Unianimal
No Result
View All Result
  • BIRDS
  • DOG
  • CAT
  • HORSE
  • ELEPHANT
  • SNAKE
  • CONTACT US
  • BIRDS
  • DOG
  • CAT
  • HORSE
  • ELEPHANT
  • SNAKE
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Unianimal
No Result
View All Result
Home Cat

Top 8 Deadliest Cats – AZ Animals

IAN WARKENTIN by IAN WARKENTIN
April 22, 2023
Top 8 Deadliest Cats – AZ Animals

Key Points:

  • Most predatory cats catch their prey less than half of the time, the deadliest cats have a higher success rate.
  • Domesticated house cats make it surprisingly high on the list!
  • The most deadly cat on this list is also one of the smallest, making it a fast hunter.

Cats are some of the most effective predators in the world. The fact that so many unique species spread across the earth is the result of over a dozen migrations across the Bering Strait stretching over millions of years is a demonstration that their basic anatomy can translate well into a wide variety of environments. Fossil records analyzed in 2015 even suggest that the effectiveness of feline species to become apex predators in their environment may have stifled the growth and differentiation of contemporary canines.

That said, what qualifies as success for predators in the wild might surprise you. Most mammalian predators catch less than half of the prey they pursue — and while the success rates of cat species tend to be higher, that’s not telling the whole story. Cats in the wild are typically pursuit predators, which means that even a successful hunt requires a pretty sizable energy expenditure. And the fact that most species are solitary predators means that there’s no contingency plan if a hunt goes bad.

Success rates only tell us so much — particularly when taking into account the complicated conditions and changes within a given ecosystem — but they do give us a place to start from. These are the eight deadliest cats in the world ranked by their success rates as hunters.

Success Rate: 60%

Deadliest Cats - black footed cat
Black-Footed Cat, Felis nigripes, is the deadliest cat in the world, with a hunting success rate of 60%.

©slowmotiongli/Shutterstock.com

The most successful predator in the world may be the dragonfly thanks to its recorded hunting success rate of 95%, so it shouldn’t come as a complete surprise that the most dangerous cat in the wild is also one of the smallest species. Weighing barely three pounds and hailing from South Africa, the black-footed cat is the top predator for birds and mice within its savanna ecosystem. As lions stalk gazelles and wildebeests, the black-footed cat uses its exceptional night vision and hearing to hunt exclusively under the cover of darkness and takes advantage of its tiny body to slink carefully through the tall grass.

But success rates of 60% might actually be a necessity for these predators. The incredibly fast metabolism of the black-footed cat ensures that it needs to eat up to a third of its body weight to survive and that they sleep only a fraction of the time that most cat species do.

READ ALSO

Let The Cat Out Of The Bag: Meaning and Origin Revealed

Top 8 Heaviest and Fattest Cats

You can learn about some of the world’s other cutest animals — albeit ones significantly less deadly than the black-footed cat — here.

2. Cheetah

Success Rate: 58%

Deadliest Cats - Cheetah
Cheetahs are one of the deadliest cats, with a very fast metabolism.

©iStock.com/nicholas_dale

The black-footed cat and cheetah both have fast metabolisms, but the former has to spend roughly all of its waking time hunting, while the latter instead focuses on being as efficient with its energy usage as possible. Reaching a top speed of 80 miles per hour requires a lot of energy, but the ability to accelerate to 60 in just three seconds allows them to overcome most prey before it becomes a race of endurance and the cost of energy becomes far pricier.

Cheetahs are also known for being highly maneuverable and can shift with their prey’s movements almost seamlessly. But the threat from other big cats is a demonstration that being a successful hunter doesn’t always mean that you can keep that prey. Despite the risk of overheating in the harsh African sun, cheetahs tend to hunt during dusk, dawn, or daytime to prevent their kill from being poached or stolen by other predators.

Cheetahs can regularly go up to five days without feeding, and you can learn more interesting facts about these deadliest cats here.

3. Leopard

Success Rate: 38%

Rarest animal – Amur leopard
The Amur leopard has been considered one of the rarest cats on earth. In 2007, it was estimated that only 19 to 26 wild leopards were living in southeastern Russia and northeastern China.

