Felines vs. canines - in terms of size

Factual Questions
1

Hi there,

random shower thought:

why do cats (felines) come in all kind of sizes, from you own 2kg kiddy all the way up to many hundrets of kgs of a siberian tiger (300kg/700lb)

but canines (dogs/wolves) dont?

sure there are large breeds which seem to top out at 60-70kg (rottweiler, gran danes) … but they do not seem to go beyond that … let alone ones that are not purpose - bread … e.g. wildlife?

a guess: dogs/wolfs hunt in packs, and if they get too big, the prey might not be enough for all (creating there own problems in packs), so there was a selection towards the “right size” as opposed to “max size”…

Cats seem to be lone hunters and can therefore get larger without running the risk of staying hungry after a kill due to their huge metabolic needs…

thoughts?

2

I would think it is being pack hunters versus lone hunters (as you mentioned).

You don’t need to be big to take down a buffalo when there are 10 of you working together. You need to be very big if you want to do that solo.

There was a canid that was a little smaller than a modern lion but they (Epicyon) went extinct a few million years ago.

3

Lions are pretty big and they’re pack animals.

4

Maybe it’s because cats are ambush predators, while dogs are long-distance hunters. Because cats don’t rely on chasing their prey over long distances, some species can get really big without affecting their ability to hunt. On the other hand, dogs need more stamina, so their bodies can’t get too big.

Interestingly, while there’s a big range of sizes among feline species, there’s little variation of size in domestic cats as compared to domestic dogs. The smallest cat breed is Singapura, with an average weight of 6 pounds, while the largest breed, the Savannah, can get up to 25 pounds, a ratio of about 4.2. With dogs, a chihuahua might weigh 6 pounds, while a mastiff can get up to 230 pounds, a ratio of about 38.3. There’s also a lot more variation in body types in domestic dogs than in domestic cats.

5

If you eliminate the outliers (Siberian tiger on the large feline end; teacup Yorkies on the small canine end), is there really a significant difference overall between typical feline and canine sizes, when both upper and lower ranges of each are taken into account?

I’m not saying there isn’t, but I’d like to see more evidence that the two species have significant overall size difference than two photos stuck together without any way of knowing they are even guaranteed to show an identical scale.

6

6 pounds would be a sand cat and 230 pounds would be a jaguar. While both of those have been kept as pets by the occasional psycho, they have not been targets for domestication. Though, ironically, breeding and maintaining genetic diversity is sometimes required to ensure the survival of endangered species.

7

As already noted, lions are pack animals and they weigh app. 260 - 500 lbs in lean, wild animal condition. Much larger than any wolf.

8

Yeah…IIRC cats like cheetahs can only pursue their prey for about a minute or two (at top speed). After that they overheat and must stop. They also can’t fail very often before they are too weak to succeed. Which is why they are so fast (they have to catch their food in a short amount of time).

Wolves will stay with their prey all day and for many miles wearing their prey down.

Heck, I read humans were aces at just running down prey over many hours and miles. Their target was almost certainly faster than they were but the humans would just stay on them and the animal would eventually tire and be easy to kill (perhaps a crucial strategy in human evolution).