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Ancestor: Jumping Cat

Size: Smallest species around 65cm tall (including ears), 70 cm long (including tail). Largest species around 90cm tall, 100 cm long.

Dietary Needs: Obligate carnivores that require meat in the form of mammals, birds or lizards. Smaller species can supplement their diet or survive periods of a lack of their preferred prey on things like insect grubs, dates, fruit of wild pineapple (Bromelia pinguin descendants), and other soft foods. This makes them slightly more omnivorous than most other cat species, though not by much. They also have a slightly improved ability to deal with toxins in their diet, whether that be from fruit, insects or rotting meat.

Life Cycle: One litter can be fathered by many different males from separate matings, increasing the variation within the litter and thus the chances that at least one kitten will survive through adverse conditions and hardship. There is no continuing relationship between mates after copulation. Repeated copulation by one male is a result of the male's appetite for it and the female's tolerance, but he or she will eventually tire and move on. Males will sometimes fight over the same female, raising their manes to determine the bigger cat. If neither cat agrees to back down there will be blood shed. Males will forego food for the chance to mate when the season is right, so the drive is strong and aggression levels are high.

Male manes or capes appear different from that of the female usually in colour. Darker hair tips or banded colouration is common in males of this genus.

Pregnant females form nursery colonies in the same general locations each year where males are not welcome and driven out, overcome by sheer numbers. This gives kittens a place to be while females hunt without being killed by adult rival males. Although females can look out for one another, there is also competition between females due to space and food limitations, so various forms of trickery occur between them such as food theft and even kitten theft (maternal instinct is strong, and they don't have the same kitten-killing drive that the males have). Such nursery colonies form at the same time of year as the yearly booms of prey species.

Other: Their mane isn't just to look big. In many species, the Caped Palli in particular, it assists with temperature regulation. A desert environment experiences extremes of heat at day with hard direct light, and extremes of cold at night due to clear skies and dry air, with few places to shelter from the wind's exposure. When the cape is relaxed it keeps warmth in at night, and keeps the skin shaded from the sun at day. If during the day it gets too hot, it raises the mane or cape off it's body much like when it is making an intimidation display. On each side they have a bare patch of skin that is normally covered by the mane or cape. When too hot this skin flushes with blood so that when the mane is moved out of the way, heat rapidly leaks from the body from these two skin patches.

In P. major the cape is essentially a blanket at night. They tuck as much of themselves under the cape as possible (including their nose) on very cold nights, and flatten their ears so the fur-covered side is facing up and the bare, heat-radiating side facing down on to the Palli's back. They are neither nocturnal nor diurnal, instead preferring the between hours of morning and evening to be active.

P. major sometimes travel in small, often temporary hunting and foraging groups of two to five cats. When they find the kill of a larger cat and that other cat is solitary, the Caped Palli harass the larger cat from all angles until it grows so frustrated it can no longer stand the torment, or until they are satisfied after taking turns at stealing bites from the kill and harassing the killer. If the kill is light enough to move they will try to move it away. This is a high risk strategy but Caped Palli are so light, nimble and fast that they rarely lose. They are also not too proud and will retreat when they have lost instead of risking everything, even if they have invested a lot of energy into the struggle.