may the fiercest feline triumph!!!

header and icon are both photos of a gray tabby cat. the header shows him sleeping on a pillow by a window, and the icon shows him sitting in a chair looking at the camera

[little-cat-showdown]

Welcome to the Little Cat Showdown!!!

This is a tournament to determine the best Little Cat out there!!! This is for all members of the Felidae family except for Felis catus and the Panthera genus. The bracket is based on the Wikipedia page for Felidae. This is a single-elimination 33 team bracket, and to make the numbers easiest all three lynx species will go against each other in the first round. All polls will be tagged with #little cat showdown poll. Polls will last one week and the first round begins today, May 4. The cats were seeded based on how popular I personally think they are, and how long I've known they exist.

The mascot of the tournament is my beautiful tiger boy Lunar Apples Module (Luna for short). He has never seen any of them in his life but you can clearly tell he's related to them by the way he majestically hunts crickets in the summertime (he is an indoor cat who goes on walks on a leash and I don't think he's ever even killed a cricket. he doesn't know what to do when he catches a cricket. he just gets confused. I love him so much)

Here is the bracket!!

[ID: a 33-team bracket with the following matchups:

Round one:

Cheetah vs European Wildcat

African Golden Cat vs Marbled Cat

Palls Cat vs Leopard Cat

Flat Headed Cat vs Ocelot

Bobcat vs Black-footed Cat

Andean Mountain Cat vs Jagarundi

Sunda Clouded Leopard vs Oncilla

Eurasian Lynx vs Canada Lynx vs Iberian Lynx

Sand Cat vs Chinese Mountain Cat

Kodkod vs Bay Cat

Serval vs Pampas Cat

Jungle Cat vs Fishing Cat

Cougar vs Rusty-Spotted Cat

Margay vs Caracal

Asian Golden Cat vs Geoffoy's Cat

African Wildcat vs Clouded Leopard

Round two:

European Wildcat vs Marbled Cat

Pallas Cat vs Ocelot

Black-footed Cat vs Andean Mountain Cat

Sunda Clouded Leopard vs Eurasian Lynx

Sand Cat vs Kodkod

Serval vs Fishing Cat

Rusty-spotted cat vs Margay

Geoffoy's Cat vs Clouded Leopard

Round Three:

European Wildcat vs Pallas Cat

Black-footed Cat vs Eurasian Lynx

Sand Cat vs Serval

Margay vs Clouded Leopard

Round 4:

Pallas Cat vs Eurasian Lynx

Sand Cat vs Margay

Final Round:

Pallas Cat vs Margay

Third Place Round:

Eurasian Lynx vs Sand Cat

end ID]

[mammalianmammals]

African Golden Cat (Caracal aurata), family Felidae, found in the tropical forests of West Africa

photographs by Peter Hogel CTC Conservation Center

[osabishi-yama]

アンデスネコ Andean Mountain Cat

[amnhnyc]

Happy Caturday! Meet the margay (Leopardus wiedii). Also known as the long-tailed cat, this critter’s tail can grow up to 20 in (50.8 cm) long. It ranges from parts of Mexico to Argentina and lives in forests, where it spends much of its time in the tree canopy. It’s well-adapted for life above the ground, with flexible toes and wide paws. Joints in its ankle can rotate 180 degrees, making this cat North America’s only feline capable of climbing head first down trees. These traits come in handy when hunting for agile prey like birds, small mammals, and reptiles.

Photo: Supreet Sahoo, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons 

[tigerleopardlion]

This young lady is turning 18 years old! 😾 This makes Naia the oldest living black-footed cat in the U.S. population, and possibly the oldest in the world! She is, however, shy of being the oldest recorded BFC by 6 months. So here is to good health Naia!

Black-footed Cat | Fossil Rim Wildlife Center

[pangur-and-grim]

he does genuinely fuck up the atmosphere of my bath

[tsalala]

Baby pumas photographed by Christophe Hauschild

[polyhexian]

Losing my mind at this poor girl in Argentina who found a kitten on the side of the road and adopted it only to find out it was a freaking jaguarundi. Look at that fucking thing. That's a whole ass kiddy cat

[polyhexian]

#WHAT DID SHE DO WITH IT.... please tell me she raised that thang

Better yet, she got in contact with a local wildlife reserve! She found him and his sister beside a dead animal on the side of the road, apparently quite thin, and assumed they were just abandoned kittens. The female passed shortly afterward but the male was fine- two months later she brought him to the vet and discovered "hey, thats a whole ass jungle cat." There's a good chance Tito will be back in the wild someday, even! IMHO, two kittens on the side of the road, and one didn't make it more than a couple days? they probably WERE abandoned. just dumb luck they got picked up!

LISTEN to those sweet cheeps. to me I hear that sound and immediately think wild cat, but I think its totally reasonable for a teenager to find a kitten this young and think it was a normal cat. Jaguarundi are also really small!

These are TINY little wildcats!

