Why are some wild and others tame? Many scientists believe that the house cat, or domestic cat, came from some of the wild small cat species, particularly the African, Arabian, and European wild cats. At some point in time—many think it started in Egypt about 4,000 years ago—people started feeding and taming wild cats in their part of the world, and the cats got used to living with people. Over a long period of time, these cats were bred among each other and became separate from the wild populations. They also moved with humans to many parts of the world. This process—called domestication—has also happened with other animals, such as dogs, cattle, horses, and pigs.

Small cats are found in habitats ranging from icy mountains to steamy tropical jungles to scorching deserts. The only places they are not native to are Australia, its surrounding islands, and Antarctica.

Living in such a variety of habitats, these cats have many different ways to survive and hunt for food. The fishing cat has webbed toes and is a good swimmer. It catches prey on land and in the water. The sand cat of North Africa and the Middle East survives in a land with very little water by hunting at night and sleeping and keeping cool during the day. The long legs of the stately serval allow it to make spectacular leaps into the air to catch birds in flight.

In contrast, the short, thick legs of the mountain-dwelling Pallas’s cat allow it to climb easily on rocky slopes. In the tropical rain forests of South America, the spotted margay and the tiny oncilla are able to share their habitat because the margay hunts in trees and the oncilla hunts on the ground.

All cats have keen senses, which they use to locate and stalk their prey. Like us, cats have forward-facing eyes. But they can open their pupils three times wider and see in the dark six times better than people can. Cats have a layer of tissue in their eyes called the tapetum lucidum, which bounces light back through the retina a second time and increases the amount of light the cat has to see by. That’s what causes the “eyeshine” that you see with cats at night, when their eyes seem to glow red or green.

Cats can also focus clearly and quickly for long and short distances. Without moving their heads, they can detect movement within a visual field of 280 degrees—which means they can see out of the corner of their eyes a lot better than we can!

Hearing is another important sense for a cat. More than 20 muscles control each ear, and the ears move independently of each other, so one can be pointed forward while the other is pointed back. The cat’s ears can quickly turn to catch sounds in all directions, including those behind the cat. Cats can hear the ultrasonic noises that small prey, like rodents, make, which are beyond our hearing range.

Eyes and ears aren’t a cat’s only tools; it also has very sensitive whiskers, called vibrissae, on the lips, cheeks, chin, eyebrows, and forelegs that give the cat information about the environment. The whiskers are deeply embedded in the skin and connected to nerve endings that transmit information to the brain, so a cat can feel its way as it moves. This allows the cat to "read” air currents and the locations of obstacles and items around it, like grass and branches, in order to stalk almost silently. When capturing prey, such as rabbits, rodents, birds, or fish, the whiskers around the face all point forward like a net to detect exactly where the prey is and where it might go.

Cats walk on their toes. Their claws are retractable and do not come in contact with the ground. Their teeth are not good for grinding, but their sharp-edged incisors, pointed molars, and long, curved canine teeth work like shears to shred their food.

At the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, most of our small cats are offered commercial cat kibble and a specially formulated carnivore diet as well as thawed mice and bones. In addition, our mountain lions receive large bones and sometimes parts of carcasses, while our fishing cats are occasionally given goldfish to catch.

Small cat species are solitary, so an adult female cat uses scent marking and vocalizing to advertise her availability during her estrous cycle. Just before birth, she finds a safe spot for her kittens. This can be a cave, tree hollow, space under a large tree’s roots, or even a depression in tall grass. Kittens are born with their eyes sealed and very little hair to keep them warm. When the mother leaves them to hunt for food, the kittens are quite vulnerable to predators, including male cats.

The kittens quickly learn to eat solid food, often times before they can walk. They are usually weaned by about seven weeks of age. As they grow, their mother teaches them hunting skills, stalking and chasing small prey. She does this by bringing live prey to the kittens to practice with. Upon reaching maturity, the young adults strike out on their own, ready to face the world.