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Ancestor: Jumping Cats

Size: Largest species: 90cm length (140cm including the tail), Smallest species:  65cm long (102 cm including the tail)

Dietary Needs: These lean cats can tolerate a diet high in lean rabbit meat. However, fatty rabbit dewlaps on older rabbits and reproductively active females are preferred to top up the meagre fat reserves the cat carries and keep it nutritionally in shape.  "Megorics" are rabbits that can grow quite large and tough, and the elders are much higher in fat than the leaner younger adults. Soncats can only rarely bring down these heavy and aggressive elder Megorics but they are a rich fat source so it is sometimes worthwhile to take the risk. The cats consume organs and mammary glands first on fresh kills, and rarely scavenge as their digestive system is not as suited to meat putrification compared to other species that scavenge frequently. Occasionally they also eat smaller species of cat.

Life Cycle: The anestrus period of the female covers much of spring and summer to prevent kittens being raised over the hottest harshest time of the year. Estrus initiates  after the monsoon fall, when future conditions are set to become more favourable for kitten raising.

Males roam and track the scent of healthy females in estrus. There is very little sexual dimorphism and females are quite capable of seriously harming a male, so he needs to approach her gradually and allow her to become desensitized to his presence. Meanwhile he may also have to fight off rival males. The courtship between male and female is sensitive, the female can easily lose her nerve or temper. Older, more experienced males stand the best chances. Younger males usually don't successfully mate, but this spent time is not in vain if they learn from the example of their older rivals who bested them.

If a female decides to let the male mate with her, a bond forms between the pair and there is a good chance she will mate with this male again in future seasons, even if they don't live together or raise kittens together. The male has no role in kitten-raising as the female seeks solitude.

Kittens start out life helpless, odourless and silent. Independence takes up to 8 months, leaving no time for a second litter in the year. Females give birth to between one and three kittens. They generally have a high chance of survival if they live past their first two weeks, but it is post-independence that is the real test for them. 

Other: The soncats have various means of making the kill against larger rabbits that are strong and dangerous. Their long paws and false thumb help them grapple and gain control of the rabbit's position relative to itself,  while they have canine teeth they can use to either pierce between the vertebrae and traumatise the spinal cord, or with their crushing molars break the vertebrae with a vice-like action. This relies on an advantageous position and if not possible, they will try to kill it any way possible including by slashing the rabbit's abdomen with it's back legs in a kicking motion.

Smaller prey can usually be dispatched in an instant with a bite to the back of the neck with considerably more ease.

Most teamwork kills are made by siblings that never separated after their mother scattered them. When surviving siblings stick together it increases the survival chances of their own offspring in the future. They don't tend to form large groups however, and pregnant females will disappear into the wilderness alone to raise kittens to keep them safe from other Soncats, which may kill rival kittens to make a rival mother leave and to use as a food source (in the case of females doing the killing) or make the mother reproductively active again and prevent future rivals (in the case of males doing the killing).

They are so competitive over food and space due to having a high metabolism and needing to kill frequently.

Although apex predators they have a rivalry with more robust, bulkier descendants of the previous time stop's Mountain Cats and Central Cats, which pose a serious threat to them.

Species:

There are 4 species of the genus Sonifelis.

• Golden Soncat - Golden coat with small, crowded spots that form suggestions of stripes and are always bold. Lives in the South West of it's range, and uncharacteristically for it's genus it lives almost exclusively in lowlands. It lives in the most grass dense habitat of all the subspecies, using it mainly as ambush cover. Larger prey keeps this cat at a larger size than it's plateau-dwelling redder cousin described below.

• Tall Soncat - Lives in the region that was the seeding site for the cats, which are lands deeply eroded by rivers carrying rainwater and seasonal meltwater down from the great mountain range North and surrounding. There is also a steeper incline in land elevation, resulting in more elevation-induced cloud condensation and thus, this land is greener and cooler the higher in elevation. The cats are usually only found on plateaus that stand between the rivers and flood plains as the drier open steppe habitat found there is more advantageous for them to hunt and pursue.  However they are occasionally found down within the canyons or on the flood plains when travelling between locations or if they have been unable to find opportunity elsewhere. They are the longest and tallest species with a similar coat pattern and colour to golden soncats.

• Robust Soncat - The youngest species that developed recently as the cats moved East into new habitat, closest related to tall soncats. They are also the least like the rest of their genus, being the slowest but also the most tolerant of periods without food. They are also less fragile in frame and appearance. The land is less flat and they are sometimes found on steep and rocky terrain, for which they have developed a more robust body. They are the shortest species, but are also the heaviest species (not counting stomach contents) and most resistant and hardy to injury. Their hunting success rate is lower than the other three species, but kill size tends to be larger, because the region they live in is not steppe but slightly wetter grassy shrubland supporting more vegetation all year and in response some herbivores have grown in size. They practice gorging behaviour, developing a distended stomach after eating larger prey. They store this as fat which will see them over for longer until they can next make a successful hunt. Their species is the only one where the spots fully join into stripes. They have a golden colour, but it's more brownish compared with golden soncats or tall soncats.