©Dmitri Gomon/Shutterstock.com

Leopards take a different approach to avoiding territorial aggression or poaching from hyenas, lions, and other big cats. They simply bring their meals into the trees where they can eat unmolested by more terrestrial threats. Though they aren’t the biggest cats on the planet, these felines have powerful bodies that can drag carcasses weighing over a hundred pounds straight up a tree trunk.

Leopards are opportunistic hunters who primarily chase ungulates like impala and gazelles, but they’re not above going after mice or birds or even venturing into the waters to go fishing. Their diet can range from monkeys to warthogs to porcupines, and they aren’t above even snacking on cheetah cubs when the opportunity strikes. Though they’re fast enough to reach speeds of nearly 40 miles per hour, these deadliest cats prefer to use their camouflaged fur to sneak close to their prey and then kill them with a single bite of their powerful jaws.

You can learn more about the unique ambush predator known as the leopard here.

4. Domesticated Cat

Success Rate: 32%

Deadliest Cats - Cat
A young cat hunting a butterfly in a meadow. Domesticated cats are very effective at hunting for rats and other pests, making them one of the deadliest cats.

©iStock.com/Leoba

While it can be easy to think of dogs and cats have become “civilized” over the course of domestication, it’s important to remember that cats domesticated themselves by being so effective at hunting for rats and other pests in and near human settlements. Their popularity as pets has grown all over the world, but that prodigious spread has also allowed them to become one of the world’s deadliest non-native invasive species.

Though they occupy very small territories — often consisting of one or two suburban yards — feral and outdoor pet cats can utterly devastate rodent and bird communities within those bubbles. When looking at these territories in aggregate, domesticated cats have the potential to change a biome dramatically even if they only kill roughly one in three animals they hunt.

Some domesticated cat breeds are more dangerous than others, but you can figure out the details here.

5. Lion

Success Rate: 25%

Lions are one of the deadliest cats, although their hunting statistics are not the best.

©Derek Ramsey / Creative Commons

It’s no coincidence that lions enjoy a low overall success rate as hunters while also employing group tactics to bring down prey. Wolf packs are only successful in roughly one out of ten hunts, but there’s strength in numbers, and the cost of splitting a meal doesn’t matter nearly so much when that meal is a fat caribou.

Lions engage in similar tactics, using ambush techniques to get as close to a herd of prey animals as possible and then working together to take down the weakest and most vulnerable members of the fleeing herd. Without the speed of the cheetah or the stealth of the jaguar, lions have developed different hunting techniques. Yet despite not being the most successful hunter in the cat family lions still fear little other than packs of hyenas — making it clear that hunting rates aren’t necessarily a perfect statistic for identifying the most dangerous cat species.

Learn more about the unique social dynamics of these big cats here.

6. Puma

Success Rate: 20%

Deadliest Cats - Puma
A Puma is an ambush predator. Although their hunting success rate is not that good, they are still one of the deadliest cats out there.

©iStock.com/Kara Capaldo

If you want a more direct comparison between the success rates of felines and canines, look no further than the relationship between pumas and wolves. As ambush predators that get as close as possible to their prey before striking, pumas enjoy both a higher success rate and a higher overall volume of kills than wolves. That comes down to hunting strategies, with pumas being more patient ambush predators and wolves working together to harry and wear down prey. But being a successful hunter doesn’t mean representing the top of the social hierarchy in an environment. Because while wolves may have comparatively dismal success rates at hunting, they actively kill puma cubs and freeze adult mountain lions out of hunting grounds when the territory between these two predators overlaps.

You can learn more about the puma, which is also known as the cougar or mountain lion, here.

7. Tiger

Success Rate: 5 – 10%

Deadliest Cats - Tiger
Tigers are always the apex predators in their ecosystems and definitely one of the deadliest cats.

©dangdumrong/Shutterstock.com

The success rate of tigers is a good reminder of what an important factor prey availability is. While a tiger’s success rates in the wild will normally hover between 10 and 20 percent, they’re still the apex predators in their ecosystems. Smaller predators like dholes and leopards typically find themselves having to defer to the local tiger populations, and tigers are prone to maintaining large territories so that prey sources are always available. That’s the privilege of being the biggest and most dangerous animal within the biome.

It helps that tigers only need to eat about once a week and rarely have to worry about other predators stealing with meals. But in environments like Russia — where larger game and snowy environments prevail — tigers may exhibit success rates approaching or even surpassing half when hunting boar or red deer. In either case, a tiger is almost always the most dangerous cat in its habitat.

