15 Weird BIG CAT Facts School Never Taught You

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In this video, we discuss 15 unique facts about big cats that get overlooked.

When you think of the deadliest animals on Earth, big cats are probably the first thing that comes to mind. And honestly, it makes sense. They are some incredibly powerful animals that beckon our chaos driven minds and make us wonder how one of the big cats would faire against something like gorillas, or even a straight up grizzly bear. And ya know what, they’ve been hyped up through humanity's existence, that they managed to spawn one of the most heated debates in all of history; Lion vs tiger.

But besides all that, I’ve got some really unique and fascinating facts about big cats. I’ll be talking about very obscure facts that even scientists sleep on, like, did y’all know that all the big cats besides lions have false eye patterns on the back of their ears? Why is that? Well, I explain that later on in the video, so make sure to stick around for that.

What defines a big cat?
How do we even know what a big cat is? Have you ever thought why cougars and cheetahs aren’t considered big cats? Well, how we classify them is surprisingly debatable. To put simply, there are 2 methods. Number 1 is genetics: basically, anything in the panthera genus, which includes lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, and snow leopards. That's good and everything, but then there’s also another way we do it, which is any large cats that have a 2-piece hyoid bone that enables them to roar. Yes, so the other way we determine what makes felids big cats is if the cats can roar. And that definition excludes snow leopards. So, it really depends on which expert you ask. For me, I classify big cats via if they have a 2-piece hyoid bone. Sorry to the snow leopard, but that’s just me, some scientists may say differently and prefer the simpler panthera genus method.

Tags: Wildlife, animals, tiger, lion, jaguar, leopard, snow leopard, wildlife, animal kingdom, powerful predators, nature, nature documentary, fun facts, facts, cats, zoo