,” a name derived from its thick, wooly tail, while others think it means “tree-tiger.”
120. Carolyne Larrington, ed., The Feminist Companion to Mythology.
121. A zoo in Germany holds the record for the oldest lion—twenty-nine years of age.
122. This double-lion was a symbol of Time and was called the Lions of Yesterday and Today; Budge, Egyptian Language.
123. Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages.
124. Samson was in reality the Arabic sun god whose name was Shams-On.
125. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages.
126. White, red, and black are the traditional colors of the Triple Goddess; these colors are called the gunas in Hinduism; Cavendish, Legends of the World.
127. Desautels, The Gem Kingdom.
128. Budge, Amulets & Superstitions.
129. Robert Graves, The White Goddess.
130. Fernand Mery, The Life, History & Magic of the Cat.