You can discover more about this fierce and solitary predator, one of the deadliest cats, here.

8. Bobcat

Success Rate: Unknown

Deadliest Cats - Bobcat
The Bobcats’ success as predators has allowed them to become the most populous wildcat in North America, and also one of the deadliest cats.

©Jack Bell Photography/Shutterstock.com

They might not be the biggest cat in the world, but the roughly 40-pound bobcat is definitely enough to pose a threat to both humans and their pets — and their success as predators has allowed them to become the most populous wildcat in North America.

As generalist predators that are capable of hunting large ungulates but don’t need them to survive, bobcats can subsist on everything from mice and small birds to deer. That’s allowed them to pose a danger to practically any prey animals in their environment, but it’s ultimately a win for the natural balance. In a manner similar to coyotes, the highly adaptable bobcat can slot nicely into an existing habitat and provide balanced population control in areas lacking predator species, making them one of the deadliest cats out there.

There are roughly 3 million bobcats in the United States, and you can discover more about them here.

Summary of the Top 8 Deadliest Cats:

RankCat
1Black-Footed Cat
2Cheetah
3Leopard
4Domesticated Cat
5Lion
6Puma
7Tiger
8Bobcat

Up Next:

IAN WARKENTIN

I am broadly interested in how human activities influence the ability of wildlife to persist in the modified environments that we create.

Specifically, my research investigates how the configuration and composition of landscapes influence the movement and population dynamics of forest birds. Both natural and human-derived fragmenting of habitat can influence where birds settle, how they access the resources they need to survive and reproduce, and these factors in turn affect population demographics. Most recently, I have been studying the ability of individuals to move through and utilize forested areas which have been modified through timber harvest as they seek out resources for the breeding and postfledging phases. As well I am working in collaboration with Parks Canada scientists to examine in the influence of high density moose populations on forest bird communities in Gros Morne National Park. Many of my projects are conducted in collaboration or consultation with representatives of industry and government agencies, seeking to improve the management and sustainability of natural resource extraction.

Next Post
Discover the Largest Maine Coon Cat Ever!

Discover the Largest Maine Coon Cat Ever!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

POPULAR NEWS

Prepare to be Amazed: The 10 Most Gorgeous Birds You’ve Never Seen Before

Prepare to be Amazed: The 10 Most Gorgeous Birds You’ve Never Seen Before

March 13, 2023
12 Teacup Dogs That Don’t Shed

12 Teacup Dogs That Don’t Shed

March 5, 2023
10 Prettiest Horses in the World

10 Prettiest Horses in the World

May 19, 2023
Unbelievable Velocity: These 9 Horses Hold the Title for Fastest Land Animals

Unbelievable Velocity: These 9 Horses Hold the Title for Fastest Land Animals

March 14, 2023

Deacon Frey Eagles Departure: Here’s Why He’s Leaving After Almost Five Years

November 22, 2022

EDITOR'S PICK

Philadelphia Eagles training camp 2022: Schedule, tickets, location and everything to know

November 21, 2022

Do Pigeons Leave Their Eggs Unattended? (Some Interesting Facts!)

November 26, 2022

You mean to tell me that you don’t have Sweet Tea?

December 7, 2022

Swans most aggressive to each other, study finds

December 8, 2022

About Us

Unianimal is a site specializing in knowledge of terrestrial animals, helping you better understand the plant and animal worlds through the most realistic images and videos from our explorers.

Follow us

Category

  • Birds
  • Butterfly
  • Cat
  • Dog
  • Eagle
  • Elephant
  • Horse
  • leopard
  • lion
  • Pig
  • Pitbull
  • tiger
  • Uncategorized

Recent Posts

  • Owl Predators: What Eats Owls?
  • Meet The 7 Types Of Chihuahua Dogs
  • Chihuahua Lifespan: How Long Do Chihuahuas Live?
  • Discover 10 Beautiful Butterflies That Live in Arizona

DMCA

DMCA.com Protection Status
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use

© 2022 designed by Unianimal

No Result
View All Result
  • BIRDS
  • DOG
  • CAT
  • HORSE
  • ELEPHANT
  • SNAKE
  • CONTACT US

© 2022 designed by Unianimal