Is Your Cat a Small Tiger?

Chris Pfefferkorn, General Curator (person in charge of the animals) at the Oregon Zoo helped us answer this question.

Cats range in size from a 700-pound Tiger to a 3-pound housecat. Cats’ body parts are adapted to allow cats to stalk, kill, and eat animals for food. “Watch your cat stalk. This is how wild cats hunt,” Chris says.

Cats are also able to leave scent messages. Other cats understand the message means another cat uses this home range.

Housecats and wild cats hunt in the evening or early morning. In the middle of the day, they sleep and conserve energy. 

All cats are mammals, and carnivores (animals that eat meat). All cats have similar tails, teeth, and claws. Their senses of vision, touch, and hearing are also the same.

To see what’s different between wild cats and house cats, Chris says we should watch wild cats. “Watching cats use giant-sized toys in a zoo help you understand the physical ability of wild cats.” Look at the size of a tiger’s foot. Compare it to your cat’s foot. One is the size of a dinner plate. One is the size of your thumb.”

Chris likes Amur leopards. “An Amur leopard leaps into a tree, dragging his dinner with him, often a deer. Your housecat can jump to a high shelf, but he can’t drag something equal to his body weight with him.

The Oregon Zoo sometimes provides the tigers with a ball constructed from 200 lbs. of fire hose. Chris explains a tiger can carry the ball in its teeth for hours at a time.

Domestic cats have been bred for thousands of years to behave in ways that fit into peoples’ homes. Wild cats are beautiful, but very dangerous animals. They breed in the wild to succeed in the wild.

If you want to live with a cat, you need a housecat. If you want to information about wild cats from Chris’ zoo try:
Siberian Tiger
Amur Leopard

Do you have a zoo nearby where you can visit wild cats? Write and let me know what you think about tigers and housecats.