The Cat World Cup: 40 competitors. 1 Winner. (First half)

[00:00:00]Cunning, agility, strength, ferocity, and fluffiness. Cats are an incredibly versatile family. But when competing against each other, who stands out?

[00:00:14]Today, we're combing through 40 cat species from all over the world, measured across 20 skills and unique adaptations to decide the cattiest cat to ever cat. So, let's find out who will be crowned the winner of the Cat World Cup.

[00:00:39]Hi, I'm Danielle Dufo and you're watching Animal Logic. The popularity of cats is staggering. No other topic on the internet has more hits, hashtags, or videos and it's entirely justified. Cats are amazing. But have you ever wondered who is the best cat? Of course, if you're a cat owner, the answer is yours or mine? Definitely mine. But on a grander scale and counting all the living species, is it possible to actually know? That's exactly what we're going to try and answer today. We are going to divide this into four divisions, each with five categories.

[00:01:19]Each category will have a winner and a runnerup. Winners earn three points and runners up one point. Ties will be awarded one point each. The wildat with the most points across categories wins that division. The most division wins earns them the title of cat world cup champion.

[00:01:41]Our data pool is made up of all the members of the file family.

[00:01:45]Specifically, seven big cats and 33 small cats. Now, this is an extensive competition. Cats from all around the world have gathered, and World Cups don't happen in a day. So, we're doing a two-parter. Get your Vu Zellas ready.

[00:02:03]It's time to kick things off with our first division. Pure athleticism.

[00:02:08]There's a reason sports brands, teams, and equipment seek out cats as a mascot.

[00:02:14]They embody the traits that athletes strive for. Speed, endurance, skill.

[00:02:20]There's nothing lazy about this first round of cats. Fastest cat. The runnerup place goes to the servo. Clocking in at a top speed of 80 kilometers an hour, these sleek cats on stilts can also leap 5 m high. That's all thanks to those catwalk ready legs. One point for the servil.

[00:02:45]Side note, servil have the longest legs relative to body size of any cat, which is such a serve all serv.

[00:02:56]Let's move on.

[00:02:58]But when we talk speed, there's an undisputed champion that you all know.

[00:03:04]The fastest cat in the world is the cheetah.

[00:03:09]Not only the fastest cat, they're the fastest land animal in the world, reaching speeds of 110 km an hour. If it were a car, it would be getting a speeding ticket on most highways.

[00:03:22]Three points to Team Cheetah. If there was a category for acceleration, Cheetahs would win it, too. They can go from 0 to 100 in under 3 seconds. Their takeoff is so lightning fast, it's described as an explosion rather than a leap. They're the CAT equivalent of a rocket. Before we move on to our next category, let's thank the sponsor of today's episode, Ace, Animal Charity Evaluators. Just as much as we care about wild cats and their conservation, there are other animals that also need our help. Many of these animals are key parts of our lives, but we don't really think or even hear about them often. I'm talking, of course, about farm animals.

[00:04:10]Many of them spend their whole lives in crowded cages in poor conditions and with nobody to speak up for them. And since they're intentionally kept away from the public eye, they only get about 3% of all animal charity donations in the US, even though billions of them need our help. The question is, how can we help them? To answer this, we've partnered up with ACE. They look at organizations from all over the world and support the ones they consider most impactful. Through their movement grants program, ACE identifies projects that could help a lot of animals. Then they award grants to help those projects succeed. So far, the program has distributed $7 million across 284 grants in 58 countries. Some of my personal favorite organizations they've supported are Global Food Partners, which promotes cage-free chicken farming, the Farm Adaptation Network, which helps livestock and dairy farmers transition to plant-based farming, and Animal Policy International, which lobbies to implement laws to improve the living conditions of farm animals. If you can support these animals, consider donating through animal charity evaluators.org/anologic or clicking the link in the description.

[00:05:36]100% of the donation goes directly to the grant recipients with no deductions taken by the organization, but if you'd like to support the operations, you can add 10% at checkout.

[00:05:49]The best thing is that a donor has pledged to match your donations. So every dollar that you give becomes two for the animals. But it only works if we reach a donation goal of 300,000.

[00:06:03]So please help us reach that goal by going on animal charity evaluators.org/analogic or clicking the link in the description.

[00:06:13]The animals and I will thank you for it.

[00:06:16]And now back to our cat World Cup coverage. We all know cats qualify as liquids, but which is the most fluid feline? These are the most flexible cats. The runnerup point goes to the clouded leopard. They've got some uniquely flexible joints for a big cat.

