Cat
Felis catus Linnaeus, 1758
Status not recordedmammals
The cat (Felis catus) is a species in the family Felidae, order Carnivora. Recorded adults weigh 2.89 kg to 4.57 kg and live up to 19 years. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia.
Quick facts about the cat
- Weight
- 2.89 kg – 4.57 kgsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- 19 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Carnivoresrc for Diet
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 34 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- Not recorded
- Gestation
- 64 dayssrc for Gestation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 3.69src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 9.99 monthssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 2.02src for Litters or clutches a year
- Active
- Day and night (cathemeral)src for Active
- Lifestyle
- Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
Where does the cat live?
Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.
The cat is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Why a country list is not a range map
Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.
What is the cat?
The cat (Felis catus), also called domestic cat and house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is a member of Felidae, the family of mammals in the order Carnivora also colloquially referred to as cats. An obligate carnivore requiring a predominantly meat-based diet, it has retractable claws adapted to killing small prey species such as mice and rats. It has a strong, flexible body, quick reflexes, and sharp teeth, and its night vision and sense of smell are well developed. It is a social species, but a solitary hunter and a crepuscular predator.
Cat communication includes meowing, purring, trilling, hissing, growling, grunting, body language, and scent marking. It can hear sounds too faint or too high in frequency for human ears, such as those made by small mammals. It secretes and perceives pheromones. Cat intelligence is evident in its ability to adapt, learn through observation, and solve problems. The domestic cat is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae.
Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the domestication of the cat started in the Near East around 7500 BCE. Today, the domestic cat occurs across the globe and is valued by humans for companionship and its ability to kill vermin. It is commonly kept as a pet, working cat, and pedigreed cat shown at cat fancy events. Out of the estimated 600 million domestic cats worldwide, 400 million reside in Asia, including 58 million in China. About 73.8 million cats are estimated to live in the United States, and about 10.9 million cats in the United Kingdom. Felis catus also ranges freely as a feral cat, avoiding human contact. Pet abandonment contributes to increasing of the global feral cat population, which has driven the decline of bird, mammal, and reptile species. Population control includes spaying and neutering.
From the Wikipedia article “Cat” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cat&oldid=1383752142), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
What does the cat sound like?
Is the cat endangered?
No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.
How is the cat classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classMammalia
- orderCarnivora
- familyFelidae
- genusFelis
- SpeciesFelis catus Linnaeus, 1758
Synonyms Felis catus domestica, Felis domesticus, Felis lybica domestica, Felis maniculata, Felis maniculata domestica, Felis sylvestris catus
Other names and names in other languages (146)
- Alley catEnglish
- Calico catEnglish
- Domestic catEnglish
- Domestic long hairEnglish
- Domestic short hairEnglish
- Feral catEnglish
- House catEnglish
- KittenEnglish
- KittyEnglish
- Kitty-catEnglish
- MoggieEnglish
- PussEnglish
- PussyEnglish
- PussycatEnglish
- Serengeti catEnglish
- Stray catEnglish
- SylvesterEnglish
- TabbyEnglish
- TomEnglish
- Tom catEnglish
- Tortoiseshell catEnglish
- Tuxedo catEnglish
- AgyinamoaAkan
- قطArabic
- قط أليفArabic
- КетоAvaric
- پیشیکAzerbaijani
- БесәйBashkir
- MeongBalinese
- HauskotzBavarian
- IkosBikol
- КотBelarusian
- КоткаBulgarian
- Домашна коткаBulgarian
- গৃহপালিত বিড়ালBangla
- naungbnn
- KazhBreton
- Domaća mačkaBosnian
- GatCatalan
- MoixCatalan
- Màcdo
- IringCebuano
- ЦицигChechen
- ᏪᏌCherokee
- КотъChurch Slavic
- GhjattuCorsican
- Kočka DomácíCzech
- CathWelsh
- Cath FferalWelsh
- Cathod FferalWelsh
- HuskatDanish
- TamkatDanish
- HauskatzeGerman
- ΓάταGreek
- Αίλουρος η γαλήGreek
- KatoEsperanto
- hejma katoEsperanto
- GatoSpanish
- KassEstonian
- kodukassEstonian
- KatuBasque
- DadiEwe
- گربهPersian
- گربه خانگیPersian
- KesykissaFinnish
- kissaFinnish
- ChatFrench
- chat domestiqueFrench
- Chat HaretFrench
- KaatNorthern Frisian
- Gato domésticoGalician
- બિલાડીGujarati
- PōpokiHawaiian
- חתול הביתHebrew
- बिल्लीHindi
- Moosahop
- MacskaHungarian
- ԿատուArmenian
- kucingIndonesian
- Kucing DomestikIndonesian
- CattoInterlingua
- HúskötturIcelandic
- KötturIcelandic
- MicioItalian
- Gatto domesticoItalian
- 猫Japanese
- イエネコJapanese
- ネコJapanese
- AmcicKabyle
- A̱kwiTyap
- Үй мысығыKazakh
- Мысық / үй мысығыKazakh
- 고양이Korean
- domesticis cattusLatin
- sharulldn
- GattoLigurian
- Naminė katėLithuanian
- pišpišlut
- Mājas kaķisLatvian
- PotiMāori
- NgeruMāori
- PuihiMāori
- ToriMāori
- mia'wjMi'kmaw
- പൂച്ചMalayalam
- QattusMaltese
- Kucing domeMalay
- kucing bela jinakMalay
- PoseMuscogee
- ကြောင်Burmese
- huskattNorwegian Bokmål
- KatDutch
- HuiskatDutch
- Verwilderde KatDutch
- GaazhagensOjibwa
- PushiPapiamento
- Kot DomowyPolish
- Pisică de casăRomanian
- Pisică domesticăRomanian
- Домашняя КошкаRussian
- Mačkaser
- පූසාSinhala
- බළලාSinhala
- mačka domácaSlovak
- Domača mačkaSlovenian
- МачкаSerbian
- Домаћа мачкаSerbian
- GattuSardinian
- LikatiSwati
- UcingSundanese
- KattSwedish
- tamkattSwedish
- பூனைTamil
- పిల్లిTelugu
- แมวThai
- แมวบ้านThai
- PusaFilipino
- PusiTongan
- KediTurkish
- ev kedisiTurkish
- KatseTswana
- Кіт свійськийUkrainian
- Кішка свійськаUkrainian
- MèoVietnamese
- 貓Chinese
- 家貓Chinese
Relatives of the cat
Other species in the same genus Felis.
European wildcat
Felis silvestris
Jungle cat
Felis chaus
Sand cat
Felis margarita
Black-footed cat
Felis nigripes
Chinese mountain cat
Felis bieti
African wildcat
Felis lybica
CompareCat vs European wildcatCat vs Jungle catCat vs Sand catCat vs Black-footed cat
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the cat?
An adult cat weighs 2.89 kg – 4.57 kg, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Where does the cat live?
Catalogue of Life checklists list the cat for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.
How long does the cat live?
The cat has a recorded lifespan of 19 years.
How long is the cat pregnant?
The recorded gestation period is 64 days.
What kind of animal is the cat?
The cat (Felis catus) belongs to the family Felidae in the order Carnivora.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Cat (Felis catus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/cat
“Cat (Felis catus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/cat.
@misc{cat_2026,
title = {Cat (Felis catus)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/cat},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}