Yowiehunters Forum

Hello

Just wandering... what large cats does America have.. & what big Cats does Africa have

Are any common in both countries????????? IF NOT, WHY??? And how did they get there?

This may help answer what we have & why it may be different to what they have & possibly how it got here..

Okay it may not give us straight answers but wouldnt hurt throwing some ideas.. If someone could start with listing what each of those zones have that would be great as i havnt a clue what US has.. i do belive they have a few

The US has Pumas, also called Mountain Lion and Catamount. They have Bobcats which are smaller. On the borderlands that are near Mexico, like New Mexico, Texas, etc there have been cases of Jaguars shot and killed. Normally Jaguars would only be found in South America.

For big cats we have cougars aka puma, mountain lion and supposedly catamount though I've never heard anyone call them one, , which I've seen a couple here in Washington State and a growing number of Jaguar down south. We have medium sized Bobcats which are pretty common and Lynx which are pretty rare in my state. They are common enough to be hunted and trapped elsewhere on the continent. We share no native species with Africa but atleast one African Lioness may be roaming the hills of Southern California.
Both Cougars and Jaguars roam South America also. Other medium cats like Ocelot, Jaugarandi, margay and a few others whose names escape me now are down there spreading into central and southern north america.
its late and i just realized my spelling errors but oh well.

Lions once roamed N.America at the same time as Clovis Man. I recently saw a doco that showed a jaguar in Arizona.

Have a broad look at the "Felinae" and the "Pantherinae" family trees of big cats. Only the "Felinae" cats share both American and African diversity while none of the "Pantherine" exist in the US except the Jaguar.

Cool thing about the US however is that the Smilodon was unique only to America, which in my opinion, was the greatest big cat ever.