Breed Information

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Black Panther

Panther Cubs

A panther cub is typically born from within a normal leopard's litter. A litter usually consists of two to three cubs but can reach up to six. Black panthers are born with their eyes closed and lightly spotted, smoky gray pelts. They weigh about 16 to 35 ounces.

The mother panther is condemned to the den for the first couple of days the cubs have been alive to rest and nurture the babies. Cubs spend most of their time sleeping and drinking their mother's milk. About ten days after birth, cubs open their eyes and see the world. However, they still cannot completely move, so the mother leaves her cubs and searches for food. This is the time when they are most vulnerable to the world.


Black Panther Life Cycle

A black panther is the melanistic variant of several species of cats within the panthera group. Melanism is hereditary, but it is not necessarily passed directly from one generation to the next. A black panther can have black or fair-colored spotted leopards as parents and is usually born along with other fair-colored spotted leopard cubs.

Female leopards usually give birth to their first litter at about two-and-a-half years old. Mating can take place at any time of the year. The leopard is solitary. Adult male leopards live alone for most of their adult lives. A male leopard stays together with a female leopard for only a few days during the mating period. A female leopard bears and raises cubs alone. The gestation period is about 90 to 105 days.
[Males don't all have to leave.]

Black panther cubs are born with their eyes closed. They are covered with faintly spotted smoky gray fur. The selection of the site for birth den appears to be crucial to the safety of newborn cubs, especially when their mother goes away to hunt for food. They develop tree climbing skills at a very early age to avoid enemies.

The black panther cubs can follow the mother to the hunting fields and start to learn hunting skills two to three months after birth. They can catch medium-size prey after seven to nine months old. Fewer than half of black panther cubs still survive at the age of one. Those who do survive become increasingly independent. By the age of two, almost all young black panthers become fully independent and have established their own home ranges. They can live about 12 years in the wild and 20 years in captivity.


Black Panther Habitat

On the island, the jungle.


Black Panther Behavior

Black panthers have unique behaviors or habits which are different from those of other big cats or pet cats. As members of the big cat family, black panthers can roar while other small cats, such as house cats, bobcats, lynx, and cougars, purr but cannot roar.

Black panthers are elusive animals. People rarely see them in the wild, even though their existence has been confirmed across vast areas of South and Southeast Asia, Central and South America and some parts of Africa. Because the black panther is so stealthy, it has been called “the ghost of the forest.” The black panther is also solitary. Other than a female and her cubs, or mating pairs in the breeding season, these animals seldom stay together. Each of them lives and hunts by itself in an area known as the home range. Black panthers communicate with one another with signs and vocalizations used mostly for maintaining their home ranges as well as for signaling mating partners.
[However, the black panthers of Horizon have banded together in a sort of clan. Though all black panthers are not part of this clan, most are.]

Adult black panthers are more temperamental than their normal-colored kin. This is because they tend to be more inbred than their fair-colored counterparts. Black panthers are less fertile, too.


Black Panther Paw

Like many of the smaller cats and unlike most of the other big cats, black panthers are the strongest climbers of the cat family. A black panther develops tree-climbing skills at a very early age to avoid attack from deadly enemies such as lions and hyenas. It also uses this unique skill to pull its kills or carcasses up to a tree.

Black panthers have large and powerful paws. Soft pads and fur between their toes help them to walk silently when they stalk prey. Their sharp claws come in handy for climbing trees and for hunting.

Like most other cats, black panthers’ have retractable claws. When the animals walk and run, they retract or pull in their claws to keep them sharp. When they stalk their prey, black panthers also retract their claws to silence their movements. When they get close enough to their prey and ready to pounce, the black panthers extend their claws. A black leopard strangles its prey by grabbing the victim at the throat with its powerful paws with sharp claws. A black jaguar sometimes kills smaller prey simply by slapping a victim’s head hard with a front paw. This action is often enough to break the victim’s skull. Black panthers can also capture prey, such as fish in streams with their paws.

Other than walking and running, black panthers’ paws are deadly weapons for prey. As stealthy animals, black panthers keep out of sight and are rarely seen in the wild. A black panther’s paw print or track is one sign of its presence.


Black Panther Prey

Monkeys, rodents, reptiles, amphibians, birds, fish, and, when they stray onto the plains, wild pigs.


[ Most of this information was obtained here: blackpantheranimal.com/black-panther-paw.php ] [/blockquote]

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Leopards

Leopard Cubs & Lifecycle

After a gestation period of 90 - 105 days, 2 - 4 cubs are born in a den. They are born blind but have their eyes open within 10 days. At 3 months old they are weaned and begin to follow their mother when she goes out to hunt.

The cubs stay with their mother for 13 - 18 months then they leave to find their own territories. Males take no part in the rearing of cubs and 40 - 50 % of cubs do not reach adulthood.
[Again, the males do not necessarily have to leave.]

Breeding takes place all year round in the tropical areas but it is seasonal in the savannas and Leopards have a birthing interval of approximately 2 - 3 years.


Leopard Habitat

On the island, the jungle.


Leopard Behavior & Appearance

Same as Panther.

