What is the most widely dispersed large cat on the planet?

BRY2K

As far as the Americas go, cougars are the most widely distributed of any of the American cats. Their range runs from Canada, North America -west of the Great Plains, southern Florida, Mexico, Central America and South America. http://www.bigcat.org/education/conservation/ Mar 05 09, 6:57 PM

zbeckabee

The leopard Panthera pardus is the most widely distributed cat in the world, but the Amur subspecies P p orientalis is the northernmost and, with only about 30 individuals left in the wild, the most endangered. http://www.loveearth.com/uk/readingroom/essays/amurleopardbbcw Mar 05 09, 7:45 PM

author

First I thought you meant "big cat". The cougar is not counted as a "big cat". The "big cats" are tiger, lion, jaguar and leopard. But now I see that you wrote "large cat". Is that something else? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panthera Mar 06 09, 7:09 PM

zbeckabee

There appears to be great conflict in which cats fit into which group. As far as I'm concerned, if it's a cat and it's not small...it's a big cat. The term big cat is used to distinguish the larger cat species from smaller ones. One definition of big cat includes only the four species of cat in the genus Panthera: the tiger, lion, leopard, and jaguar. A more expansive definition also includes the cheetah, snow leopard, clouded leopard, and cougar. The roaring cats may also be distinguished from the other big cats by referring to them as "great cats". Panthera, the feline genus which contains lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars Panther (in Africa and Asia), the leopard (Panthera pardus) Panther (in North America), the cougar or mountain lion (Puma concolor) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panther http://animals.about.com/od/carnivores/ig/A-Visual-Guide-to-Cats/shutterstock_113547.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_cat Mar 06 09, 9:28 PM