[00:06:35]Their ankles can rotate 180°.

[00:06:39]And their ability to wrap their paws around branches is a flux in and of itself, allowing them to move through trees gracefully.

[00:06:48]But the winner for most flexible cat is a cat who has no trouble being in the lead, the cheetah. The secret to the cheetah's famous speed is its insanely flexible spine. This allows their hips and shoulder blades to rotate at such extreme angles, their front and back legs can overlap midstride before reaching full extension again, shooting them forward. So, three more points for the cheetah. They're running away with the lead, but they ain't cheating.

[00:07:20]They're just that athletic. It's one thing to sprint, but who's in it for the long haul? In a family full of sprinters, who is the best marathon runner? Best endurance. The runner-up spot goes to the ghost of the mountains, the snow leopard. The snow leopard makes long journeys of their own, sometimes covering 40 km in one night. But to make it even more impressive, they're doing it at extreme altitudes of up to 5,000 meters and in freezing temperatures. You really have to travel far to find food in the Himalayas.

[00:07:59]Who could be more impressive than that?

[00:08:02]The puma. The puma is largely distributed across the Americas and often migrates over long expanses looking for new territory. They have been recorded taking multimonth treks of over 2,000 km. The longest one ever seen was a male who traveled 2500 km from South Dakota to Connecticut. Slow and steady wins here. The puma enters the leaderboard and leapfrogs its African cousins, but the cheetah is still on top. The true test of a great athlete is how well they can adjust to challenges.

[00:08:41]Cats that can survive in arid areas, cold forests, jungles, and even some wetlands get a huge evolutionary advantage. These are the most adaptable cats. Best adaptability.

[00:08:56]The silver medal for most adaptable cat goes to the bobcat.

[00:09:01]The bobcat can be found in a huge variety of environments in North America. Whether it's wetlands, deserts, mountains, snow, or a backyard barbecue in the middle of the city, the bobcat can find a home and a meal anywhere from northern Canada to Mexico City. But while the bobcats reign in North America, they're edged out first by the leopard, whose geographical range is larger than Jenis Kh and the Roman Empire combined. Considered the most adaptable of the big cats, leopards have shown that they can sustain life in almost any habitat. Whether you're in South Africa or the Arabian Peninsula, India, Northern China, or Southeast Asia, or even the Cauasus Mountains, you're likely never too far from a leopard. Thanks to their adaptability, the leopard leaps to a second place tie.

[00:10:02]But when talking cats and what really matters to them, we have to look at the most important stats a cat can have. Who is the best hunter? Best hunter in this category. The second place goes to our new adaptable friend, the leopard.

[00:10:21]Striking an intimidating figure, the leopard has a hunting success rate of about 30%. On a good day. There are some other cats with similar stats, but what gives leopards their edge is their ability to retain their kills. A leopard's strength isn't just useful for taking down their prey. The stamina to drag it into secluded areas like up a tree keeps other predators from stealing their meals. But our number one most ruthlessly efficient killer is the blackfooted cat. This murderous maverick weighs a whopping 2 kg at most and boasts a 60% kill success rate. That's almost double some of its big cat counterparts. On average, they're making 12 kills a night. Keep that in mind next time you complain about having to plan dinner. This success rate is enough to leapfrog some of the legendary hunters, but the cheetah is still in front by a big margin. The cheetah also has a pretty high success rate, but often has their prey stolen by bigger predators.

[00:11:31]Actually, the cheetah is one of the most bullied cats for that very reason. Good at hunting, bad at guarding its meals.

[00:11:40]Poor guy. But it's not all bad, cuz they're division one champions.

[00:11:47]They really ran away with this division.

[00:11:49]And once they get going, there's no stopping them. Okay, moving on to our most aggro division.

[00:11:58]Division 2 is all about power. If athletics is about skill, power is the force behind it. Be that physical or psychological. Let's kick it off with the big baddies. Who is the biggest of them all?

[00:12:18]You might think that the king of the jungle would be the largest cat on Earth, but lions are only hefty enough to get second place. That doesn't mean they aren't humongous. Full grown lions can grow to 2 m long and weigh up to 150 kg.

[00:12:35]They're still size kings and queens, even if they're not first.

[00:12:40]But the gold medal for the beefiest cat goes to the tiger.

[00:12:45]Tigers are massive. Modern Siberian tigers, the largest subspecies, are as long as lions but heavier at around 180 kg.

