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Feline Frolics At The Corner Café

Ok folks, cats… love them or hate them, they are here and dominating the world. We have them as pets, and us humans become their slaves; the wild ones have more sense and don’t get involved with us.

My favourite is probably the snow leopard.

Snow leopards are virtually on the edge of extinction, but fighting back. So many of our wild cats are in the same boat, and for why? And here as usual is your answer Around the world, the main threats to big cats are as a result of human activities. Of the populations of 40 wild cat species, roughly 80 percent are now shrinking. 16 are considered vulnerable, endangered, and/or critically-endangered.

Domestic cats, no matter their breed, are all members of one species: felis catus

Cat’s brains are quite small, accounting for just 0.9 percent of their body mass. But, according to Psychology Today, "the brains of cats have an amazing surface folding and a structure that is about 90 percent similar to ours." The cerebral cortex—the part of the brain that's responsible for cognitive information processing—is more complex in cats than in dogs, and cats have some 300 million neurons, as compared to 160 million in dogs.

The most sophisticated supercomputer in 2010 performed 83 times slower than a cat’s brain.

The fastest land animal in the world, a cheetah can reach 70mph in just three seconds – that's faster than a sports car accelerates! Its body has evolved for speed, with long legs, an elongated spine, adapted claws to grip the ground and a long tail for balance.

Cats were worshipped as gods by the Ancient Egyptians. The penalties for injuring or killing a cat were severe. They worshipped a cat Goddess - often represented as half feline, half woman - whom they called Bastet. There was a city in northern Egypt named after her: Bubastis.

The tiger is the biggest species of the cat family. Tigers can reach a length of up to 3.3 metres (11 feet) and weigh as much as 300 kilograms (660 pounds). Subspecies of the tiger include the Sumatran Tiger, Bengal Tiger, South China Tiger, Malayan Tiger, Indochinese Tiger, and this, the Siberian Tiger.

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