Three Legged Cat Picture

This is another picture of my three legged cat, Charlie. It is nothing particularly special except that he is very good at reaching up and grabbing objects because he likes to get into the meerkat position.

You can see him raised up onto two legs grabbing some string I am dangling in front of him with his claws nicely out. Love those claws. Of course one reason why the picture looks a bit strange at first glance is because he has no right foreleg. Being a black cat this is not immediately apparent.

Picture of Beautiful Mountain Lion

This is a camera trap photo of a puma. The photo has been refined a bit by me. For some people it will be just another mountain lion picture but I think it is a bit special.

Camera trap photo by USFWS Headquarters

Firstly, it is "real". This is a wild mountain lion going about his business. I think that adds credibility to a photo over the well composed captive cat photos.

Secondly, you get a very nice sense of the grace and power of the mountain lion. Such a beautiful cat and so sad, for me, that it is still hunted (with dogs). The mountain lion is a very classy jumper, one of the best amongst all the wildcats. You can see where that comes from in the muscular hind quarters.

One day, hopefully before it is extirpated (totally destroyed) in the wild, people will stop shooting at the puma for fun. I know that sentence will annoy the hunters and shooters. However, it is uncivilised to shoot a wild animal for pleasure. We have moved on. Well some of us have. See mountain lion tracks.

Jaguar Photograph

This is a great jaguar photograph. It was taken by an automatic camera that is sensitive to movement: a motion activated camera trap. Correct placement is important obviously. In this instance it seems that it was placed on a well used trail in a forest in Peru. The jaguar lives in a variety of tropical and subtropical habitats.

I have worked on the image quite a lot. It has been sharpened a bit and the color made more saturated. It has also been cropped to a squarish format and text added to give the image a poster feel. I also retouched out two cables that were straddling across the undergrowth behind the jaguar. These adjustments are allowed under the creative commons license, for which I thank Smithsonian Wild.



This a really nice jaguar picture now. I think it works well. I hope you do too. I love the intensity in the eyes and the purposeful walk. Note: I have donated $35 to the Smithsonian Institute for the use of this photo.

The jaguar (Panthera onca) lives in Central and South America. It is the largest in all of the Americas. It is the third largest wildcat on the planet. The jaguar is a very burly cat. It is closely related to and similar in appearance to the leopard but it is heavier than the leopard.

The jaguar has a large head and short powerful limbs. The jaguar spots are rosettes; sometimes with a black spot in the center. These rosettes become solid spots on the limbs and undersides.

The jaguar varies in size over its range. Some are twice the size of others. This is due to prey availability. The average weight of this cat in Central America is 56 kilograms (123 lbs - pounds).  Male jaguars in the Pantanal region of Brazil average 102 kilograms however (224 lbs).

Read more about the beautiful and impressive jaguar.

Ocelot Picture

This is a camera trap photograph of an ocelot in Peru. The cat seems to be on a trail. Camera traps are set up at points that are regularly used by the animal being photographed. The ocelot is a medium sized wild cat that is about the size of the average dog.

Ocelot in Peru - camera trap photo by Smithsonian Wild - I added the words and improved quality.

The ocelot lives in Central and South America. At 2002 it was said to occupy Texas, USA (no longer).

It has one the most outstanding coats of all the wild cats. This resulted in it being widely persecuted for its pelt. The major threat now is habitat loss. Both are of course due to human activity. However it is assessed as Least Concern by the authorities (Red List™). This indicates that this species is not threatened with extinction at 2011.

The ocelot lives in a variety of habitats including tropical forest and its prey is usually small mammals such as rodents and possums. It also catches birds and lizards.

Jaguarundi Photograph

This jaguarundi photograph made by a camera trap has an ethereal quality about it while at the time showing us this cat in some detail. It is both informative and slightly "other world" in its feel. The image quality turned out like this because the original photograph had a peculiar color cast, which I eliminated and I produced this filtered black and white image that glows slightly in its place.

Jaguarundi (Puma yagouaroundi) - photographed by camera trap in Peru - photo by Smithsonian Wild

As you can see, this small wild cat has a weasel-like appearance. It resembles an animal called a "tayra" (see photo adjacent), which belongs to the Mustelidae family not the Felidae family.

Tayra - Wikimedia commons

There are no markings that can be seen in the photograph but the coat is heavily "ticked" to use a word commonly heard by domestic cat breeders at cat shows. It means the coat has a fine broken appearance caused by the agouti gene.

This unusual wild cat species has been called "an enigma" by the authors of Wild Cats of the World.  The jaguarundi behaves somewhat like a Puma (cougar) hence its classification, which was (perhaps still is) in a state of flux. It has 38 chromosomes, while all other small wildcats in South America have 36 chromosomes.

The body of the jaguarundi is slender and the tail long. The head is noticeable small relative to body size and elongated. Read some more about this unusual wild cat. Are there any in Florida?

As the creative commons license does not allow commercial use and as I have advertising on this page, I have donated $35 to the Smithsonian Institute in the hope that this is acceptable.

Leopard Camera Trap Photo

I am having a bit of fun with this interesting leopard, camera trap, photo. These are cameras that are fired off when the animal passes in front of it. The shutter works on a motion sensing device in the camera.

It means you get uncomposed images. I guess that is obvious. Hence this one:

The picture is by the Smithsonian Institution. You can see their photostream on Flickr. I actually prefer poorly composed and slightly blurred camera trap photos of wildcats to the captive cat pictures that are beautiful. They are more real for me.

Associated page: leopard description - a beautiful leopard cub.

