Oh wow, they are really beautiful. I can tell they are perfect killing machines behind the cuteness.
sscaryterry 4 hours ago [-]
Murder mittens.
cromka 1 days ago [-]
Looks like a house cat, I am betting it's a matter of months before someone starts selling the crossbreds, like they do with Bengal.
Also, they're only 3-4 lbs!
BeetleB 8 hours ago [-]
Let's see if it (or crossbreeds) can be tamed.
This particular one was actually being kept in a house because someone confused it for a "pretty housecat". After a while, the owner realized it didn't want to be tamed and contacted someone for help.
Also, it's the only known one in existence. Hard to start a breeding program unless they find more.
schoen 19 minutes ago [-]
I remember seeing a wildcat in a sanctuary in Costa Rica with a similar story (the kittens looked like housecat kittens, so someone adopted them, but the adult cat's behavior was different enough to be really challenging). I've been trying to remember the exact species I saw there (maybe an oncilla?), but apparently there are several kinds of wildcat fairly easily mistaken for housecats as kittens.
I think not all of them categorically refuse to be pets, but they're noticeably more aggressive and less affectionate compared to housecats.
mlmonkey 8 hours ago [-]
> Let's see if it (or crossbreeds) can be tamed.
Clearly you are not a cat person ... the question is not if it can be tamed, but how quickly it can tame the humans around it ... ;-)
shevy-java 8 hours ago [-]
I mean, taming animals is trivial. Look at the lion whisperer. People before that thought that lions are always wild.
Some animals are just harder to tame and remain ferocious more than others. But behaviour of animals is adaptable and most animals learn.
sscaryterry 4 hours ago [-]
The only reason my house cat has not murdered me is because he is 4kg, and I'm not. He loves me though.
WalterBright 4 hours ago [-]
My cat always looked at me like "if only you were smaller..."
sscaryterry 4 hours ago [-]
I'd be getting scared when a cat reaches the 20kg threshold. I'm about 90kg, so thats a 4.5x ratio :)
Cats are the perfect killing machines (apart from maybe sharks) :)
WalterBright 4 hours ago [-]
There's a bobcat that lives around here. He's on my porch now and then, and I also see its tracks in the snow.
It doesn't look like it wants to be petted. I stay clear.
jstrieb 31 minutes ago [-]
Many people don't know that Craigslist has a "best of" which includes this (relevant) post that makes me laugh every time I read it:
>"I'd be getting scared when a cat reaches the 20kg threshold" - most likely even 10kg cat will shred you before you could blink. They're insanely fast and surprisingly strong for size. Furry explosives they are
ghaff 2 hours ago [-]
Cats are not really domesticated. I've heard various terms but semi-domesticated probably serves. They're very adaptable but not pack animals. You're sort of safe with house cats because they're small. You get less safe as the body weight goes up the scale.
gorgoiler 52 minutes ago [-]
It’s funny to hear they are not pack animals. I’m sure that is technically the case, especially in the wild, but my house cats definitely cling to me and follow me around like I am their leader. They groom/fight to try to establish a hierarchy below me, and when my partner comes home from work immediately switch allegiance to her, who they clearly see as the dominant mammal in the house.
They don’t go outside (they can’t really, it’s too busy by the road here and they’d decimate the wildlife, but I live with it because ultimately we’re doing them a huge favor by giving them a home, post-rescue) so I am sure that has something to do with it. Perhaps infantilism is keeping them in this pack headspace? But even then my mother’s cat — rural, murderous, tough tabby tom — treats her like a god and the rest of us as an annoyance.
ghaff 29 minutes ago [-]
As I wrote, they're adaptable. But there's a difference between true pack animals with an established hierarchy and being solitary but being open to other cats and species. Certainly, some cats are more pack-like (lions) and others are, or are more open to, being largely solitary.
WalterBright 4 hours ago [-]
A tamed lion ripped the face off of Melanie Griffith.
quickthrowman 2 hours ago [-]
I still need to watch that movie, I feel obligated to see it after so many people suffered so many injuries while filming it.
I've watched a lot of horror shows that had no effect on me. But this one wasn't a horror show, it was for real. I found it very disturbing. I couldn't believe what I was watching.
quickthrowman 7 hours ago [-]
I think the lady that got mauled to death in 2018 at the lion preserve that guy works at might disagree with you if she hadn’t been y’know, mauled to death by a lion.
