Allegedly feral cats killed 145 young Cuban crocodiles at a breeding farm

The Cuban crocodile is an endangered species particular to that country with particular characteristics such as having the ability to leap high out of water and be curious and aggressive by temperament. Because they are endangered the Cuban authorities have been breeding them to restock the swamps. 

Every year, the Zapata Swamp Crocodile Breeding Farm, the world's largest Cuban crocodile breeding operation, releases some 500 Cuban crocs into the swamp, in the hope that they'll flourish and reproduce according to Etiam Pérez-Fleitas, a biologist who's affiliated with the farm.

And then suddenly, during October and November 2022, Mr Pérez-Fleitas said that there were a series of predator attacks resulting in the death of 145 four-month-old crocodiles. They believe that feral cats killed and ate the crocodiles based upon the evidence but there's no certainty that this has happened.

The clues that they have relied upon include:

• "Suspicious markings and fur recovered in the vicinity"
• Camera traps which recorded at least one feral cat entering the breeding farm's pens.
• And on one occasion "farm staff witnessed several cats feeding on something nearby".
• The staff members found "fragments of crocodiles".
• The attacks on the crocodiles stopped a month after seven feral cats were captured.
• And lastly, there is no evidence that other predators have been involved.

That said, they don't believe that feral cats are a major problem i.e. an "existential threat to the Cuban crocodile".

That's because these attacks occurred in a breeding farm, an unnatural environment. Feral cats would struggle to attack the Cuban crocodile in the wild where they are much more dispersed.

That said, it is another story which effectively attacks the feral cat. The feral cat is receiving a huge amount of negative press nowadays with increasing pressure on the authorities to do something about the large numbers of feral cats in many countries. 

Of course the problem is a human created one. What the authorities should be doing is educating people to take better care of their cats, to spay and neuter them, to perhaps keep them indoors full-time and provide an excellent environment indoors. They should do things to prevent predation as is happening right now in Australia.

The authorities should not be reactionary by which I mean going around trapping and killing feral cats. That doesn't cure the problem. What cures the problem is stopping procreation and preventing the existence of feral cats. Feral cats ultimately come from domestic cats and domestic cats that are carelessly owned can end up becoming stray cats and stray cats become feral cats. Deal with human behaviour to cure the problem.

And lastly, I think without being too harsh on people, we can put this alleged feral cat attack down, once again, to human carelessness. Why weren't the pens constructed in a way which prevented feral cats getting in? This breeding farm is not protecting young crocodiles well enough. I hope the authorities are looking at that as well.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Why do cats have whiskers? It is cruel to trim them.

A domestic cat's whiskers (and the same, of course, applies to feral and stray cats) are remarkable items of feline anatomy. Most people think of them as serving a single purpose: to measure the width of gaps to tell the cat if she can get through it but they do a lot more than that.

They are very sensitive as at their base there is a mass of nerve endings. This makes cats' whiskers so sensitive they can feel air currents wafting around solid objects which the cat can't see clearly in the dark depths of night even with their super-sensitive eyes.

Vital cat's whiskers. Image: MikeB

Night hunting

Whiskers are particularly important when a cat hunts at night. Dr. Desmond Morris in his seminal book Cat Watching tells us that we know whiskers are vital to a cat when hunting at night because if they are damaged, they cannot make a perfectly clean kill in the dark but when they are in perfect condition, they can kill cleaning in the depths of night. 

Feelers

They achieve this because these supersensitive appendages a.k.a. vibrissae can feel the neck of the mouse or bird that the cat has caught and armed with the information that whiskers pass back to their brain they are able to visualise the neck and the position of the vertebrae within the neck and deliver their killing nape of the neck bite to split the vertebrae and kill the prey animal.

In this example, the whiskers are acting like feelers and they become the eyes of the domestic cat in the dark. They have a split-second ability to check the body outline of the victim. Dr. Morris believes that the tips of the whiskers "must read off the details of the shape of the prey, like a blind man reading Braille, and in an instant tell the cat how to react".

And in some photographs of cats that have caught prey the whiskers are almost wrapped around the animal's body passing back vital information to the cat's brain about the slightest movement if the prey is still alive.