The Leopard is the fifth largest feline in the world behind the tiger, lion, jaguar and mountain lion. They have a body length between 0.9 and 1.9 m (3 - 6.25 ft), a tail length between 60 and 110 cms (24 - 43 inches) and they weigh between 82 and 200 lbs).

There can be considerable variations in the size of Leopards due to their distribution and available resources, for example Leopards that live in mountainous regions are smaller than those that live on savannahs due to their prey being smaller. Also typically female Leopards are 20 - 40 % smaller than males.

Leopards are strongly built and have a large head with extremely strong jaw muscles. They are graceful, stealthy animals and they are well known for their ability to go undetected. They are very agile climbers, good swimmers and probably the most accomplished stalker of all the big cats.

Leopards have a light tan base coloured coat with a black rosette pattern and a lighter coloured underside. The shade of their base coat depends on their location.

Melanistic or black Leopards are far less common than the spotted form. They are known as Panthers (as are black Jaguars). They appear to be entirely black, but their markings can be seen if examined closely.

Darker coloured individuals tend to be found in the dense forest areas of India and south east Asia as this helps them to stay hidden, and lighter coloured, larger animals tend to be found in the open plains.


Leopard Strength

Leopards can drag up to 3 times their own body weight into a tree and place it on branches over 6 m (19.7 ft) high.

Leopard Prey

In the jungle, monkeys, rodents, insects, snakes, and birds. In the plains, antelopes, gazelles, duiker, eland, jackals, impala, wildebeest, and hyraxes.

[ Info obtained here: www.theanimalfiles.com/mammals/carnivores/leopard.html ][/blockquote]

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Mountain Lion Or Cougar

Mountain Lion Or Cougar Cubs

Cougar babies look and act like kittens, but they are called cubs. Of course, they belong to the cat family.

Baby cougars are bigger than kittens. They weigh about a pound when they are born. They are born covered with fur and, like kittens, they are blind.

Cougars have from one to five cubs at one time.
[ Info from: education.boisestate.edu/compass/Kidscompass/Animalpages/Cougarcubs1.htm ]


Mountain Lion Or Cougar Life Cycle

Cougar cubs are born with their eyes closed. Opening at about two weeks, their eyes are blue and take about 16 months to change to a greenish-yellow. Cubs weigh 1 pound (454 gr) or less at birth, nurse for about three to four months, but can eat meat at about 6 weeks. Their coats have dark spots, which begin to fade after about six months. Cubs usually remain with their mother for 18 to 24 months; thereafter they seek to establish their own unoccupied, individual territory. After leaving their mother, littermates often stay together for four months or more.

A male's territory, seldom overlapping with another male's territory, may be up to 200 square miles (520 km2), and it overlaps or encompasses many smaller territories of females. They mark their territories by scrapes on trees or in the soil, which are usually sprayed with urine.


Mountain Lion Or Cougar Habitat

Mountains and plains. But, most, in Horizon, live in the mountains.


Mountain Lion Or Cougar Behavior

Social lives of the cougar: The cougar or mountain lion lives a very solitary existence. Mountain lions are only not alone when a mother has cubs and during mating season. When contact is made mountain lions are known not to be aggressive and will run unless cornered or surrounded.
[I'm sure you get the point by now that the male DOES NOT have to leave. Also, cut off from natural instinct, unlike the cats on the mainland, most of the cougars, on Horizon, group together, much like the leopards and panthers, forming a Tribe.]


Mountain Lion Or Cougar Adaptations

The cougar or mountain lion can climb up and down trees. The cougar can also jump up cliffs that are up to 18 ft. tall as well cover ground with incredible speed and grace. It has a distinctive call midway between a cough or a snarl. Despite its large size it is incapable of roaring.

Another special adaptation of the mountain lion is the size of their abnormally large paws and their long tail. These large feet are used for jumping great heights and their long tails are used to balance themselves on their jumps and steep edges.


Mountain Lion Or Cougar Prey

In the more forest-y regions of the mountain, deer, elk, and other ungulates. Insects... Large birds. Things of that nature.

[ Most of this information obtained here: www.whozoo.org/AnlifeSS2001/bryboyd/BB_Cougar.htm ]

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Lynx [Bobcat]

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Lynx Cubs

Female Bobcats reach sexual maturity at one to two years of age. Males typically mature and are ready to breed at two years. Litters typically consist of one to six cubs twice a year, in the spring and summer. Information on mating seasons seems to differ from source to source, some research holds that they mate between February and July, while others hold that mating season occurs from November to August and still others state that they breed year round. Gestation for Bobcats is typically 60 to 70 days. Bobcat cubs nurse for eight to twelve weeks and continue to depend on the mother for several weeks after they are weaned. Some sources state that weaning can take as long as two months.
[They breed year-round on Horizon.]


Lynx Life Cycle

In captivity, they can actually live up to 28 years. But, in the wild, they may live up to 18, if they are not murdered or killed by disease first.


Lynx Habitat

Mountains.


Lynx Behavior & Appearance

The Bobcat remains a lasting symbol of the great North American wilderness, an adept cat capable of surviving in many environments. As a household pet, the Bobcat serves as an energetic, loyal, and fascinating companion.

