Ranging in size from the diminutive rusty-spotted cat, weighing around 5 pounds when fully grown, to the 50-pound Eurasian lynx, small cat species inhabit five of the world’s seven continents (excluding Australia and Antarctica) and are superbly adapted to an array of natural and increasingly unnatural environments, from deserts to rainforests to city parks.
Compared to big cats and other carnivores, very little is known about the world's small cats. Supremely elusive, some are nocturnal, others are arboreal, and all are rare and secretive, making them especially difficult to study. Many small cats are in danger of extinction, and some are so cryptic that scientists haven't even been able to study them in the wild, and can only describe their appearance and approximate geographic range.
While 12 of the world’s 18 most threatened wild felids are small cat species, they still receive a fraction—some estimates say less than one percent—of all the funding committed to wild cat conservation. Today, conservation strategies don’t even exist for the majority of small wild cat species, though they most certainly face serious risks from habitat loss, poaching, land conversion, and conflict with humans.
The 33 small cat species’ listings range from “Least Concerned” to “Endangered” on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.