Nocturnal hunter

And we know that the domestic cat is a primarily nocturnal hunter although they are diurnal meaning they hunt at night and day but they favour dawn and dusk i.e. they are crepuscular. This is because that is the time when prey animals are more active. Because of this whiskers are particularly vital in their success rate in killing prey.

Anatomy

Anatomically speaking, the whiskers are greatly enlarged and stiffened hairs as you no doubt know. They are twice the thickness of ordinary hairs. And as you also might know they are embedded in the tissue of the cat's upper lip to a depth of three times that of other hairs. That last bit you probably didn't realise and deep under the skin they are supplied with a mass of nerve endings as I've mentioned above.

Normally, a cat has 24 whiskers, 12 on each side of the nose. They are arranged in horizontal rows.  The length of whiskers varies enormously between cats. Here for example are the amazing whiskers on a female cat:

Amazing whiskers on a cute female cat. Image in public domain.

Moveable

They can move forwards when the cat wants to check things out with their whiskers. If you put a cat tease in front of a cat's face you might be lucky enough to see their whiskers dart forwards as if to touch the feathers of the tease.

And they can move backwards when the cat needs to protect them as part of a defensive action. And they can move backwards when for example the cat has their head in a food or a water bowl. This brings up another issue which is "whiskers stress". 

Whisker stress

Many people believe that some cat bowls are the wrong shape i.e. they are too deep and too narrow. Cat food bowl should be quite wide and flattish. This allows the whiskers to avoid the sides of the bowl which avoids whiskers stress which is a form of irritation to the cat and it might be so bad as to encourage the cat to not feed. I don't think that happens an awful lot but it may happen in certain individual cats.

Also, the top two rows of whiskers can be moved independently of the bottom two. The strongest whiskers are in rows two and three according to Dr. Morris.

Non-facial whiskers

You will also see whiskers in other parts of the body. For example, there are a few on the cheeks, over the eyes and on the chin.  Surprisingly, you might also see some at the back of the front legs. They are all sensitive detectors.

The cat's whiskers

When we say that something is "the cat's whiskers" we mean that it is very good. It is an apt expression because whiskers are indeed very good. They are a very special piece of feline anatomy.

Trimming

For this reason, they should never be trimmed or cut in anyway shape or form. Some people ask whether they can trim a cat's whiskers. The answer quite positively is no as you can understand from the long description above. 

Image: MikeB

My now deceased sister cut off the whiskers of our family cat when she was a girl. To this day I have no idea why she did it. It was a cruel act.

Hairless cats

Some purebred cats have crinkly whiskers or no whiskers due to a genetic mutation. I am referring to the hairless cats; the Sphynx and Don Sphynx. 

Hairless cat showing poor quality whiskers. Image: Pixels by Pixabay.

This is an example of how breeding a purebred cat based on a genetic mutation which creates a defect (no hair and poor whiskers) can be cruel to the cat. A hairless cat cannot rely on their whiskers as described above.

Couple of Bengal-mix cats bring in 2 pigeons, 2 voles and a rabbit in one day

This lady and her husband have lived with cats for a long time, she says on the mumsnet.com website. They know cats but they were unprepared for the hunting prowess of a couple of Bengal-mix cats that they adopted. She says that they have brought into the home 'at least 3 dead creatures daily including frogs/toads, rodents, birds and rabbits'. And as mentioned in the title, in one day the pair caught and delivered to their owner 5 animals.

Bengal cat. This is NOT one of the cats in the story. The photo is here to illustrate the page. Photo: Twitter.

Distressing comes to mind; and messy. Think of the feathers all over the kitchen! And it is not good to see wildlife so mercilessly killed.

BUT - and it is a but in capitals for a reason - there is almost nothing you can do about it IF you decide that your cats must be indoor/outdoor cats because they've insisted on it by howling and meowing at you until you give in.

Sometimes when you try and keep cats inside full-time it proves to be impossible because they make such a fuss about it. And if you are sensitive to your cat's wellbeing you can't ignore the plaintiff meows of your cat begging you to allow them to go outside. Or the mope-around the home looking morose.

