Seeing all of the big cats in the wild

[Arizona Docent]

American nature photographers Joe and Mary Ann McDonald managed a feat in 2013 that they claim is likely unequalled and I am inclined to agree. They managed to photograph all seven species of big cats in the wild in one calendar year! I met them once here in Tucson years ago at a nature photography conference - really nice couple.
Puma or Mountain Lion Photo Tour 2013 Scouting Report

 

[DavidBrown]

American nature photographers Joe and Mary Ann McDonald managed a feat in 2013 that they claim is likely unequalled and I am inclined to agree. They managed to photograph all seven species of big cats in the wild in one calendar year! I met them once here in Tucson years ago at a nature photography conference - really nice couple.
Puma or Mountain Lion Photo Tour 2013 Scouting Report

I wonder how they found wild snow leopards and clouded leopards to photograph? That would be quite a feat.

The African big cats are pretty easy to see on safari if you have a good guide. From what I have read one has a decent chance of seeing a tiger in some reserves.

Seeing wild jaguars also seems like it could be a challenge.

 

[TeaLovingDave]

Actually reading the article reveals that they did *not* photograph every species of big cat in 2013 - they did not count either species of clouded leopard as a big cat, but did include the puma and cheetah in their total.

We’d started with the Snow Leopard, and having successfully accomplished that goal, we had hoped we’d get Tiger, which we did, and the others – Lion, Leopard, Cheetah, and Jaguar – would be easy. Except the Puma, the most difficult and reclusive of all the big cats.

Still an incredibly good achievement, just not the one they were implying

 

[Chlidonias]

...so "large cats (but not clouded leopards)" then?

You can understand them not including clouded leopards (far too difficult to hope for success) but by that token they shouldn't have then included puma and cheetah.

Without wanting to denigrate the success of what they did do, the snow leopard is fairly readily obtained (not guaranteed obviously but there's a high success rate) at Ladakh which is where lots of people go to see them; jaguar is easy in the Pantanal; puma is easy at Torres del Paine; lion, leopard and cheetah are all easy in African reserves; tiger is fairly easy in various Indian reserves. All a person needs to photograph them all in one year is enough money to trip around these places, and apart for the snow leopard all of them are virtually guaranteed "good photos" (the snow leopards obviously are not usually close enough for brilliant photos unless a kill is found and a hide can be set up nearby).

 

[Chlidonias]

I have moved the thread here to the Wildlife And Nature Conservation forum so more people would see it

 

[Arizona Docent]

Well I see I have unintentionally started a debate about what is a big cat. My personal definition is to state the obvious - a cat that is big. As such, I count seven species of big cats - the same seven they photographed. The clouded leopard (or leopards now as two species) are roughly the same size as a bobcat and it is ridiculous IMO to consider them a big cat. Likewise it seems ridiculous to discount pumas and cheetahs just because they do not roar. If this is your definition, then call them roaring cats and non roaring cats, not big cats and small cats. Why can't we give words their plain meaning - big means big and small means small?

 

[Arizona Docent]

Moving on to the topics raised about how to see them, I too was surprised they had gotten snow leopard. Despite the claim on this thread that they are relatively easy, I think they are inordinately difficult and any attempt is a huge gamble. Of course I have no personal experience - maybe they are getting easier to see in Ladakh? I do know some travel adventure groups are starting to offer snow leopard tours for the first time, but they state unequivocally in their brochures that a sighting is not guaranteed.

As for jaguar, the McDonalds (and others) have this down pat in the Pantanal. They now lead their own photo tours along the river and they do virtually guarantee sightings. Joe McDonald won an award in the latest Wildlife Photographer of the Year with a shot of two male jaguars fighting that he took on one of these trips.

 

[Chlidonias]

Well I see I have unintentionally started a debate about what is a big cat. My personal definition is to state the obvious - a cat that is big. As such, I count seven species of big cats - the same seven they photographed. The clouded leopard (or leopards now as two species) are roughly the same size as a bobcat and it is ridiculous IMO to consider them a big cat. Likewise it seems ridiculous to discount pumas and cheetahs just because they do not roar. If this is your definition, then call them roaring cats and non roaring cats, not big cats and small cats. Why can't we give words their plain meaning - big means big and small means small?

but then where's your cut-off point? There's a size cline from the weeny cats like rusty-spotted through the medium cats like jungle cat to largish cats like lynx through clouded leopard to cheetah and puma right up to the big lion and tiger. It's a bit arbitrary to say "these cats are big and these ones are small" because you have to use a random body size/weight as your personal division. I like to write Big Cat and Small Cat (with the capitals) to emphasise the taxonomic distinction. If I was photographing "all the Big Cats" I would include the clouded leopards and the cheetah (because I am old-school and still think they both fall outside "Big Cat" and "Small Cat" ) but I wouldn't include puma which is and always has been definitely a Small Cat despite its larger body size. If I was photographing all the "big cats" (no capitals) I would still include clouded leopard but would then logically have to include lynxes and it just wouldn't make sense because then I'd have to go the whole hog and try to photograph all the cat species in one year.....