[00:12:58]There are reports of 3 m long tigers, but these larger individuals face a lot of human hunting pressure. The largest tiger ever in captivity was over 400 kg, about the size of a Harley-Davidson.

[00:13:14]So, after our first event in this category, tigers are ahead. Of course, if we were talking biggest in terms of fame, the lion is one of the only cats to have its own dedicated animated film franchise.

[00:13:30]That's pretty big. But when you think of cat power, you think of their massive jaws. Next up is the strongest bite.

[00:13:42]Being the heaviest doesn't mean being the strongest. So, tigers slip into the runnerup position here. Just to scare you a little bit, an adult human's bite strength ranges from 160 to 200 PSI. The Bengal tiger, only the second strongest biter, applies 1,000 PSI of pressure to suffocate their prey or snap its neck.

[00:14:07]There's no prying these jaws open. So, who could possibly beat the striped giant for the gold here? A new entrant to the list, the jaguar.

[00:14:18]Jaguars can bite with forces of up to 1,500 PSI.

[00:14:24]Their prey tends to disappear quickly into rivers and the forest, so they need to make sure that a single bite kills them. They're so powerful they can bite through the skull and pierce the brain of their prey. That means that they get close to the top, but with tigers scoring a point here, they remain in the lead. There's a fun would you rather for your next gathering. Pierce through the skull or snapped at the neck. Which would you pick? Maybe don't play that as your first impressions game. There's a lot of power in being stealthy. Can you gain the upper hand by being the most elusive?

[00:15:05]Taking one point all the way to the top of the mountain is the ghost of the Andes. The Andian mountain cat is primarily active at night and lives at the barren tops of the mountain range.

[00:15:18]Sightings are rare. When we did our episode about them, the researcher told us that he's been studying them for eight years and has never seen one in the wild. A I'd be shy, too, if I were that cute. But even more introverted than the South American cutie, the Borneo Bay cat takes home first prize.

[00:15:41]We know virtually nothing about this cat. Seeing one in the flesh is so rare, most researchers will spend decades studying them. only to catch a glimpse through trap camera footage. We wish we could show you more pics of them, but they're really that evasive.

[00:16:00]But that earns them three points to get close to the lead. But in a division all about power, will they be able to get enough points to tie the tiger? Not knowing where something is or even if it is can hold a tremendous amount of power. Think about how much people obsess over conspiracies. Let's apply the same logic to size. Because of course, we know that big is powerful, but what about the power of the smallest?

[00:16:31]The blackfooted cat takes runner up here, and it's no lightweight contender.

[00:16:36]It's one of the smallest cats in the world, and as we know, one of the deadliest.

[00:16:42]At just about 35 cm long and shattering the scale at 2 kg, this little kitty is a tiny ninja. But it would still outweigh the winner in this category, the rusty spotted cat. This is the world's smallest cat. Most adults don't even reach the 2 kg mark. That means that they're about half the size of the average domestic cat. But cats are going to cat and they've been known to take down prey three times their size, including a baby gazelle.

[00:17:17]While both look like adorable perma kittens, these are still wild animals and not suitable for house pets. I know I want one of them to be my friend, too, but please leave them alone. Finishing out this division with the power of numbers. The cat with the biggest population. Guys, it's a tie. Kind of.

[00:17:42]We're doing this one a little differently.

[00:17:46]This is sort of a tie where the two top teams have different numbers, but they also seem to be playing different sports. So, we're going to give them two points each. The wildat with the biggest population in the world is our friend, the bobcat. We already know how big their range is. And across North America, they live in healthy populations estimated to be between 2 and 3.5 million strong.

[00:18:14]But if we let these ringers play the game, we have feral domestic cats with a frankly ridiculous population of up to 100 million worldwide.

[00:18:26]Guys, please spay and neuter your kitties.

[00:18:31]Depending on how you count them, their numbers can be even higher if you include hybrids with wild cats. But hey, there's no rule in the playbook that says feral cats can't compete in the cat World Cup. Unfortunately, those two points only put them fifth in the standings.

[00:18:49]It's time to crown our Division 2 champion, the embodiment of raw power with four points thanks to their mind-boggling size and bite power. the Tiger.

[00:19:02]So, after the first half, we have the cheetah and the tiger in the lead.

[00:19:08]We'll have you back here for the final divisions. Allterrain and cunning. Will one of these cats edge out the other? Or will a surprise underdog, I mean cat, go home with a cup? Thanks for watching. Go pet your cat. See you.