Bengals are particularly good predators

This is the great dilemma. Cats are topline predators in general. There are none better. If you live in the countryside as appears to be the case with this woman and her family there is plenty of wildlife to be had by a Bengal mix.

On the basis that these cats are genuine Bengal mix it does not surprise me that they are voracious hunters and killers as the Bengal is a wildcat hybrid. They have some diluted wild cat genes in them. This colours their character.

Wild cats are sharper and more hunting driven than their relatively docile true domestic cat. As she is finding out, if you adopt a wild cat hybrid and let them go outside there will be death and mayhem especially in a countryside environment.

Solution?

RELATED: Noticeable, brightly coloured, cat collar protects birds from cat predation (47 – 54% reduction).

She has not mentioned one possibility: placing a brightly coloured collar around her cats' necks. These are manufactured commercially and have been proved to be quite successful as they warn birds of an impending attack. There is a product on the market called Birdsbesafe®.

Image: MikeB

But they don't protect land-based prey animals such as rodents. Bells on collars don't work that well because the cat wearing them compensates by keeping their bodies still to prevent the bell ringing as they approach the prey.

The only other way is a big and expensive compromise which might not work either: a customised garden enclosure which allows the cats to enjoy the outdoors but which protects a lot more wildlife.

That said Bengal cats are very athletic and they may be able to get out.

Like I said there is not a lot one can do about this. It's natural behaviour. If the lady wants her cats to behave naturally and express their natural desires (raw cat mojo as Jackson Galaxy calls it) she'll have to accept this. The collar mentioned (if she and the cats can put up with it) should reduce the kill count.

Indoor cats stop fighting to watch a bird outside the window

This video on Instagram has caught the eye of many people. They are amused by the fact that this couple of domestic cats suddenly stop fighting when they hear a bird outside the window. They have a common enemy which stops them being enemies. That is the argument. However, it is a false one because these two cats are buddies. They are friends. And in any case a bird is not the enemy of a cat. They are a 'prey item'.

Cats stop fighting to watch a bird.

They are not fighting with animosity. They are play-fighting which comes entirely naturally for domestic cats. They are playing like kittens because - and I have said this before - they are kept in a mental state which is similar to that of a kitten. This is because they are looked after by a human. They have a permanent mother and therefore they do not need to grow up and become truly independent.

That said, clearly their predatory instincts are immediately aroused and take instant priority over their play-fighting. And this is to be expected as well. The domestic cat is a top-quality predator. Their instincts immediately drive them to react to the sounds and sights of prey animals.

And being full-time indoor cats, the window to the outside world is like a television for them. Windows are "cat television" to full-time indoor cats. Knowing that, there is a good argument to make watching it as comfortable as possible by placing some sort of bed or platform near the window. Perhaps cat condominiums should be placed near a window.

RELATED: Cat Television – a good example.

There is one negative about this. When a full-time indoor cat sees a cat outside the window they will be aroused because the cat outside is on the territory. Strictly speaking this is not their territory because they are indoors all the time but from the cat's perspective it is his home range. And therefore, he wants to go out and attack the intruding cat. Obviously, he can't which is going to be frustrating.

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A post shared by Cats of Instagram (@cats_of_instagram)

Note: This is an embedded video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source or the video is turned into a link which would stop it working here. I have no control over this.

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The owner of this cat is being cruel to fish

Cat mesmerized by fish in an aquarium. Photo: Twitter.

The video maker and probably the owner was entirely wrong to allow this silver tabby cat to entertain himself by grabbing captive fish in a small aquarium. We know that fish feel pain. I'd argue that they probably feel some basic emotions at the least. The experience is going to be terrifying for the fish. And to make a video out of this is not clever. It is just bad and insensitive. It another example of animal abuse to make an interesting video. It is remarkable how often it happens. It is as if some people equate animal abuse with good videos. No moral compass. Cheap, quick thrills at the expense of animals. I am told that the video was made in Indonesia. Surprise, surprise. They are not known for their animal welfare.

I am unsure if the cat in the still image is the same as the cat in the video. It doesn't really matter. This was cruel behavior by the human. You can't blame the cat as he is behaving instinctively.

