Marty Stouffer's Wild America - Season 2 Episode 7 Wild Cats

We all know domestic cats. We've seen them savagely attack a ball of yarn, contentedly purr on our laps, and instinctively sharpen their claws, probably on our best furniture. Yet, we rarely have the opportunity to see their secretive wild cousins, the most elusive of all animals - and the most deadly. It's hard to believe that the mountain lion is a not-too-distant relative of this tiny kitten. But these sharp claws are common characteristics of all felines-useful for catching and killing prey, retractable when the cat needs to move quickly. And these eyes-narrowed to a slit in daylight-can open wide in darkness, allowing the cats to be effective nocturnal hunters. In form and function, wild cats gracefully reach the peak of predatory evolution. But in order to fully understand the reasons for these sophisticate adaptations, we must look deeper into the hidden world of America's "WILD CATS".