FTFA: "The man took the animal home, believing it to be a domestic breed. But after about a year of living with the clearly wild animal, he realized it would be better off at a sanctuary."
shagie 3 hours ago [-]
There's a YouTube (and other) channel out there about a guy and his (I use the possessive with caveats) coyote (named Weave). His motto is "Anything can be a pet if you don’t mind getting bit."
ghaff 9 hours ago [-]
All the wildcats (which basically include domestic cats) are very closely related based on my understanding. Even the whole box thing is related to a lot of wildcats having a liking for caves.
jjtheblunt 8 hours ago [-]
even as a kid we all liked little forts and boxes etc, which is itself interesting. snow caves were awesome; makes me wonder if it's a primeval instinct somehow.
WalterBright 4 hours ago [-]
All of a cat's senses and weapons face forward. It makes purfect sense to have its back protected from an attack from behind.
dotancohen 6 hours ago [-]
I believe that tri-colour house cats are all female. This is a tri-colour male.
shagie 3 hours ago [-]
Spots are different.
The trim-color house cats refers to all calicos... calicos are white spotted tortoiseshell cats. The "is orange or black" is a X linked gene, so you can have XoXb... and then the x chromosome inactivation kicks in and some groups of cells are activated orange and some are activated black.
But (not white) spots and variations of color get into things like the Agouti gene ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agouti_coloration_genetics ). A tabby cat (black and tan, or orange and darker orange) has no sex linked characteristics.
3 lb housecat can shred your face so fast that your arms would be late arriving.
do not underestimate cats.
rootusrootus 2 hours ago [-]
Many years ago I met someone who had trained his two housecats to guard the house (I am not sure what that entails). He also had two great big dogs similarly trained. For my safety he would not let any of the animals near me when I visited, but he said the cats scared him more than the dogs did.
naishoya 1 hours ago [-]
One might argue that a guard dog may be inherently easier to bribe with a treat, or cower with bluster. A trained attack cat is a far scarier proposition, given the speed, sharpness, and number of 'utility knives' they have at the ready. Also, the dog is likely to bluster and warn you. The cat, not so much. Just go for your face.
In my youth I witnessed a smallish adult puma (mountain lion) successfully harvest a nearly adult cow elk while I was hiding. I was also hunting, but focused on a bull elk somewhat further from me. It was astonishing the speed and total quantity of violence that an 80-100lb cat delivered in only a few seconds on nearly 500lbs of prey. The cat had an alomost perfect attack angle, and the combination of slash, grip, puncture, and throttle toppled the cow elk, and it ran out of resistance in very short order. I had not even seen the puma before the attack started, and I expect a trained attack housecat would practically appear out of nowhere - from behind a couch or a curtain or off the top of a refrigerator, and it would become an 'I need stitches' situation too easily.
Its probably a good thing that most housecats are pretty much impossible to train beyond 'use a litterbox' and 'stay off the kitchen counters', if even that.
ChoGGi 52 minutes ago [-]
> Its probably a good thing that most housecats are pretty much impossible to train beyond 'use a litterbox' and 'stay off the kitchen counters', if even that.
My cat is very well trained to have his harness put on, since he knows it means going outside. He'll jump on the stool and give me a "hurry up already" look and a meow if I don't move fast enough.
The first time I put it on was not so... inviting, though it was a great impression of a Tasmanian devil.
lstodd 26 minutes ago [-]
train is the wrong approach. you earn respect with them, and then they defend you.
lol moment was when we with a girlfriend playfully fell down on sofa, but the then master-of-house siberian 6kg cat considered that a threat to me.
he jumped ~3m claws open, smashed a desk top lamp, shredded the gfs' top and basically opened up her back before I could stop him.
musicjerm 44 minutes ago [-]
As a trail runner in mountain lion country, you’re scaring me . I’ve never seen one in person and I do hope to see one, one day. But not like you’ve described!
userbinator 4 hours ago [-]
It's a sign of the times that I'd probably think "AI-generated" if I saw those images without any surrounding context.
(Maybe a few years ago, I might've thought "great Photoshop job" instead...)
hatthew 4 hours ago [-]
> And they said, ‘I don’t know! My grandpa called it tilcayo, so I call it tilcayo.
I'm curious if the locals knew it was distinct from other similar species, e.g. Oncilla/L. tigrinus, or if tilcayo is the locals' name for a broader set of 2+ visually similar species?
kulahan 3 hours ago [-]
The wiki article on it says it was known to locals. I think the problem is that they kept describing tilcayo, and everyone who wasn't there but was listening said "Oh that sounds exactly like an oncilla. must be a second name or something."
krige 21 hours ago [-]
Positively tiny. Really makes you wonder what else is still out there.