Just wait pic.twitter.com/MIF13zk6r8

— Killua Zoldyck (@wahyudi_FJ) September 6, 2021

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

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Eight-gram bat flies 1200 miles only to be killed by a cat

A tiny, eight-gram bat, a female Nathusius' pipistrelle, flew from London to the village of Molgino in Russia's Pskov region on July 30. A journey of 1,200 miles. Sadly, the cat was found by a village resident after being injured by a cat. The bat was taken to a rescue organisation but failed to recover and died from the attack. It's a sad ending and it is not a good look for the domestic cat. It is the kind of opportunity which is seized upon by ornithologists and conservationists of native species to criticise the domestic cat and to argue the case for keeping them indoors full-time.

 Nathusius' pipistrelle. Photo: BBC.

The bat had been ringed by a bat recorder, Brian Briggs, in 2016 at Bedfont Lakes Country Park near Heathrow airport in west London.

It was a great surprise to see that the bat had ended up 1,200 miles away. The Russians reported the finding to the UK's Bat Conservation Trust. Briggs said that the news was very exciting. He said: "It's great to be able to contribute to the international conservation work to protect these extraordinary animals."

It is the only record of this species of bat travelling this kind of distance from west to east. Most records concern males flying south-west from Latvia. The only other similar journey by this species of minuscule bat was in 2019 when one migrated from Latvia to Spain after a 1382-mile flight.

Experts say that the reason for the long flight is climate change and they expect more of the same in the future.

P.S. The bat is not a typical prey animal for the domestic cat. I suspect that the cat reacted to the bat's movement and attacked it. They decided it was inedible or even had no intention of feeding in any case. It was an instinctive response to the movements of a small animal.

Do mountain lions eat coyotes?

Mountain lions eat pretty much anything that is available and their prey animals range in size from mice to moose. If an animal puts itself in a vulnerable position mountain lions will try and kill it but a mountain lion hurt and incapacitated in an attack on a prey animal will die. Therefore, they will be selective. 

Mountain lion caught in camera trap by National Park Services AP.

And if there are good alternatives to coyotes, I would suggest that they will select those animals instead. The coyote is a resourceful animal. The point I'm getting to is that the excellent reference book that I have on the prey animals that the mountain lion eats does not specify coyotes. They do specify "other carnivores" as prey animals.

I'm going to have to stick my neck out and say that mountain lions will, on occasion, eat coyotes when the opportunity arises but they will select the easiest prey they can find as a priority which will include mule deer, white-tailed deer, moose, unclassified deer, elk, livestock and so on.

There are very, very few mountain lion attacks on people in the entire history of humans' relationship with the animal and when they occur it is usually a child or a woman. A mother might be defending her cubs. They don't attack humans to eat. Americans are infinitely more likely to die of a domestic dog attack than a puma attack.

How do cats react to the hydrochloric acid in the stomach of their prey?

How do all wild cats react to the hydrochloric acid (Hcl) in the stomach of their prey animals? It's an interesting if slightly esoteric question. Clearly the hydrochloric stomach acid in prey animals does not bother in the slightest wild cats when they eat their prey. For the sake of clarity, many animals have acid in their stomach to help digest foods. This is hydrochloric acid. It's quite strong and is why you can burn your mouth if you are sick many times.

Hcl. Image: Pixabay.

I believe that the answer is found in the fact that the pH of the acid in the stomach of carnivores like tigers is less than or equal to 1, i.e. it is highly acidic, whereas for humans and herbivores (and herbivores are the prey of tigers and other wild cat species) the pH ranges from 4-5 with food in the stomach.

Therefore, the hydrochloric acid in the stomach of prey animals which helps to digest their food is not that strong. Also, it is dispersed through the contents of the stomach. It probably tastes a little bit acidic to wild cats. I believe that cats can taste the bitterness. In fact, I know they can because one way to stop domestic cats drinking antifreeze is to make it bitter by the addition of a bittering agent.

The reason why tigers for instance have such a highly acidic stomach acid is because they're digesting meat which is harder to digest than the food that herbivores eat.

Incidentally, hydrochloric acid with a pH of 1-2 is similar to industrial strength hydrochloric acid! It facilitates protein breakdown and kills the abundant dangerous bacteria often found in decaying flesh foods.

