Comparative study on certain parameters of the skull of some cats species grown in captivity in Romania

Abstract

In Romania, 5 of the 6 species covered by this study - tiger (Panthera tigris), lion (Panthera leo), jaguar (Panthera onca), cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) and puma (Puma / Felis concolor) - are present only in circuses or zoos, and the sixth species - the European wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris) is present in our country in wild. The studied specimens were born and bred in captivity and have slightly smaller dimensions than wild specimens. The skulls come from the Anatomy museum, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Bucharest. There are not known the subspecies of tiger, lion, jaguar, cheetah or cougar from which the skulls belonged. The bodies of these cats that died of natural causes (old age) were donated by Bucharest-Baneasa Zoo and Circus N & Variete Globus Bucharest (cheetah and one tiger). Our measurements are based on studies conducted on wild cat skulls by Clara Stefen D. Heidecke (2012) and skulls of several species of mammals from archaeological sites by Angela von den Driesch (1976). Based on the measurements, the facial index, the cranial index, the skull volume, and the cranial cavity volume were calculated. It was observed that only the tiger and the wild cat facial and cranial indexes are close, while for the other species the facial index is higher than the head one. The biggest difference between the volume of the skull and cranial cavity volume is observed in tiger, and the smallest difference at the wildcat. Even if they are part of different kinds of cats, the cheetah (big cats category) and the puma (small cats category) presented similar values for the cranial cavity and cranial volume area.