 

[Arizona Docent]

When I do my monthly wild cat slide show at Reid Park Zoo, I divide them into three groups - small, medium, large. I start with 14 small cats and I tell people that what I call small cats are all roughly the same size as a housecat. Then I show 15 medium cats and I say these are roughly the size of the bobcats we have here around Tucson. (FYI this includes both species of clouded leopard). Finally I list the 7 big cats, stating there are twice as many small cat species as big cats and twice as many medium cat species as big cats. To the average visitor, this apparently makes sense because not once (that I can recall) has anyone come up to me and said something like "pumas are small cats, etc."

 

[baboon]

Snow leopards are easy to see in Sanjiangyuan Protected Area of Qinghai Province, China. Sunda clouded leopard may be seen in Danum Valley, Sabah. Jaguars and puma are pretty easy to see in north Pantanal and Chile, according to this blog: O C T A V I O   C A M P O S   S A L L E S   -   F O T O G R A F I A
The only challenge is mainland clouded leopard. But I think if someone has made a great Asian golden cat photo, he is the real hero.

 

[zooboy28]

Quoted from the McDonalds, in TLD's post:

Except the Puma, the most difficult and reclusive of all the big cats.

Is this actually true? I wouldn't have imagined this to be the case, assumed snow leopards and jaguars would be more reclusive and difficult to find.

 

[DavidBrown]

When I do my monthly wild cat slide show at Reid Park Zoo, I divide them into three groups - small, medium, large. I start with 14 small cats and I tell people that what I call small cats are all roughly the same size as a housecat. Then I show 15 medium cats and I say these are roughly the size of the bobcats we have here around Tucson. (FYI this includes both species of clouded leopard). Finally I list the 7 big cats, stating there are twice as many small cat species as big cats and twice as many medium cat species as big cats. To the average visitor, this apparently makes sense because not once (that I can recall) has anyone come up to me and said something like "pumas are small cats, etc."

Aren't clouded leopards more the size of mountain lions? They seem much larger than bobcats.

 

[Chlidonias]

To the average visitor, this apparently makes sense because not once (that I can recall) has anyone come up to me and said something like "pumas are small cats, etc."

are you saying Zoochatters are "the average visitor"?

Don't take anything on this thread personally by the way: you know we (especially myself and TLD) are renowned for being pedantic

 

[Chlidonias]

Snow leopards are easy to see in Sanjiangyuan Protected Area of Qinghai Province, China. Sunda clouded leopard may be seen in Danum Valley, Sabah. Jaguars and puma are pretty easy to see in north Pantanal and Chile, according to this blog: O C T A V I O * C A M P O S * S A L L E S * - * F O T O G R A F I A
The only challenge is mainland clouded leopard. But I think if someone has made a great Asian golden cat photo, he is the real hero.

For the snow leopard, I'm assuming you mean "easy to see -- if a foreigner can get permission to be there"?

Seeing Sunda clouded leopard at Danum Valley is a fairly remote chance. They are seen there and are probably even common in the park, but you would still have to be extremely lucky. The Maliau Basin seems to have a higher population and a better chance of success (but still very low). Perhaps better than anywhere in Borneo would be Way Kambas in southern Sumatra where they are seen more frequently.

For the mainland clouded leopard probably the best spot would be Kaeng Krachan in Thailand.

 

[Chlidonias]

Aren't clouded leopards more the size of mountain lions? They seem much larger than bobcats.

I just did some quick googling of body sizes, and interestingly enough, clouded leopards are about the same size as bobcats and only about half the size of pumas. I had thought they seemed larger as well. It must be the long tail creating an illusion of larger size.

 

[TeaLovingDave]

Likewise it seems ridiculous to discount pumas and cheetahs just because they do not roar.

Considering the fact the snow leopard has an incompletely ossified hyiod bone and therefore is not entirely capable of roaring, assuming we are discounting pumas and cheetahs because of this issue would be incorrect.

My classification of a "big cat" as opposed to a cat which is big is simple - a member of the Pantherinae.

 

[Pertinax]

I had thought they seemed larger as well. It must be the long tail creating an illusion of larger size.

They really aren't very big at all. Body around size of bobcat/lynx but with shorter legs and very long tail. I always think of them as a 'small cat'.

 

[Arizona Docent]

Those puma photos by Octavio Salles linked above are very nice. It is ironic that I live in the heart of puma country - they are in the mountains that ring my city - and yet my only certain hope of seeing one in the wild would be to fly a couple thousand miles to the tip of South America.

Of coures I do meet people in Tucson that have seen them - but it is always a chance encounter (and never enough time for a good photo). A talented landscape photographer that uses my photo lab lives in the Tucson Mountains on the west side of the city and had one on his roof not too long ago. He also saw one a couple years before that at twilight at Saguaro National Park, so I am a bit envious of his double sightings.

 

[baboon]

For the snow leopard, I'm assuming you mean "easy to see -- if a foreigner can get permission to be there"?

For the mainland clouded leopard probably the best spot would be Kaeng Krachan in Thailand.

You are right......It maybe harder to have permit to enter than spot a snow leopard there

 

[Pootle]

Big Cats, Medium Cats, Small Cats.

Is there a Medium 'stroke' Large size, or even a XL or XXL cat?....


It can be argued on this site all year long what sizes cats are and in that time someone has gone and photographed them all


Also, the only thing required to photograph every species of big cat in the wild is money and lots of it. With lots of money, lots of things are possible and very quickly if you wish.