Another factor is that herbivores break down the cellulose in plants with 'cellulose digesting bacteria' in the stomach. This probably accounts for the fact that the pH of their hydrochloric acid is less strong than that of carnivores. All plants have a cell wall present in the cell structure which contains cellulose.

Climbing skills of mice to avoid cats hunting them

This picture shows the climbing skills of mice to avoid cats hunting them. I've seen this sort of climbing ability in my home with my cat doing his damnest to catch the little fella. Mice are remarkable in their skills and courage when fighting a cat. They scream at cats at the top of their voice at a volume where I can hear them from yards away. 

Humans are not meant to hear the high frequency sound of mice but when they shout as they do in the face of death by cat bite, they can he heard. They can hold the sort of position you see in the photo for a long time. I admire them which is one reason why I hate my cat's delight at killing them but I fully accept it. I have to.

Mice can jump extraordinarily well when they have to, to escape capture. They move rapidly and can squeeze through the tiniest of holes. I've saved a few from the jaws of my cat. I put them out at the back of the garden and hope for the best. I don't believe that they survive because they are too traumatized or they've been injured. But I can't do anything else but try.

Pic: MikeB. This is all that is left of a mouse after my cat has finished with it. Horrible and tragic.

Namibia's desert lions attack humans because they are starving due to drought

NAMIBIA, AFRICA - NEWS AND VIEWS: Starving desert lions are attacking humans in Namibia because a prolonged drought has killed off all their prey animals. Tourists have been warned about the danger that Namibia's desert lions posed to them and this small population of lions is dwindling as they battle starvation. Is this an example of global warming and climate change?

Campers have been attacked in their tent. One starving lion pounced on a 72-year-old man the previous day. The man, Denker, said that he was settling down with his wife at a camp in the north west when they spotted what they initially thought was a hyena but when the animal approached it emitted a chilling lion growl. 

Namibia's desert lions. Photo: Twitter.

They screamed and scared it away but the lion returned. It charged at the tent's window with the same low growl and crashed hard against the tent, dislodging the tent pole and peg and tilting the tent inwards towards them. The man fired a shot from his revolver which scared the lion off allowing them time to find safety.

Sadly, when they returned to their camp at Brandenburg, Namibia's highest mountain they found the gaunt lion chewing their tent canvas because of acute starvation. The same male lion is believed to have targeted the tour guide, David Ward, and his father a few miles away. They fought the lion off but Ward's 72-year-old father needed 20 stitches to his leg. The ribs and backbone of the lion were visible. The guide said that lions are going crazy with starvation.

Their plight is evidenced by these very rare attacks on humans and there is real concern that the lack of food and water in the desert habitat will lead to similar incidents. There must be concern, too, about their survival.

A spokesperson for the country's ministry of environment and tourism, Romeo Muyunda, said that: "Such behaviour is driven by sheer desperation because the animals have nothing to eat. We don't want anything happening to our tourists."

Namibia's desert lions attack a giraffe. Picture in public domain.

The lion mentioned and three other malnourished cats were tracked and relocated to a private farm where there is plenty of prey animals such as antelopes. They will stay there until their condition has improved, the spokesperson said.

Sadly, two emaciated desert lions had to be euthanised because they were to weak to be saved.

The desert lions of Namibia live in what is described as the most "unforgiving patch of southern Africa" but they have adapted to the environment and survived. They are not a distinct subspecies but standard African lions.

They are leaner than average and travel longer distances in hunting for food and they've adapted to relying on the water content of their prey animals as a substitute for drinking water much like the diminutive sand cat. The sand cat is the only true desert cat.

Namibia's desert lions have been seen hunting seabirds and small seals on Namibia's Skeleton Coast. They are the only lions targeting sea life. It is believed that there are a mere 120 of these lions left and they have become a popular tourist attraction.

Farmers are affected because the lions have had to turn to livestock as a substitute for their normal prey animals.

News media: The Times.

Do tigers and lions eat the same food?

Tigers, lions, domestic cats and all the other cat species (about 36) have the same nutritional needs and therefore at a fundamental level, in terms of nutrients, they eat the same food. What is different is the way the food is packaged. We know that domestic cats eat mice (primary prey) and commercial cat food together with the odd treat of human food. 

