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What comes to mind when you hear the words wild cats? Do you picture golden lions on the plains of Africa? Or tigers slinking through jungles in Asia? Maybe you should start thinking closer to home—possibly even your own front yard.

Here are a few examples. A man in Pennsylvania recently watched a bobcat creep across his driveway. A hiker in Colorado felt something watching her. She turned around and found herself staring into the eyes of a mountain lion.

Mountain lions once roamed much of the United States. That's not the case today. People started moving closer and closer to where the cats lived. Towns and farms popped up everywhere. That meant trouble for the cats.

Farmers were not happy to share their land with mountain lions. The cats often preyed on the farmers' livestock, such as cows and sheep. As a result, farmers killed the cats whenever they could. Hunters also prized the beautiful animals and shot many for sport.

By the 1900s, few mountain lions remained in the eastern United States or Midwest. The range of the cats today is mainly the western United States, Canada, Mexico, and Central and South America.

Luckily, mountain lions can survive in many different habitats. The cats can live on the cold Canadian tundra. Mountain lions also thrive in hot deserts and thick South American rain forests. The cats will eat almost any animal they can catch. The one thing they do need is plenty of space to roam and hunt.

Mountain lions are fierce hunters, and it takes a lot of meat to keep them well fed. Like all cats, they have needle-sharp claws. The claws go up into a cat's paw when they aren’t in use. That lets them stay sharp. When the cat needs the claws again, they pop out like blades.

The killer claws do their job well. A cat can bring down huge animals, such as elk. Yet even for the hungriest mountain lion, a meal that big is just too much to eat at one time.

When the cats are full, they cover the rest of the meal to save for later. They hide leftover meat under leaves or tree branches. Sometimes there aren’t enough trees around, though. In the Arizona desert, a scientist saw a mountain lion cover her meal with just one small twig.

Like mountain lions, bobcats adapt well to many habitats. They can survive just about anywhere—cold or hot, wet or dry. They are found all over the United States. In fact, they are the most common of the wild cats in North America. Like the man in Pennsylvania, people occasionally find the animals prowling around near their homes. These scrappy cats have even been spotted in the parks of some cities!

Just as bobcats are not picky about where they live, they are not picky about what they eat. They'll gobble down insects, rodents, and even bats. These feisty felines have also been known to kill animals much bigger than themselves, such as deer.

Bobcats look a lot like North America's third common wild cat, the lynx. Both cats have fluffy, furry faces and stubby tails. Lynx tend to be bigger than bobcats. They also have white tips on their fur. As a result, lynx look as if they were dusted with snow.

The key difference between the two cats, though, is where they live. As you've read, bobcats are adaptable. You can find them in wildly different habitats. Not lynx. They like cold and snow and nothing else. Lynx stick mainly to snowy areas in Alaska and Canada. Thick coats of fur keep the cats warm during cold winters.

Lynx's taste for chilly places means they have fewer human neighbors than mountain lions or bobcats do. Lynx also don't mix much with bobcats. The two felines tend to fight, so they usually avoid each other.

Lynx aren't just particular about where they live. They're picky eaters too. Lynx eat snowshoe hares. In fact, hares are just about the only thing a lynx will eat. Now and then, a lynx might nibble on a mouse or bird. Yet its first choice of food is always the snowshoe hare. When hare populations are low, in fact, scientists have seen that some picky lynx starve rather than switch foods.

Lynx are well suited for hunting hares. Long tufts of black fur stick out from the cat's ears. They help it hear hares scampering in the snow. Huge furry paws then carry the cat across the snow without sinking. This all happens at night. Like most cats, lynx are nocturnal. Their eyes have an extra layer that reflects light. It lets them see better in the dark than humans can.

What does the future hold for North America's wild cats? That depends on the people sharing their habitat. Bulldozers are destroying feline habitats to make way for houses, stores, and other buildings. Cars also kill wild cats.

Bobcats have the best chance for success in shrinking spaces because they are small and adapt well. Mountain lions, on the other hand, are bigger and need more space to roam. For now, lynx are doing well. Yet these picky cats don't adapt well to change, so it's also important to protect their snowy homes.

To help wild cats survive, scientists are looking for ways to link patches of habitat together. That would turn small pieces of land into larger, connected areas. Cats could then move from place to place, finding the room they need. Hopefully, these beautiful cats will roam our continent for centuries to come.

Article by Dana Jensen and Peter Winkler. Top-of-page photo by Frans Lanting. "Wild Cats" appears on page 18 of the March 2008 issue.