Felines

The group of cat-like carnivores diverged from the dog-like carnivores a long time ago. Those 125 cat-like carnivores include: house cats, lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, cheetahs, civets, genets, mongooses, and hyenas.

Some big cats like lions, leopards and cheetahs live in Africa. The tiger lives in Asia. The jaguar lives in South America. Altogether, there are about 40 species of cats (Family Felidae) today. Compared with the dog-like carnivores, their snouts are shorter and they have retractable claws.

The 32 species of mongoose (Family Herpestidae) are also cat-like carnivores. That is despite the fact that their body shape resembles the weasels.

The 3 species of hyenas and the aardwolf (Family Hyaenidae) are also cat-like carnivores. Many people mistake them for relatives of dogs, but their closest relatives are the civets.