The Big Cat’s Morphology – Body Size and Color Patterns
Body Size
Felids differ enormously in size, sometimes even within the same species. The size discrepancy among leopards, for example, formerly led taxonomists to believe that savanna leopards and forest leopards were dissimilar species. Equivalent size discrepancies are also found amongst jaguars, pumas, and tigers, all species with widespread geographic distributions. Male jaguars of Venezuela, weighing 104 kg on an average, are almost twice as heavy as males in Belize, which average only 56 kg. Scientists aren’t still sure about which species is the smallest, with the kodkod, black-footed cat, and rusty spotted cats all nominees for the title.
An analysis of the numbers and sizes of the cats that happens in greater geographic areas demonstrate that Southeast Asia and South America comprise of ten species, whereas in Africa there are eight. The supreme multiplicity occurs in the tropical regions, the least in the mild zones.
Color Patterns
Nearly all …
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