| Cats and Tigers |
| Cats coats are often exquisitely marked for
camouflage. Despite protection cats are still poached for their skins
which are used as human adornment.
All cats have sharp pointed canine teeth, super sensitive vibrissae (whiskers), and retractable claws. |
The Leopard Cat is a 'small cat'; it purrs, but can not roar; and has vertical pupils. |
Binturong.
The reason for including this large member of the civet family here, is
its alternative name of 'bear-cat'! It is unique in this animal
family in having a prehensile tail.
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Asian
Golden Cat |
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 The Sumatran Tiger is the smallest but most richly coloured of the surviving sub-species. |
"Tyger, tyger
... burning bright
In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame they fearful symmetry?" wrote William Blake (1757-1827) Alarmingly - those eyes are not burning to numerously as once they did. All races of tiger are endangered; two have become extinct in very recent times. Thrigby has been very successful in breeding the Sumatran Tiger, the smallest and most richly coloured. Habitat destruction will need to be arrested and the false attributes made for dead tiger parts as 'medicines' particularly by the Chinese, must be overcome before any realistic return of zoo animals to the wild is sensible. |
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Clouded leopards are hunters of small mammals and birds in
forests of parts of Asia. Short legs and long tails indicate a life
lived in trees. They are endangered, and subjects of a captive breeding
programme