African Wild Cat Picture

This is a really nice African wildcat picture. The author is an amateur photographer who publishes his work on Flickr, a large photo hosting site owned by Yahoo. He has kindly allowed me to publish it on my site. His Flickr name is: antony_j_jones. Thank you.

There are two aspects of this photograph that I particularly like. Firstly it brings it home to me that the African wild cat is very like our random bred domestic cats. This of course is to be expected because it is the wild cat ancestor of the domestic cat (with the Eurasian wildcat). Is this cat a hybrid? Just a thought as the Africa wildcat does mate with domestic cats. This cat seems a little refined to be a purebred wildcat but I might be wrong.

Secondly, it shows the cat in his/her habitat, which is wide ranging but tends to be open scrub and grassland.

African wild cat - Photo copyright antony_j_jones

The photograph was taken in Namibia, the home of the cheetah.

Black-footed cat photos by Anne-Marie Kalus

Here are two of the best photos of the fierce and diminutive black-footed cat by a talented amateur photographer who publishes her photographs on Flickr. These images are protected by copyright please note. She has kindly agreed to let me publish the photographs here. You can see her photostream here: Photos of Anne-Marie Kalus. If you want to use them please contact her on Flickr.

 The black-footed cat has the appearance of a wild-looking domestic tabby cat with a high contrast pattern.

The facial appearance is very domestic cat looking. However, you will not see these tabby pattern markings on a domestic cat.

The classic tabby "M" mark on the forehead is missing. There are a different set of genes at work.

As the name suggests, the paw pads are black.

Black-footed Cat Pictures

Twelve black-footed cat pictures. Where you see a credit under the photo it has been published under a creative commons license. Please click on the thumbnail pictures to see a larger format version. Where there is no credit the picture is judged to be in the public domain. I have improved the image quality of the black-footed cat pictures published under creative commons.  They are free to be used under the same creative commons license. Please comply with the terms of the license. You can read the terms of the license on the Flickr hosted page that the text links point to.

by jonkriz	by MrGuilt
by jonkriz
See large image, credits and description
by KCZooFan	by MrGuilt
by quinn.anya

Caracal Pictures

Eight fine caracal pictures by very good amateur photographers who have kindly licensed their work for publication. The caracal is one of the larger medium sized wildcats.

This species is famous for its fabulous leap from the ground, its very long ear tufts - the longest and most pronounced of all cats, wild and domestic - and its ferocity!

It has been tamed in the past as has the cheetah; tamed for use in sport hunting. Hunting with cheetahs.

Caracal in Germany - Photo by Tambako the Jaguar	Caracal in the Serengeti - Photo by nickandmel2006
Caracal in the Serengeti - Photo by nickandmel2006	Cedar Grove Feline Conservatory, Kansas. Caracals use ears for communication - Photo by KCZooFan
Caracal at Cat Survival Trust, England - Photo by andrewhalliday	Caracals at Cat Survival Trust, England - Photo by andrewhalliday
Photo by KRO-Media	Copenhagen - Photo by thy

Where allowed under the creative commons license the image quality of some of these images has been refined and the image cropped. People are free to use these images in a commercial environment but please click on the link under the caracal picture to find out which license has been granted. You must comply with the license.

Leopard Cat Pictures

Eight fine leopard cat pictures. This cat is also called the Asian leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis). These are images that I have refined in Photoshop to improve the image quality. There has been no other form of image editing. The pictures are either published under a creative commons license (siwild - camera trap images, thanks) or I have assessed the picture as being in the public domain or publication is justified under fair use (1). Click on the images to see larger versions and on the link to go to the Picasaweb library. This cat is called the money cat by the Chinese because the spots look like coins.

Camera trap image. Very interesting image of fine quality. The habitat is clearly shown. The eyes reflect in the usual way the flash light from the camera. From Leopard Cat	Camera trap image. This leopard cat picture shows a skinny cat. This is a leopard cat in Thailand. From Leopard Cat
Another really nice camera trap image. This image shows the habitat very nicely. This is a leopard cat in Thailand. From Leopard Cat	From Leopard Cat
From Leopard Cat	Shows the coat well. From Leopard Cat
From Leopard Cat	From Leopard Cat

Note: (1) Fair use claimed on the basis that the pictures of the leopard cat published here will have no detrimental financial effect on the website from which they were sourced and they are published here for educational purposes. The images have been improved also.

Abyssinian Cat Pictures

Eleven Abyssinian cat pictures by the celebrated Helmi Flick, one of the world's best and one of the best known cat photographers.

The photographs on this page are protected by copyright ©. Violations of copyright are reported to Google.com (DMCA). Sorry but Helmi is a professional photographer.

Abyssinian cat "Hawkeye" ©Helmi Flick	Abyssinian cat Ady Uber ©Helmi Flick
Abyssinian cat "Diego" ©Helmi Flick	Abyssinian cat Josephina ©Helmi Flick
Abyssinian cat "Gryf" © Helmi Flick	Abyssinian cat "Muscle Girl" © Helmi Flick
Abyssinian cat "Siggy" © Helmi Flick	Abyssinian cat "Siggy" © Helmi Flick
Abyssinian cat "Natalie" © Helmi Flick	Abyssinian Cat photo ©Helmi Flick
Abyssinian Cat photo ©Helmi Flick	Champion Abyssinian cat 1907 photo public domain

I have added the last and 12th picture as a comparison. You can see a marked difference to the shape of the cat's shape. In the early 20th century the Abyssinian cat had a more cobby shape. Selective breeding created what breeders consider to be a more elegant looking cat - called "foreign" body shape.

The Abyssinian is a tabby cat with few markings (tail and forehead). There are some subtle color types. The ruddy color is the one we are familiar with. Blue (gray ) is also popular. Personally, I think that this cat should have one color.