Felidae


The Felidae family includes the Lion, the Tiger, the Domestic Cat, and other cats as its members. They are the most strictly carnivorous mammals of the nine families in the order Carnivora. The first felids emerged during the Oligocene, about 30 million years ago. The most familiar feline is the Domestic Cat or House Cat, which first became associated with humans thousands of years ago. Its wild relative, the Wildcat, still lives in Europe, Africa and western Asia, although habitat destruction has restricted its range. Whether the Domestic Cat and the Wildcat should be classified as separate species remains controversial, but the most recent classification separates them.