Friday, January 20, 2012

Cheetahs and Leopards

I've loved watching cats of all kinds since I was young. I actually entertained ideas of being a zookeeper once. When I was in primary school, I knew the major cats (family Felidae) of sub-family Pantherinae (lion, tiger, jaguar, leopard) and that they weren't felines, technically (sub-family Felinae takes care of the domestic cat, cheetah, etc).

I was therefore vastly entertained to see someone online comparing two proposals that looked similar to him and saying that they were as alike as a leopard and a cheetah. Actually, the only major similarity is that both are spotted cats.

Here's a quick run-down of some of the many major differences:
  • A cheetah is a feline that purrs, a leopard is a pantherine which doesn't.
  • A cheetah is the fastest cat on earth (up to 120 km/h), but a leopard isn't (max 60 km/h, only half the speed).
  • Leopards are powerful enough to climb trees while carrying a heavy carcass. Cheetahs cannot climb trees (they're the only cats which can't retract claws, so cannot grip well).
There are many other significant differences which a simple Google search would expose. The irony was that this somebody was saying that good research skills would have made for better proposals. Ahem.

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3 Comments:

Blogger LoneRifle said...

Perhaps this person misapplied the duck test...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_test

Saturday, January 21, 2012 12:47:00 am  
Blogger LoneRifle said...

See also http://lostechies.com/derickbailey/files/2011/03/LiskovSubtitutionPrinciple_52BB5162.jpg

Saturday, January 21, 2012 12:50:00 am  
Blogger Trebuchet said...

Perhaps he meant that case A and case B looked roughly the same, but on closer inspection proved only similar in spots. :D

Saturday, January 21, 2012 5:17:00 am  

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