Bobcats are compact in size but are nonetheless powerful and graceful. These cats exhibit very playful attitudes, loving to climb and run, especially as kittens. Bobcats are very fond of swimming and often live near a pool for exersize and play. The Bobcat is very territorial and will mark his territory with smells, especially spraying. In the wild, Bobcats are highly adaptable in climate and prey. The Bobcat prefers to build dens in protected thickets, hollowed trees, or caves. Bobcats can be very affectionate and have a distinctive language of purrs and mews. These cats can often be very shy around strangers.

The Bobcat is relatively small cat, ranging from two to four feet in length. It has a short stubby tail four to eight inches long. Bobcats usually weigh between 10 and 30 pounds. The cat's coat can range from a light tan to brown, depending on the time of year. Bobcat fur is dense and soft. Bobcats molt twice annually, the summer and winter coats differing in color and pattern. The Bobcat's coat is decorated with black or brown spots that occur in random patterns. Their tails and ears usually have black markings; the tail has a black tip, and the ears have black markings on the back. Sometimes the ears will also have a black tuft if hair. Bobcats have tufted, haired feet with five digits on the front and four on the rear. The presence of the tufts may be a biological adaptation making them exceptionally quiet when stalking their prey.
[Because they are small in comparison with the other cats in Horizon, they have allowed a truce between them and the cougars. In short, they have each other's back, though they may disagree a lot.]


Lynx Prey

In the wild, the Bobcat's primary prey consists of rabbits, birds, and rodents. Bobcats are also known to hunt deer, snakes, and opossum, depending on the climate, food availability and location. These cats hunt either at day or night, a solitary, stealthy hunter. The Bobcat's sharp canine teeth allow for rapid, powerful biting. As with all wild cats, in captivity fresh meat is required in the diet for optimum health, although commercial big cat diets have been used successfully with Bobcats. Zoological vitamin supplements can help ensure a healthy, balanced diet for the Bobcat.
[ Info found here: www.centralpets.com/animals/mammals/exotic_cats/ect2907.html ][/blockquote]

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Lion

Lion Cubs

Lions will reproduce any time of the year, and all females of reproductive maturity will breed at the same time. This allows them to give birth in synchrony with each other, thereby sharing the suckling responsibilities. Any lactating female in a pride will suckle any cub that belongs to the pride. Lions give birth to 1-6 cubs after a gestation of 110 days. The cubs are born blind and helpless, and weigh approximately 2-4 pounds. Cub mortality is very high in lions, and less than half will survive their first year. Young males will leave their pride between 2-4 years if they can get away with staying that long, but sometimes they are forced out as early as 13-20 months. Females remain with their natal pride most of the time, although some will disperse and form new prides. While male lions are physically capable of reproducing at 30 months and females at 24 months, they do not generally successfully reproduce until pride membership has been firmly established.


Lion Life Cycle

^Most above.

Typically, there is one male in a pride (can be up to 7), who may or may not breed with more then one female. Usually, they fight each other for the right to mate, careful not to damage one another in case they have to fight.

When a male gets forced out of the pride, they can wander on as loners or make a small pride of their own. Though, some actually have forbidden relationships with females inside the pride that they were forced out of.


Lion Habitat

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. While lions drink water regularly when it is available, they can survive by obtaining their moisture requirements from the stomach contents of their prey or from tsama melons. This allows them to survive in very arid climates.

On Horizon, the open plains.


Lion Behavior & Appearance

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. Average males weigh 330-430 pounds, and females weigh 250-350 pounds. The males reach an overall average length of 8-9 feet from the tip of the nose to tip of the tail, and females averaging 7-8 feet. Both sexes seem to average right around 3 1/2 feet at the shoulder, with males averaging only 2 inches taller than the females. Lions have a uniformly tawny coat, and the shades of it may vary from light to dark. In the Timbavati region, white lions are found, which is a form of leucism as opposed to albinism. Black (melanistic) lions have not been observed and reports of black lions in captivity have never been confirmed. Males possess a mane and it can range in colors from blonde to red to brown to black. It covers their head, neck and chest, and its development is believed to be strongly influenced by testosterone. Their ears have black spots on the backs, which stay black throughout their lives, unlike the black rosettes that cover their bodies when they are born.
[Black and white lions are allowed. Just not too many.]

The lion is the only true social cat and lives in groups called prides. These prides are made up of a single male or a coalition of males (up to 7) and up to 20 females and their offspring. The males defend the females and the territory from strange males, and competition among the males is fierce. A male’s average tenure over a pride is only 2-3 years, but can increase depending on the size and strength of the coalition. Groups of males do better than a lone male. Lions use a variety of vocalizations, most notably the roar. It can be heard over a distance of 5-6 miles, and serves to let other members of the pride know where they are, and as a signal to strange males to stay away.


Lion Prey

Buffalo, Zebra, Wildebeest, Warthog, Impala, Gazelle, Meerkats...

[ Info from: www.barbarylion.com/introduction.htm and www.bio.davidson.edu/people/vecase/Behavior/Spring2004/shelburne/prey.html ]