By Sheetal Kumari | October 21, 2025
Only on Japan’s Iriomote Island can these tiny, reclusive cats be found, with less than 100 living in dense subtropical forests.
Image: Canva
With fewer than 120 remaining, the Amur leopard is the planet’s rarest big cat, having developed to endure tough Siberian winters.
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This leopard is critically endangered and lives in Oman and Yemen’s mountainous regions, with fewer than 200 individuals remaining in the wild.
Image: Canva
The Sumatran tiger is the smallest living tiger subspecies, with fewer than 400 remaining on Indonesia’s Sumatra Island.
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Habitating high in the Andes, fewer than 1,400 Andean mountain cats survive, ideally suited to cold, rocky environments.
Image: Wikipedia
Nearly extinct a decade ago, the Iberian lynx now numbers around 1,000 due to robust conservation efforts in southern Europe.
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Found exclusively in Borneo’s rainforests, this reddish-brown cat is desperately shy, with fewer than 2,500 thought to exist.
Image: Sebastian Kennerknecht/Panthera)
This wetland predator of Malaysia and Thailand has less than 2,500 adults, identified by its flattened head and aquatic lifestyle.
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The “ghost of the mountains”, there are an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 snow leopards that inhabit the Himalayas and Central Asia.
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Scotland’s sole native wild cat, with less than 300 purebred survivors, habitat destruction and hybridisation with domestic cats.
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