Tag Archives: big cats
big cat roarsday: eye of the leopard
I found this clip via Fuck Yeah Big Cats (which is an awesome blog if you love big cats!) and found it fascinating. I thought it’d make a great Big Cat Roarsday post.
In this clip from National Geographic’s Eye of the Leopard, Legadema the leopard attacks and kills a baboon, only to find a tiny baby clinging to the carcass. The leopard proceeds to nurture the infant baboon throughout the night.
Apparently the baboon ended up dying that night because Legadema couldn’t truly care for it. Very sad, but that’s nature for you. It’s just amazing that Legadema even attempted to nurture it. I love seeing interspecies caring, especially between wild animals.
big cat roarsday: pallas’s cat
Pallas’s cat, also known as the Manul, is a wild cat found throughout Central Asia. It’s a relatively small cat, only about the size of a domestic cat.
Look at this guy! These cats seems so unreal to me, like something you’d see in a fantasy film.
big cat roarsday: baby cheetah!
This little guy is four-weeks-old and requires 24-hour care from Busch Gardens’ animal team, as unfortunately his mother wasn’t able to care for him.
He sounds like a baby bird!
According to Zoo Borns,
Once he is old enough, he will join the group of cheetahs living in Cheetah Run, the innovative new habitat opening alongside the Cheetah Hunt launch coaster that will bring guests face to face with these agile predators. Upon reaching maturity, he may also become an important part of Busch Gardens’ plans for a cheetah breeding program that will help boost the population of these critically endangered animals.
big cat roarsday: the african black-footed cat
Today’s Big Cat isn’t a big cat at all. In fact, it’s really quite small, weighing only about 2.5 to 4.5 pounds! (That’s less than half the size of Kudzu!)
The African black-footed cat, also known as the anthill tiger, is one of the smallest wild cats in the world. Because they are nocturnal and solitary, they are rarely seen in nature, and there aren’t even many in captivity. According to ZooBorns, there are only nineteen in zoo collections in the United States, and only 40 around the world.
On February 13, two male kittens were born to a surrogate mother, who underwent in-vitro fertilization with a frozen embryo.
From ZooBorns:
Some adorable newborn kittens at Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species have no idea just how special they are. Two African Black-Footed kittens, members of an endangered species rarely seen in captivity, are the first of their kind to be born from a frozen embryo via in-vitro fertilization. This ground-breaking birth is the latest advance in assisted reproduction for endangered species from Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans.
How cute! Here are a few more shots of these beautiful little cats.
big cat roarsday: white tigers
White tigers are, without a doubt, beautiful creatures. But did you know that, for the most part, white tigers are totally unnatural? That the so-called conservation of these “endangered” cats is nothing but a lie?
I actually didn’t know this until I started following Fuck Yeah Big Cats! Apparently white tigers are extremely rare in nature and all the beauties you see in zoos are a result of successful inbreeding.
This little cub is certainly a cutie, but the sad thing is, for every healthy, zoo-worthy tiger you get, there are hundreds of tigers born with deformities, such as strabismus (cross eyes), retinal degeneration, cleft palates, scoliosis of the spine, clubbed feet, immune deficiency, and kidney abnormalities. According to this article, 80% of white tiger cubs die from birth defects associated with inbreeding. In addition to physical deformities that may occur, these tigers are also prone to depression and unpredictable behavior. Remember when Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy was attacked by his tiger several years ago? That was a white tiger.
If you want to see the real face of white tigers, then meet Kenny, who passed away a couple of years ago.
This poor guy was born with a deformed nose and snaggle teeth. Because of his deformity, he had trouble breathing and couldn’t shut his mouth, which resulted in him constantly drooling. His brother, Willie, was born with an undesirable orange coat and was cross-eyed. Their parents were brother and sister owned by a private breeder, and because they kept producing stillborn and deformed cubs, they were of no value to the breeder. Fortunately, the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge rescued the cats and gave them a better life.
What I have to wonder is, what happens to all of those deformed white tigers that aren’t showcased in zoos or used for entertainment? I honestly wouldn’t be too surprised if they are simply killed because they lack any “value.”
It’s really disgusting what people will do for entertainment and money.