Also an amusing disjoint between it being called "tiger" cat but having leopard spots. At least the latin name is more on point.
coalbin 15 hours ago [-]
Since this cat is Bolivian, they would be jaguar spots, rather than leopard ones.
The conquistadors referred to the jaguars as "tigers" - they certainly aren't lions - and that custom stuck around for long enough for this to become a tiger cat!
caymanjim 8 hours ago [-]
To add to the confusion, the genus is Leopardus. And leopards and jaguars are both Panthera.
0x737368 1 hours ago [-]
Very good news that a new species was discovered that's not a microbe or a fungus!
hmokiguess 8 hours ago [-]
Awwwww pspspspsps kitty kitty ^_^
YeGoblynQueenne 7 hours ago [-]
Wait, "pspspsps"? Where are you from? I thought only Greeks do "pspspsps".
saghm 7 hours ago [-]
I've heard that my whole life in the US. I think my dad taught it to me when I was really young, because he loves cats and our neighbors across the street had some outdoor cats.
Loughla 4 hours ago [-]
Growing up in the Midwest it was always kitty kitty kitty kitty KITTY with the last one said at the top of your lungs.
No idea why it worked. It's terrifying.
saghm 3 hours ago [-]
Probably worked because the cats grew up with it too!
bigiain 1 hours ago [-]
Australia also uses pspspsps - at least my part of it and my family and friends.
(and for some Australians some of the time, "ps ps fuckin ps, ya cunting cat!" of course. ;-
) )
riffraff 6 hours ago [-]
We do it in Italy too, afair (I'm a bit in doubt if we also do "tch tch tch")
ChoGGi 49 minutes ago [-]
That's a worldwide thing, as well as other stupid human noises ;)
Tch tch tch
rafaelvasco 7 hours ago [-]
No, it's somewhat common here in Brazil too.
pezezin 5 hours ago [-]
We also do it in Spain, I think it is the international cat calling code.
Modified3019 6 hours ago [-]
It’s very common in the USA.
kulahan 3 hours ago [-]
I think it has become common, but I never heard it until a few years ago. Now it's seemingly everywhere. When I was a kid, it was just "Here kitty kitty" or making a clicking noise with your tongue or something.
rootusrootus 2 hours ago [-]
> making a clicking noise with your tongue or something
I still do that today, and it works better than pspspspsps. When I was young, if my cat was outside on the porch I could click my tongue and he'd come running from a half block away. What a good kitty he was.
msephton 2 hours ago [-]
We do it on the United Kingdom
WalterBright 4 hours ago [-]
I'm from America, and we do spspspsp.
Avicebron 6 hours ago [-]
Can confirm that non-greek Americans do this as well.
nottorp 6 hours ago [-]
And Romanians.
Induane 5 hours ago [-]
We do it in America
reaperducer 7 hours ago [-]
My German grandmother did it, too.
astura 4 hours ago [-]
pspspsps is biological , it's common noise to get a cats attention (in many places) because it stimulates their prey drive.
shagie 3 hours ago [-]
A fun book is Bad Magic by Stephan Zielinski. Kind of an awkward one to find since it's a common title from a while back (2004) at the very start of urban fantasy... and the author didn't appear to have written anything else.
At one point in the book, several of the characters are in South America looking for a jaguar. They ask the synesthetic mage of their group (each character has a different magical background)...
“Got anything to call a jaguar?”
Rider purses his lips. “Well … there is one incantation. But I’m not sure it’ll work. Even the most skilled thaumaturges can’t pull it off more than a quarter of the time.”
Sturgeon shrugs. “May as well try it, Al.”
Rider nods. “Okay. Be quiet, everybody.” He rolls his head on his neck, holds up his arms. Takes several deep breaths. Opens his mouth. Intones, “Here, kitty kitty kitty … here, kitty…”
Chloe throws a clot of mud in his face as Rider dissolves into whoops of laughter. Everybody shakes their heads in disgust and they troop off into the green.
yegle 7 hours ago [-]
Desperately trying to find a video with the original meowing sound...
thangalin 7 hours ago [-]
On a related paw, Leopardus guigna (güiña) in Anticura goes by the cute name of kodkod:
Bonus pics: https://www.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/SEI_...
https://media.zenfs.com/en/live_science_953/73a4cafd69e9e863...
https://media.zenfs.com/en/live_science_953/1fea354ba7a8db69...
https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/get/maximage/20260917_17896627...
