Need Some Really Strange And Engaging Big Cat Facts

[nellypope]

I'm entering a graphic competition (infographics to be precise) and the subject is endangered big cats. There are plenty of facts about various aspects of the species and how they are disappearing, but what I really wanted was an unusual one (think QI with Stephen Fry) It can be any endangered big cat and their habitat. I can search for hours, there are many, but I was hoping that someone on here may have one, a fact that has stuck with them, struck a chord maybe.

Thankyou.

[wolf63]

My two are a bit on the podgy side - does that count as a big cat?

Are you looking for snippet type facts or long winded facts. Which of the big cats interests you? Who is running the competition - that could give a hint to the level of information that they would appreciate.

[nellypope]

Thank's Wolf, it can be any big cat at all, many of the chinese medicine facts are interesting, but can't help but feel this may vilify the eastern hemisphere.
The comp is being run by Purr Digital (marketing company)
https://www.facebook.com/events/160152247511955/

Any facts would be good, long or short.

[seadogg]

Don't know much about big cats but if you sit under a bear berry tree in the Rockies and a big grizzly bear turns up you could be on the menu.

[wolf63]

I am off for my afternoon nap, will check internet later. Any idea of your chosen moggies? Tigers look impressive and many are endangered. Does it have to be a big cat? The Scottish Wildcat is at risk too.

[jno]

cheetahs are all very closely related - they think there may have been only one breeding couple about 1000 years ago, the cheetah Adam and Eve. The downside is that they are so close genetically, one bout of cheetah flu could wipe them all out.

[nellypope]

Jno, that's great, (not for the cheetahs though) like the Scottish Wildcat angle, bit of tartan in there, that could work.

[EcclesCake]

A tiger keeper once told me that their whiskers were hidden in food to kill your enemy. Apparently their whiskers are like glass and will slice through your internal organs causing a slow, painful and presumably messy death.

I pity the poor bugger who was sent out to harvest the whiskers......

I'll do some Googling to see if I can find anything to substantiate the claim.

[ChillDoubt]

There has supposedly never been a recorded incident of a snow leopard attacking a human.

[jno]

I've not been able to confirm the cheetah story exactly as I was told it. The figure websites give for the genetic bottleneck is actually 10,000 years ago. This website suggests that after some sort of natural disaster (might have been climate change) there were only seven left

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/1999/08/02/40791.htm

"Cheetahs are very inbred. They are so inbred, that genetically they are almost identical."

[jno]

the country with the greatest number of tigers isn't India, it's America. Most are kept as pets.

There are maybe 3200 tigers in the wild in Asia but 5000, not in the wild, in the USA.

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2010/10/21/americas_5000_backyard_tigers/

[doctordb]

There are no panthers.

[doctordb]

^^^^ black panthers

[jno]

have they all joined the Republican Party now, doctorb?

[doctordb]

Maybe jno. They say the older you get the more right wing you become. :)

[tamborine]

There are no tiger parts in Tiger Balm but Tiger Balm will ease a tiger scratch

[nellypope]

Thanks everyone, love the whiskers story, it would tie in brilliantly with some graphics I have in mind.

Jno, many thanks, I really like the tigers as pets fact.

[pixie373]

Tigers have stripy skin as well as fur.

[wolf63]

my broadband is unstable - like me - so I can't help you much. When you have decided which cat you are going to concentrate on let us/me/the world know. :-)