Wild cat Species
 This
website has adopted a
tiger via the Born Free Foundation
(new window). Please see donations
page. More will follow. No point
rabbiting on without doing
something. The small wildcats are as vulnerable. This site has also
donated £100 to the Scottish Wildcat Association. On 28-6-09
this
site sponsored a cougar named Hal at Big Cat Rescue. On 11-7-09, $250
was donated to The Snow Leopard Trust. Please
see donations
page.
The posts and articles referred to on this page are not intended to replicate or duplicate so many other articles. There is no point. These posts tend to focus on the most pressing and complicated issue facing us all in relation to wild cats - do we want them on the planet when they are wild? Can we live in harmony with them when they are in the wild? All else is secondary, surely? Wild cat species - General material/comment
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The cat species - this is always evolving. Most focus on conservation.
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Wild Cat Species - Political and critical comment
 The survival of the worlds mammals and wildcat species in particular is reaching dangerous levels. There is a real risk of one in four mammals disappearing for ever. This has been reinforced recently by the publication of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™. The truth is that this has been coming for a very long time. This tells us that we have implicitly made up our minds that the best place for other animals is in zoos where we can control them and where they can't get in the way of development, global expansion, population expansion and economic growth. If we do a search for keywords that turn on the term "wildcat" or wild cat", 98% of the keywords are related to football teams, cars, golf clubs or other commercial concerns. We are happy to use the term "wildcat" in our naming of commercial concerns. This is largely the extent of our involvement in wild cat species. I am talking here of humankind generally. We are also happy to look at pictures of them and stand in awe. We are happy to produce miniature versions of wild cats. Examples are the Bengal cat and Savannah. There are others. We like to do it our way. We can control smaller and domesticated versions of the real thing. We can't really cope with the idea of living side by side with wild cats. This is mainly because of uncontrolled human population growth in those countries where the majority of wild cat species live. This erodes wild cat habitat. As one conservation expert said in relation to cheetah habitat, "cheetahs live on farms". In other words they are forced to share farm land with people. A totally impractical arrangement with no solution. If it's not habitat loss it could be sport hunting. I find it astonishing that sport hunting of the cougar is still allowed in some parts of the United States. Once upon a time hunting was about human survival. That is OK. Sport hunting today can never be condoned as acceptable as it is simply passé, something of the past. We should have moved on. We should be more "civilized" whatever that means. I personally find sport hunting barbaric. Do sport hunters consider that they are causing pain for their pleasure? In a world balance of pain-v-pleasure sport hunting equates to pain and it hurts us too. Every time someone shoots a wild cat for pleasure the world becomes less good. A great threat to wild cat species particularly the tiger is Chinese medicine (new window). Sorry to go on endlessly about this. If sport hunting is passé, Chinese medicine is archaic if the ingredients for it are actual body parts of tigers and other rare animals. Substitutes are available but not always used; why not? Why is the Bengal tiger endangered when this wild cat species is protected under the CITES convention (a ban in body parts)? Answer: lack of commitment to enforcement. Lack of money - strange that, when there are some very rich Indian people for example. See CITES in relation to cats. Obviously there are many very committed and concerned groups and individuals who expend a lot of effort to turn back the tide. However, in using a financial term, "the bottom line" is that wild cat species are gradually becoming extinct and the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ confirms that. Will it change? See IUCN Red List for cats. This video is interesting for the fact that the Serval is it seems well socialized and wants to play with the relatively tiny domestic cat. This gives a clue as to size. The owner was unsure about the playing but it looked fine to me. But play when you are that big can hurt the smaller cat! Wild cat species - Comment on acquiring a wildcat for a pet Personally, I don't agree with adopting a wild cat species as a pet, but I accept that lots of people do like to keep wildcats as pets and as long as these people treat pet wildcats with sensitivity and dignity and are aware of the legalities (new window), then people who object should accept it, until things change for good. There are several things to take into account before proceeding. These thoughts relate to the USA, the country where people do keep wildcats as pets. It is exceptionally rare in the UK and mainland Europe to do this:
Here is a list of posts and pages on and about wild cat species. Some are on a subdomain and some are centered around large format images: The place to share your wild cat species experiences or knowledge:
Wild cat species - Photos published under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs creative commons License or the lesser license: Attribution License. The information on this page and the linked pages (on the individual wild cat species) is carefully prepared. However I can't guarantee absolute accuracy mainly because in relation to some cats relatively little is known. If you can assist in making things more accurate I would welcome it. There is a form on this page where a contribution can be made by visitors - thanks. 
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