Someone has been typing quickly...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilcayo_tiger_cat
Also, they're only 3-4 lbs!
This particular one was actually being kept in a house because someone confused it for a "pretty housecat". After a while, the owner realized it didn't want to be tamed and contacted someone for help.
Also, it's the only known one in existence. Hard to start a breeding program unless they find more.
I think not all of them categorically refuse to be pets, but they're noticeably more aggressive and less affectionate compared to housecats.
Clearly you are not a cat person ... the question is not if it can be tamed, but how quickly it can tame the humans around it ... ;-)
Some animals are just harder to tame and remain ferocious more than others. But behaviour of animals is adaptable and most animals learn.
Cats are the perfect killing machines (apart from maybe sharks) :)
It doesn't look like it wants to be petted. I stay clear.
https://www.craigslist.org/about/best/ric/6881185958.html
They don’t go outside (they can’t really, it’s too busy by the road here and they’d decimate the wildlife, but I live with it because ultimately we’re doing them a huge favor by giving them a home, post-rescue) so I am sure that has something to do with it. Perhaps infantilism is keeping them in this pack headspace? But even then my mother’s cat — rural, murderous, tough tabby tom — treats her like a god and the rest of us as an annoyance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roar_(film)#Injuries_and_set_d...
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/28/africa/woman-killed-lion-...
FTFA: "The man took the animal home, believing it to be a domestic breed. But after about a year of living with the clearly wild animal, he realized it would be better off at a sanctuary."
The trim-color house cats refers to all calicos... calicos are white spotted tortoiseshell cats. The "is orange or black" is a X linked gene, so you can have XoXb... and then the x chromosome inactivation kicks in and some groups of cells are activated orange and some are activated black.
But (not white) spots and variations of color get into things like the Agouti gene ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agouti_coloration_genetics ). A tabby cat (black and tan, or orange and darker orange) has no sex linked characteristics.
For a deep dive into the genetics of Agouti and how that influences cat fur colors, http://messybeast.com/genetics-agouti-and-corin.htm
do not underestimate cats.
In my youth I witnessed a smallish adult puma (mountain lion) successfully harvest a nearly adult cow elk while I was hiding. I was also hunting, but focused on a bull elk somewhat further from me. It was astonishing the speed and total quantity of violence that an 80-100lb cat delivered in only a few seconds on nearly 500lbs of prey. The cat had an alomost perfect attack angle, and the combination of slash, grip, puncture, and throttle toppled the cow elk, and it ran out of resistance in very short order. I had not even seen the puma before the attack started, and I expect a trained attack housecat would practically appear out of nowhere - from behind a couch or a curtain or off the top of a refrigerator, and it would become an 'I need stitches' situation too easily.
Its probably a good thing that most housecats are pretty much impossible to train beyond 'use a litterbox' and 'stay off the kitchen counters', if even that.
My cat is very well trained to have his harness put on, since he knows it means going outside. He'll jump on the stool and give me a "hurry up already" look and a meow if I don't move fast enough.
The first time I put it on was not so... inviting, though it was a great impression of a Tasmanian devil.
lol moment was when we with a girlfriend playfully fell down on sofa, but the then master-of-house siberian 6kg cat considered that a threat to me.
he jumped ~3m claws open, smashed a desk top lamp, shredded the gfs' top and basically opened up her back before I could stop him.
(Maybe a few years ago, I might've thought "great Photoshop job" instead...)
I'm curious if the locals knew it was distinct from other similar species, e.g. Oncilla/L. tigrinus, or if tilcayo is the locals' name for a broader set of 2+ visually similar species?
Also an amusing disjoint between it being called "tiger" cat but having leopard spots. At least the latin name is more on point.
The conquistadors referred to the jaguars as "tigers" - they certainly aren't lions - and that custom stuck around for long enough for this to become a tiger cat!
No idea why it worked. It's terrifying.
(and for some Australians some of the time, "ps ps fuckin ps, ya cunting cat!" of course. ;- ) )
Tch tch tch
I still do that today, and it works better than pspspspsps. When I was young, if my cat was outside on the porch I could click my tongue and he'd come running from a half block away. What a good kitty he was.
At one point in the book, several of the characters are in South America looking for a jaguar. They ask the synesthetic mage of their group (each character has a different magical background)...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodkod#/media/File:Leopardus_g...