Lion and tiger. Image by Gerhard G. from Pixabay 

We know that tigers will kill any animal that puts itself in a vulnerable position. Few animals appear to be immune to tiger predation. Few animals are off the tiger menu. The same can be said about the lion. However, there will be differences in the prey animals that they eat because of availability.

The lion and tiger live in different places on the planet and the availability of prey animals differs in these places. Also, both these big cats require large animals to successfully feed adequately. The tiger, for instance, will hunt chital in the Royal Badia National Park, Nepal as a primary prey animal. Across their distribution, primarily in India, they will hunt barking deer, sambar, gaur, hog deer, chital, wild pig to name some animals but there will also attack and eat small mammals, primates, badgers and porcupines for example. 

The lion will eat fish sometimes and impala, waterbuck, springbok, zebra, eland, warthog, giraffe, buffalo, bushbuck, ostrich to name some examples including the porcupine and other small animals. It's a huge range of animals. It has to be because they take what's available and the same goes for tigers.

To recap, the lion and tiger prey on different animals but there is an overlap and at heart these big cats have exactly the same nutrients in their make up and so, yes, tigers and lions eat the same food.

Are felines carnivores?

I would hope and expect that 99.9% of the world's population know that felines are carnivores. They are meat eaters. It is stronger than that. They have to eat meat because they are what are called 'obligate carnivores'. They are obliged to eat the flesh of animals due to their evolution. They are specialists as genetic mutations have lead them to becoming dependent on the flesh of animals.

But it is not as straightforward as that. Although evolution dictates that they have to eat the flesh of animals they do also eat the stomach contents of the animals that they kill. The stomach contents will be vegetation because they prey upon animals that feed on vegetation i.e. herbivores. So felines also eat vegetation.

A lot of commercially prepared cat food is based on polluted carcasses of animals and therefore arguably plant based foods + added nutrients is better in quality. Image: MikeB.

Also, we know that domestic cats sometimes eat grass. That is a plant and the plant is not an animal! And therefore felines are not exclusively carnivores. They eat grass, it is believed, because grass contains folic acid which is missing in their diet. Folic acid plays a role in the production of haemoglobin, the oxygen carrying protein found in red blood cells. Although there are many theories about why cats eat grass.

The snow leopard specifically eats a certain bush i.e. vegetation and it is my theory that they do this because it increases the amount of oxygen in their bloodstream. It therefore enhances their ability to live at high altitude. I stress that this is my theory because no scientist has studied this. Although I have an article about the snow leopard being partly vegetarian! You can click here to read that article if you wish. Note: In Pakistan more than 22% of faeces of snow leopards inspected contained plant matter and in Ladakh (in the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir ) more than 50% contained vegetation including willow and Myricaria bushes (Myricaria germanica)

Another point worth making about felines being carnivores is that there is a trend nowadays towards eating plant protein rather than protein from the muscle of animals. This is to help curb climate change. Therefore manufacturers have started to sell plant-based dry cat food for domestic cats. On the face of it this is not going to work but the manufacturers add the nutrients necessary to make the food balanced for domestic cats. You can make your own mind up about it but I believe that as long as the essential nutrients are present at a microbiological level then the food is nutritious.

There is a caveat to that last statement and that is this. A recent study decided that if you want to curb the hunting of the domestic cat (and a lot of cat owners do) you should feed them with a high quality grain-free entirely meat-based wet cat food. You should find that they hunt less. It appears that "complete and balanced" wet cat food normally available is not quite as complete as it should be and therefore the domestic cat decides to hunt mice in order to supplement what they might consider to be a deficient diet from their perspective.

This is a novel approach to curbing domestic cat hunting. Further work is needed on this. But domestic cat wet cat food and dry cat food can be quite deficient and too far removed from a natural prey animal such as a mouse. Dry cat food is highly artificial for example. It's convenient but there are deficiencies with it. And there's too much plant material to bulk up cat food and to keep the price down. But hundreds of millions of cats fed on this type of cat food and they survive on it but we don't know how much health damage it does to them in the long term.

