Similarities of a Tiger and a Cheetah

Agile Vertebrates

• Both the tiger and the cheetah are vertebrates, as both are under the subphylum Vertebrata, which in turn is under the class of Mammalia. The tiger and the cheetah, like most wild felids, are both solitary cats, preferring to live in remote places, and are nocturnal creatures. Both are very agile climbers, able to climb up trees where they sometimes rest and wait for prey. Tigers and cheetahs are also both hunters, a characteristic in which they excel, no matter what terrain they are in.

Physical Similarities

• An obvious physical similarity that a tiger and a cheetah share is their muscular and lithe body. The felid shape is the shape of a naturally formed hunter. These include retractable claws, which remain visible when they attack or are being vigilant and retract when the cat is relaxed. Both the cheetah and the tiger have five toes on their front paws and four toes on their hind feet, which is beneficial when they need to hold down prey. As with any average cat, the tiger and the cheetah both have a tongue covered in papillae which they use to scrape the meat from their prey and to groom themselves.

Four Senses

• Like any felid, tigers and cheetahs have large eyes situated on their skull in such a way as to give a binocular vision effect. Both these cats can see perfectly well at night, making them good nocturnal hunters. Both the tiger and the cheetah have a highly sensitive sense of smell due to the presence of the vomeronasal organ located at the roof of their mouth. This enables them to "taste" the air; both cats also have large ears, making them sensitive to high frequency sounds, which allow them to locate small prey.

  The tiger and the cheetah also have sensitive whiskers that help by giving both cats sensory information, an essential tool for hunting at night.

Teeth

• Felids naturally have a small number of teeth, despite being a family of hunters. Compared to other carnivores, tigers and cheetahs have this unique dental feature due to their shorter muzzle, which is shaped like a dog's. But they make up what they lack in quantity in quality--each tooth is a large canine unit that both cheetahs and tigers use to tear into flesh and instantly kill. These cats usually aim for the jugular in order to easily incapacitate their prey.