1. Tigers are the biggest cats in the world.

2. The male Siberian or Amur Tiger is the largest cat in the world.

3. Cats spend about two-thirds of their lives asleep. This is a great way of saving energy for hunting.

4. Cats have a special organ in the roof of their mouths, called the Jacobson's organ. This allows them to "taste" smells. When the cat curls back its lips (a process known as "flehming"), it can analyze scents. This is what cats are using when they scrunch up their eyes and open their mouths after sniffing something intently!

5. The fastest cat, the cheetah, is also the fastest land animal. It can reach 95 km/h (60 mph) over short distances. Unlike other big cats it does not roar. It makes high-pitched yelps, barks and chirruping sounds.

6.There are 37 species of wild cats in the world.

7.Today, more than two-thirds of the world's wild cats are now rare or endangered. They are threatened by encroaching civilization, sport hunting, and poaching.

8. All cats, big or small, spend their time engaged in the same type of activities. Hunting, eating, sleeping, cleaning, and playing are all regular events in the lives of cats.

9. In the rear of a cat’s eye is a light-reflecting layer called the tapetum lucidum, which causes cats’ eyes to glow at night. This reflecting layer absorbs light 6 times more effectively than human eyes do, allowing a cat to see better than humans at night.

10. Neither captive born animals nor their offspring can EVER be returned to the wild.

Tiger Facts

Common Name: Tiger
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata (Vertebrata)
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Genus: Pantherinae Panthera
Species: tigris
Sub-species:
Bengal Tiger - Panthera tigris tigris
Siberian (Amurian) Tiger - Panthera tigris altaica
Sumatran Tiger - Panthera tigris sumatrae
Indo-Chinese Tiger - Panthera tigris corbetti
South China Tiger - Panthera tigris amoyensis
Javan Tiger - Panthera tigris sondaica - extinct since early 1980's
Bali Tiger - Panthera tigris balica - extinct since the 1940's
Caspian Tiger - Panthera tigris virgata - extinct since the early 1970's

1.Tigers, like most cats are solitary, however, they are not anti-social. Males not only come together with females for breeding, but will feed with or rest with females and cubs

2.Tigers live 10-12 years in the wild. In captivity, they usually live up to 20 years.

3.Tigers occupy a wide variety of habitats including tropical evergreen forests, deciduous forests, coniferous woodlands (Taiga), mangrove swamps, thorn forests and grass jungles.

4.The roar of the Bengal Tiger can be heard two miles away.

5.Stripes are individual, each as different as our fingerprints.

6.The stripe pattern on their fur is also on their skin.

7.The tiger hunts alone, primarily between dusk and dawn, traveling six to 20 miles in a night in search of prey. Catching a meal is not easy; a tiger is successful only once in ten to 20 hunts.

8. The tiger is listed as endangered on the U.S. Endangered Species List and on Appendix I of CITES. Between 5,100 and 7,600 tigers remain in the wild

9.The size of a tiger's territory depends on the amount of food available, and usually ranges from about 10 to 30 square miles (26-78 sq. km).

10. Tigers love water and like to hunt in the water.

Lion Facts

Common Name: Lion
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata (Vertebrata)
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Genus: Pantherinae Panthera
Species: leo

1.Lions are social animals. Lions live together in a pride based upon a group of related females (Lionesses) and their cubs. Surprisingly, the pride is led by a dominant female. When a new male joins a pride it will drive away the other males and kill any remaining cubs, then mate with the females to produce his own offspring.

2. They are the only cats whose males have a mane.

3. A Lion's roar can be heard for 5 to 6 miles.

4. The lion prefers to live in open woodlands and thick bush, scrub, and tall grassy areas. The lion can and will tolerate a wide variety of habitats, absent only from rain forests and desert interiors.

5. The Lion's head and body can be up to eight feet, two inches, and tail up to three feet, five inches. Its weight can be up to 550 pounds.

6. Lions are primarily ground-dwellers, but occasionally jump up tree branches. Most Lions will remain in the same territory all year long, however some are nomadic and follow the seasonal prey.

7. Second only in size to the Siberian tiger among the felines, the lion is the largest carnivore in Africa, and the second largest feline predator in the world.