To return to the question in the title: are felines carnivores? Yes, is the answer because evolution dictates that. They have become highly specialised due to their evolution and dependent upon a meat-based diet. In the wild they satisfy that evolutionary demand by preying on wild animals and sometimes livestock (e.g. the mountain lion). But in the human world, people have found ways to feed the domestic cat with plant protein and dry foods containing grain which is less than ideal.

Are felines nocturnal?

The answer to the question depends upon the species of feline that you are referring to and the circumstances under which they are living. There is no simple black-and-white answer to the question. For example, the domestic cat tends to be nocturnal or a better description is crepuscular which means active at dawn and dusk when prey is about.

Tiger at night. This is not real because there are no white tigers in the wild. Photo: Pixabay.

But domestic cats are also active during the daytime sometimes. They just tend to be more active when daylight is subdued or it is dark. But the domestic cat is only one species of about 36 (the number of cat species is still contentious). I'm not going to go through every single wild cat species to tell you whether they are nocturnal or not but I'll mention one or two to give you an idea about what I'm talking about.

The American bobcat is distributed across America except for a 'hole' in the middle of it near the Great Lakes so it is a very well known wild cat. Bobcats are primarily crepuscular like the domestic cat. They are most active in the few hours before and after sunset and sunrise. There are exceptions

Some studies have found that bobcats are mainly nocturnal while other reports have found that they may be active at any time of the day or that they are arrhythmic (without any pattern or rhythm). In some places bobcats are more active during the daytime in winter because they must spend more time searching for food. In essence it would seem that a bobcat's activity coincides with the activity of the animals that it hunts. That makes sense. As I said the answer to the question the title has to be nuanced.

Canada lynx. Photo: Pixabay.

Taking another well-known medium-sized wild cat species living in North America, the Canada lynx, this cat is primarily nocturnal although they may be seen moving about at any time of the day. The animals that they mainly prey upon, snowshoe hares, are basically nocturnal which is why the Canada lynx is also mainly nocturnal. Once again you can see that the activity of the cat is dependent upon the activity of the prey.

The ocelot is a very well known small to medium-sized wildcat. Its coat has made the coats of many rich and famous people in the past. They are primarily nocturnal but they also hunt during the daytime especially when the weather is cloudy and rainy. They may be entirely nocturnal in areas where they are hunted by people. That sentence would apply to the past in America because as far as I'm aware they are no longer hunted by people because they are protected in North America if they are still extant on that continent.

The mountain lion lives in both North America and South America. They have a huge range in terms of distribution. These cats can be found hunting at any time of the day or night. In most areas the peak activity is reported to be around dawn and dusk i.e. crepuscular. They rest during the middle of the day. Once again their activity levels coincide with that of their major prey animals. Therefore it is seasonal and it depends upon where they live. For example, in the Idaho Primitive Area they are active during daytime to hunt ground squirrels. Where humans are more active such as where they are logging timber, mountain lions avoid them by being more active at night.

The concept of wild cats being more active at night to avoid people is also apparent with leopards. And you will find that lions also behave like this when necessary. They tend to avoid people by becoming nocturnal. Lions are apparently primarily nocturnal but there are no hard and fast rules as mentioned. It depends on the availability of prey animals to kill to eat and the type of habitat where they live which provides cover when stalking. Activity levels also depend upon the seasons and temperatures. And lastly it depends upon whether they are disturbed by people.

There have been reports of lions becoming nocturnal to avoid trophy hunters killing them. In the Serengeti there are two major peaks of activity, one of which is just after dark and the other between two and four in the morning.

Lastly, as I'm just giving you an idea as to whether cats are nocturnal or not, I will mention the tiger. Once again, in response to the activity of people, in certain parts of the world they have become totally nocturnal. If they are undisturbed by people they can be seen to hunt at any time of the day or night. Once again, also, their activity levels depend upon the activity of their prey animals. In other words it mirrors the activity patterns of the animals that they kill to eat. For example, in Chitwan National Park both male and female tigers mainly travelled at night for about 10 to 12 hours.

If you want to read more about the wild cat species and whether they are nocturnal or not then I would suggest that you search for those details on the main website which you can access by clicking here.