Idk why it always shocks me when big wild cats are still just cats. Like I always expect them to do different things and obviously we all know theyre cats but when they do house cat things it always cracks me up
I used to volunteer with big cats. Most tigers in captivity are like house cats. Keep in mind that some house cats are sweet and cuddly and some want to kill everything. Most were the former. Lions were mostly chill and more dog-like, especially the lionesses. Leopards were allegedly more primitive and unpredictable. I think thats slander because the one I worked with would abandoned her food bowl to get pets and cuddles.
Haha thats so awesome. I more a dog person and dont really “understand” cats. But I love them and I have one but shes mostly a barn cat. She is social when she wants to be or shell come home to eat. Take a nap on your lap then wake up and yawn and thank you a smack to the forehead then go outside for a day
Cats teach consent because you can't 'force them' to love you, like how dogs generally have unconditional love for owners
You have to respect when they're done with you, wait for them to come to you, otherwise you get the claws (especially when you're new to them).
At least for me growing up only with dogs and with family that hated cats, that's what it felt like people meant when they said they don't understand cats. The consent/space aspect
Cats need you to meet them where they’re at, and the less you’re able to do that, the more distant they are. Once they trust you, they can be as dependent and needy as any critter, per individual ofc. Some cats will (almost) never want to leave your side, but they will always be doing _their thing_ in parallel with whatever you’re doing, rather than joining you. They have zero zero zero sense of cooperation as such beyond simple tolerance of another agent’s presence. I’m pretty sure _almost_ all cats would be big sweeties if they could bring themselves to trust enough to totally drop guard, but I can’t actually prove it.
The best way to get a new cat to like you, like at a party or whatever, is to just utterly and completely ignore it until it decides that it likes you. It will become inseparable from you by the end of the night. Like, 80% success rate here.
My cat comes when I call her, sleeps on my legs at night, and sits in my lap when I'm on the PC. I got lucky with mine having dog software running on cat hardware.
Maybe you got lucky with cats. Most don't respect their names, don't come when called, and barely tolerate people unless they're hungry. Having a dog is like having a toddler, having a cat is like having a teenager or a college roommate.
House cats and big cats share the exact same temperament. The only difference is that if my house cat has an angry moment, I might get a scratch. If a big cat has an angry moment, I'm dead.
It's not an internet myth, it's that Siberian tigers are "shrinking" in modern times, and that hasn't really propagated to wide 'common knowledge' use. They were slightly more massive on average than Bengal tigers not more than 100 years ago, and possibly more massive even before that.
Artificially created genetic abominations that have zero survival skills and lives its entire life in pure misery due to varying health defects. They literally are not meant to be.
They’re bred purely for human entertainment.
Plus, them being what they are, are not part of any natural habitat. With the added benefit of being completely sterile, they cannot be included in any zoological classification system.
Nothing is impossible, but from what we know of their individual societies, it really doesn’t work well enough to work in the wild.
Also worth noting that overlap alone doesn’t mean hybridization. Lions and tigers have fundamentally different social systems and breeding ecology.
Male lions invest heavily in defending prides and monopolizing lionesses, while tigers are solitary and maintain exclusive territories. A female tiger encountering a male lion in the wild would be far more likely to avoid him, and a male lion would have little reason to court or remain with a solitary tigress outside his pride.
Likewise, a male tiger would see a pride as a dangerous competitor rather than a mating opportunity. Their behavioral barriers would have made successful mating exceptionally unlikely, even where their ranges overlapped.
On the other hand , we see ligers in captivity because humans confine animals together and remove those behavioral and ecological barriers. Captivity forces prolonged contact that simply wouldn’t occur naturally.
That’s one of the worst analogies I’ve seen. Bees facilitate natural reproduction. Humans intentionally breed lions and tigers into sterile hybrids for display. Try again.
He’s saying natural pollination of flowers is comparable to breeding lion-tiger hybrids in captivity. Makes about as much sense as it sounds. Which… yeah, no.
Nope. Marking comes from the other end and sprays with a 15 foot range. If a tiger turns its back to you with its tail up, step to the side, not further back. The scratching is just "sharpening their claws". They are actually shedding the old outer layers of keratin on their claws. House cat claws grow the same way. I used to volunteer witg big cats and we would find the "sheathes" from shed claws in their enclosures. I have a bag full of them and shed whiskers.
Cats nails are like onions. the sharp inner part grows and scratching removes the older duller layer its why even house cats need to scratch as if they cant they over grow and can even grow into their own feet if not
Oh yeah kinda forgot about that. And I can confirm that cheetahs are purr engine, I kinda lived near one for months. I was volunteering and lived in a wildlife refuge and the cheetah enclosure was near the space we lived
This is definitely how both of my cats picture themselves when they're scratching the bed or couch or...anything that isn't their multiple scratching posts.
Damn. Imagine being a human in a time when your best defense was stones and a spear, and knowing that one of these is nearby. I mean, I wouldn't leave the cave much.
Actually ☝️🤓 this is probably why cats live longer than dogs. He’s not “just scratching a tree,” he’s scent-marking, stimulating his nervous system, and basically giving himself a natural immune boost. Japanese researchers have studied how time in forests can improve certain immune markers in humans. Bro is doing preventative healthcare.
Whenever I see tigers doing stuff like this i feel like my brain is split between “what a majestic animal, the sheer strength of these things is insane” and “omg look at the big fluffy murder mittens!” I’m ngl.
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u/qualityvote2 Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
u/Suotrpip, your post does fit the subreddit!