They have really distinct looking faces and especially ears, but

if a layman ran into one of these things where they werent expecting to see one, I think its pretty reasonable they might assume it was just a weird looking cat

[corporationkills]

how it feels to be so deeply curious about the world around you

[corporationkills]

i’m so curious and driven by such a need to explore and understand that it is equally overwhelming and exciting

[beardedmrbean]

Lolo the Pallas's cat at the Novosibirsk Zoo is proudly showing off her seven fluffy cubs, and letting us watch them be kittens as well!!!!!!!!

[crowlines]

Love is stored in the tiger

[little-cat-showdown]

would there be any interest in a tournament rerun? maybe shake the seeding up a bit? same candidates but maybe there’ll be a bigger audience since it’s been two years

[fatalisticme]

let's rest with mama

[catboymettaton]

[ID: mama and baby lynx resting in a field of flowers. end ID]

[corporationkills]

wild cats are awesome because they range from “that’s just a cat”

to “are you sure that’s a cat”

[keeperofthebees]

let's observe with mama

[renumuro]

The Felidae

[rjzimmerman]

Out of the Shadows, the Small Wildcats You've Never Seen

Elusive, obscure, and eclipsed in popularity by their larger cousins, small cats are amazing, high-performance predators.

Excerpt from this story from National Geographic. All photographs byJoel Sartore:

CARACAL | CARACAL CARACAL Consummate predators, some small wildcats can take down larger prey. The caracal of Asia and Africa is less than two feet tall but has been filmed leaping over nine-foot fences to prey on sheep. PHOTOGRAPHED AT COLUMBUS ZOO AND AQUARIUM, OHIO

PALLAS'S | CATOTOCOLOBUS MANUL A famously grumpy expression made this Central Asian species an Internet star. Conservationists hope the cat’s celebrity will help save its habitat from encroaching farms and other threats. PHOTOGRAPHED AT COLUMBUS ZOO AND AQUARIUM, OHIO

IBERIAN LYNX | LYNX PARDINUS One of the world’s rarest cats, the Iberian lynx is slowly increasing in number as scientists release captive-raised cats and boost populations of rabbits, the lynx’s staple food. PHOTOGRAPHED AT MADRID ZOO AND AQUARIUM, SPAIN

FISHING CAT | PRIONAILURUS VIVERRINUS The cat may look peculiar, but it’s perfectly adapted to its lifestyle: Big eyes help snare prey underwater, double-coated fur keeps out the wet, and partially webbed feet and a muscular, rudderlike tail aid in swimming. PHOTOGRAPHED AT POINT DEFIANCE ZOO AND AQUARIUM IN TACOMA, WASHINGTON

EURASIAN LYNX | LYNX LYNX The largest of the four lynx species, the Eurasian lynx also has a huge range, including most of Europe and parts of Central Asia and Russia. Unlike many other small cats, its population is stable and threats are relatively low—although some isolated subgroups are critically endangered. PHOTOGRAPHED AT COLUMBUS ZOO AND AQUARIUM, OHIO

JAGUARUNDI | SHERPAILURUS YAGOUAROUNDI With long, squat bodies and tiny ears, jaguarundis are otterlike in appearance. Thanks to their huge range—parts of Mexico, Central America, and South America—and lack of widespread hunting, the cat is considered a species of least concern. PHOTOGRAPHED AT BEAR CREEK FELINE CENTER, FLORIDA

LEOPARD CAT | PRIONAILURUS BENGALENSIS. PHOTOGRAPHED AT ANDERSON, INDIANA

RUSTY-SPOTTED CAT | PRIONAILURUS RUBIGINOSUS The smallest of the small cats, the rusty-spotted cat, a native of India and Sri Lanka, can weigh as little as two pounds. Not much is known about the speckled feline, but destruction of habitat, hunting, and hybridizing with domestic cats are threats. PHOTOGRAPHED AT EXMOOR ZOO, ENGLAND

AFRICAN GOLDEN CAT | CARACAL AURATA Inhabiting the rain forests of West and Central Africa, this species is threatened by forest loss and bush-meat hunters. This seven-year-old male, Tigri, is likely the only cat of its kind in captivity. PHOTOGRAPHED AT PARC ASSANGO, LIBREVILLE, GABON

SAND CAT | FELIS MARGARITA. PHOTOGRAPHED AT CHATTANOOGA ZOO, TENNESSEE

CANADA LYNX | LYNX CANADENSIS Like the Iberian lynx, the Canada lynx is a specialist hunter, preying almost exclusively on snowshoe hare. The North American species has giant paws that help it run through deep snow after prey. PHOTOGRAPHED AT POINT DEFIANCE ZOO AND AQUARIUM, WASHINGTON

MARGAY | LEOPARDUS WIEDII. PHOTOGRAPHED AT CINCINNATI ZOO AND BOTANICAL GARDEN, OHIO

SERVAL | LEPTAILURUS SERVAL. PHOTOGRAPHED AT FORT WORTH ZOO, TEXAS