Can big cats retract their claws?
Yes, all of them can. The only cat in the whole Felidae (all cats) family that cannot retract their claws in the cheetah. Their claws act like cleats as traction while running. But the cheetah isn’t “technically” a big cat. You see, the cat family (or Felidae) is divided into 2 sub-families, or groups within the family. Pantherinae has the big cats: the lion, tiger, leopard, jaguar, snow leopard, and clouded leopard. Felinae, the other sub-family, consists of small to medium sized cats: cheetah, lynx, bobcat, ocelot, caracal, sand cat, fishing cat, domestic cat, the list goes on and on. To make matters more complicated, these sub-familes are divided further into smaller groups, called the genus level. Yes, I know I sound like a total nerd for knowing all this, but hey, I like Phylogeny. Now stay with me. In this lovely Felinae sub-family, we have several genus levels. (The one with our lovely pet cats is called the genus Felis, which also contains the sand cat, the black-footed cat, th
