There are 45 wild cat species as at November 2024, 7 big cats and 38 small cats. Each year in November we update the Felidae taxonomy on www.WildCatFamily.com. There are various definitions of 'big cats', 'wild cats' and 'small cats' so we'll explain the differences in this post.

45 Wild Cat Species

As at November 2024 there are 45 species of wild cats. The seven pantherine cats are Tigers, Snow Leopards, Jaguars, Leopards, Lions and two Clouded Leopards. The thirty-eight smaller non-pantherine or feline species are grouped into twelve genera and you can find them on our various lists.

All our lists have been updated with the latest 45 cats:

• Wild Cats by Common Name
• Wild Cats by Continent
• Wild Cats by Genus
• Wild Cats by Lineage
• Wild Cats by Endangered Status

You will see different numbers of cats on other websites as it depends which classification they are following. We do not include the domestic cat whereas some other websites do. Most (including WildCatFamily) follow the 2017 Revised Taxonomy of the Felidae of forty cats, published by the IUCN Cat Specialist Group - the authority on the Felidae species. Until the IUCN Cat Specialist Group next updates that publication, we are subsequently following the Mammal Diversity Database (MDD) which maintains an up-to-date classification of all the mammalian species, which includes the felids. All proposed taxonomy changes published world-wide by scientists are reviewed by an expert panel and accepted changes are updated on the MDD a few times a year.

We have recorded all the taxonomy changes to the cat family on our Felidae Classification page since 2015. As you will see there are only a few or even no changes in a year and we update our website and lists once a year in November. Also note that some wild cat posters you come across may have been designed prior to 2017 and thus may have some slight differences to the current taxonomy and also show different common names.

Various Definitions of Big Cats

I have come across the following definitions of 'big cats':

• Only the 5 wild cats of the Panthera genus - i.e. Tiger, Snow Leopard, Jaguar, Leopard and Lion.
• The 7 pantherine cats of the Panthera Lineage (Panthera and Neofelis genus) - the above five plus the two Clouded Leopards
• Either of the above combinations plus the Cheetah and Puma (Mountain Lion / Cougar) of the Puma Lineage.
• All extant wild cats in the Felidae family (currently 45)
• Some definitions include extinct species

On this website we avoid using the term 'big cats' and refer to the actual genus or lineage to clearly define which cats we are referring to. 'Small cats' is a relatively new term to indicate the thirty plus smaller species of wild cats - largely unknown by the general public until recently.

Various Definitions of Wild Cats

Another term that has various interpretations is 'wild cats' also spelled 'wildcats'. I have come across the following uses:

• feral cats (domestic cats that have been abandoned and no longer cared for by humans)
• all wild cat species (as in not domestic)
• only the Wildcat species

Just to confuse matters some common names of wild cats in the Felis genus include the word 'wildcat' for example European Wildcat.

On this website, we use the term and spelling 'wild cats' to refer to all wild cat species and the spelling 'wildcat' to refer to the Wildcat species, of which there are only two - the Afro-Asiatic Wildcat and the European Wildcat. We also follow the more modern format of capitalising all words in a common name, whereas historically common names were not capitalised or only the first word had a capital.

So, in conclusion, the number of cats there are in the world depends on your definition!  In our definition, which follows the formal scientific classification, there are 45 cats in the Felidae family.

Wild Cat Family Website ~ 2023 Annual Update

Total Number of Wild Cats = 45

Due to the reclassification of the Pampas cats, the total number of wild cat species is now 45 - 5 big cats in the Panthera genus and 40 smaller cats. All our wild cat lists have been updated with the revised Pampas cat classification as part of our annual November update.

New Taxonomy Reference

The website was referencing A revised taxonomy of the Felidae published in 2017 by the IUCN Cat Specialist group, with any subsequent taxonomy papers listed on each cat page. However, taxonomy papers are not necessarily accepted by everyone in the scientific community and may be contested.

In the search for an interim authoritative body until the IUCN Cat Specialist Group publishes their next revision, we came across the Mammal Diversity Database, which we have decided to reference for any further taxonomic changes in Felidae.  The Mammal Diversity Database (MDD) is updated with all taxonomic changes to mammals that have been reviewed and accepted by the American Society of Mammalogists. We will initially use the common names listed in the MDD and later update them to more popular names used in subsequent literature.

Endangered Status - no changes

According to the latest version 2022.2 of the IUCN Red List there have been no new assessments this year and thus no changes to the endangered status of any of the Felidae species since November 2022.