When you were a child, did you ever hear a fable about a cat and a tiger? It is said that a long time ago, the tiger worshiped the cat as his teacher. The tiger learned hunting, fighting and other skills very seriously, and finally succeeded in learning. So the cat told the tiger, you are ready to start training, I don’t have any skills that I can still give you.

The tiger had a sudden change of mind, and in order to become the king of animals in the future, he became murderous. It believes that as long as it can kill cats, no other animal has the same skills as itself and can dominate them well. So, the tiger relied on its own advantage and began to attack the cat.

The fable of a tiger becoming a disciple of a cat

I didn’t expect it , the cat also kept an extra thought, and retained the skill of climbing up the tree without teaching it to the tiger, and jumped up the tree in one go, thus escaping the disaster. A fable is a fable after all, but cats and tigers are indeed closely related from a genetic point of view. Let’s find out together today.

Cats

Cats now exist more in our lives as pets. As early as 3,500 years ago, humans began to domesticate cats. Of course, due to cats' own personality characteristics, it is difficult for them to be completely domesticated like dogs.

Cute cats

Cats are generally cute in shape, with a round head, a short face, five fingers on the forelimbs, and four toes on the hind legs. Each toe is There are meaty little meat pads. This allows them to move quietly at night, making it difficult for people to detect them.

Cats are extremely agile and can often slip away in an instant. Wild cats will eat rats, fish, etc. For domestic cats, owners usually prepare canned food and cat food for them. Besides cats being able to climb trees, their sense of balance is the most amazing. You can fly over the eaves and walk over the walls, and take a leisurely walk on the high walls.

A cat relies on its tail for balance

Its tail is the key to balancing the entire position. It only needs to change the position of its tail to achieve good body balance, and then use the strong muscles and strong joints of its hind feet to jump nimbly. Even when falling from a high altitude, the tail can be used to adjust the landing of the rear feet lightly. This is why we often say that cats have nine lives.

In Egyptian mythology, the cat symbolizes the savior and is considered the embodiment of light, so it has a high status.

Egyptian Cat

According to legend, the Sun God’s ship was accompanied by the ghosts of the dead. When it passed through the underworld,The poisonous snake Apep prevented the sun god from drinking the water under the boat, but the cat appeared and cut off the Apep snake's head. The ghost of the deceased made a "meow" sound to cheer the cat, and the Egyptians were able to see the sun again. This also fully demonstrates that cats have a very unique status in human hearts.

The cat’s distant relative, the tiger

In fact, the tiger, which is also a cat, should be a relative if we take it seriously. Zoologists have discovered that, in addition to similarities in some of their living habits, domestic cats share 96% of their genes with tigers.

Cat VS Tiger

So these two The only difference between species is the 4% difference. Tigers belong to the family Felidae-Leopardinae-Leopardia, and cats belong to the family Felidae-Felinae-Felis, so they belong to the same family but different genera. The characteristic of leopards is that they can make roaring sounds and their pupils can expand and contract freely, but cats cannot.

Within this 4% difference in genes, do you wonder why similar genes have very different body shapes? The saber-toothed tiger, which is also their ancestor, is actually more than twice the size of cats and tigers. However, due to various reasons, the saber-toothed tiger became extinct, which made the tiger appear larger.

Sabre-toothed tiger

Darwin once proposed that the fittest survive, and there is also a term in biology called "adaptive radiation." This means that even if the same type of animals are placed in different environments and fed in different ways, they will develop different characteristics over time.

The fable I just told you is actually just a fable, because tigers can climb trees, and their tree climbing ability is also very strong. The reason why we rarely see tigers climbing trees is because as an apex predator on land, tigers can already take down the surrounding prey, so they usually do not climb trees.

A cat is as big as a tiger, can it defeat a tiger?

Now let’s do an experiment, enlarge the cat to be as big as a tiger, and then let them duel, does it have a chance to defeat the tiger? The answer is of course no. Due to a long period of evolution, cats and tigers have many essential differences, even though they have become the same size.

Changes in body structure

Due to differences in acquired environments, cats and tigers gradually became different in their physiological structures. Cats have a total of 230 bones, while tigers have 250 bones.

Cat’s pupils

Their pupils are also slightly different. The cat's pupils are oval and can be enlarged and reduced, while the tiger's pupils are round and cannot change freely. Of course, after the structure of their vocal cords has undergone certain changes, their aura has also changed. A cat's meow is small and gentle, but a tiger's meow is still very intimidating.

Changes in physiological characteristics

Cats and tigers are also very different in terms of combat effectiveness. The tiger's fighting power, explosive power and bite force are not comparable to cats. But cats have a characteristic that tigers cannot match: cats are very flexible and have a strong sense of balance.

The fighting tiger

When encountering an enemy, his ability to dodge is also worthy of praise. So even if they are the same size, cats are definitely no match for tigers. After all, when playing PK, what you pay more attention to is the combat index.

Summary

In any case, cats and tigers have the same ancestor. This is an indisputable fact. Each species has its own uniqueness, even if they are homologous. So, readers, which one is your favorite, cats or tigers?