Talk:Big cat

Capitalization of article

Moved big cat to Big Cat since it's a proper noun, more or less, and leaves room for discussion of the so-called "big cats" in the uncapitalized version. -- JohnOwens 01:00 Mar 26, 2003 (UTC)

Actually, I'm pretty sure Big Cat is *not* a proper noun. Animal names, as a rule, are not proper nouns (with a few obvious exceptions like Grevy's zebra). Funnyhat 04:04, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Clarity again

Also beneath the picture of the tiger is the very unscientific caption "the tiger is the heaviest of the cats" should it be changed, as it doesn't take in to effect extinct cats, does not mention the word species which is important as "Ligers" can and do get bigger but being a hybrid are not a species.

Fixed. In future pls put new comments at the bottom of the talk page and sign your entry with 4 of these ~ . Secret Squïrrel, approx 12:55, 4 Fabruary 2009 (Earth Standard Time)

Any cat bigger than a housecat

Bobcats and lynxes are also considered "big cats" as this is more a legal than a scientific term, and they're included among protected species etc. Most cats in the wild are quite frightened of humans and cats smaller than cougars very rarely approach a person. That is to say nothing about the disposition of the said cat: some are friendlier than others. justinacolmena (talk) 10:32, 10 November 2022 (UTC)

That's not the typical usage of the term. - UtherSRG (talk) 12:29, 10 November 2022 (UTC)

Indeed, it is a recognized usage: https://carnegiemnh.org/big-cats-big-personalities/ . Drsruli (talk) 11:27, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

Definition

"Big cats" may include any feline species with recorded weights of over 100lbs. Drsruli (talk) 19:49, 10 December 2023 (UTC)

@Drsruli that may be the colloquial definition, but the scientific definition requires the animal to be of the genus Panthera and to be able to roar. I think that this page needs to differentiate between the two definitions because it has resulted in contradictory information throughout the whole page. Jenjiboo (talk) 05:07, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

“Big cat” is a colloquial, not a scientific, term. See National Geographic here employs a similar definition: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/big-cats-1#:~:text=But%20some%E2%80%94the%20lion%2C%20tiger,recognizable%20animals%20on%20the%20planet. Drsruli (talk) 11:24, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

Possibly, some of the confusion is related to inclusion of the Snow Leopard, which cannot roar and was not included in Panthera (until 2010) (https://kateyduffey.wordpress.com/2016/06/26/family-ties-the-snow-leopards-identity-crisis/ ). So these other cats that are actually bigger, and also can’t roar, became logically included. (Snow leopard did not become bigger, just because the taxonomy changed….) The expression is a practical one, and for practical purposes, then cheetahs and cougars are sometimes grouped together, and it happens that those two have a unique lineage, besides. (Puma is no longer Felis concolor, so if we reverse your definition to just exclude members of felis, or “small cats”, then we meet you halfway, as it were.) Drsruli (talk) 11:41, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

(I'm newish, hoping this is a reasonable place to add this)

First graf implies pretty clearly that cheetahs and cougars are not big cats, but second graf then refers to them in the context of "fellow big cats". This makes the distinction so muddy as to be useless, I fear. Seems like the first graf should make it clearer, perhaps adding to "is typically used to refer to" adding "...used BY BIOLOGISTS..." and maybe adding something like ...but other large cats such as the cheetah, cougar, and lynx--and, in fact, any cat other than domestic house cats--are thought of by most non-biologists as big cats".

This Reddit thread (original post removed, but the comments are what's trenchant) demonstrates how confusing this is:

https://www.reddit.com/r/confidentlyincorrect/comments/1kwd351/people_arguing_over_what_a_big_cat_is_this_was_on/

I'm happy to just update the page but since this is kind of a theological change, it seemed worth discussing rather than possible starting an update/revert battle. Sedaya boroda (talk) 16:07, 27 May 2025 (UTC)

Remove cheetah and cougar

Felinae is literally small cats. Also, why Neofelis which is in the same subfamily Pantherinae not included, but cheetah and cougar do?

Thus, imo cheetah and cougar should be considered "biggest of small cats", not the opposite "smallest of big cats." Also, cheetah and cougar can't roar like other big cats (with the exception of snow leopard since 2017).

Therefore, i suggest: not to remove them entirely, but just add additional sentence(s) like "sometimes include cheetah, cougar, etc..." based on refs. So, the main structure still just those five from genus Panthera (or include all members of subfamily thus we get good Pantherine (big cats) and Feline (small cats), but i guess not). EdhyRa (talk) 13:02, 31 May 2025 (UTC)