We have seen, in two recent Posts (https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/milewski/55108-the-forearm-flag-of-felids-as-a-retrievable-ancestral-feature-depending-on-the-local-predatory-regime#), that at least seven genera and 15 species of felids share barring on the inner foreleg, which
All of these are small to medium-size except for the puma.
My explanation for this pattern is that small felids are vulnerable to large felids and hyenas. Where the predatory regime is most intense it may pay to express the latent conspicuousness of the inner foreleg in the form of warning colouration.
How can we test this explanation?
One way is to see if the largest felids, which are at or near the top of the predatory hierarchy, lack the aforementioned latency. For the explanation to be borne out, the 'big cats' should have patterns on the inner foreleg which
The cheetah is low in the predatory hierarchy. However, we can include it here because it is as large as the leopard, the snow leopard and the puma.
Please see the photos below, which show that in most of the 'big cats' there is a slight tendency for the inner surfaces of the legs to be striped - or at least for the spots to be aligned - even where the colouration on the torso lacks any striping. This makes it important to compare fore- and hindlegs.
On this basis, I see no potential for warning colouration on the inner foreleg in lion or snow leopard.
There is slight potential in the leopard because of a tendency for the spots to be more aligned on the inner foreleg than on the inner hindleg (an extreme example is https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/974230/view/leopard-walking-etosha-national-park-namibia).
In the tiger, the similarity between inner fore- and hindleg in striping might rule out any latency for warning colouration, were it not for the intriguing facts that
All that would be needed for a forearm flag to be expressed in e.g. https://www.123rf.com/photo_127835763_big-royal-bengal-tiger-walking-on-concrete-path-looking-great.html or https://bigcatsindia.com/tiger-census-2018/ is a dimming of the general striping and a widening of the dark stripes on the inner foreleg to form bold barring.
The jaguar is ambivalent in a different way. The pattern on the inner foreleg is more complicated and more individually (and regionally?) variable than in the closely-related leopard.
It is intriguing to find traces, however ambivalent, of a potential for warning colouration in both jaguar and puma (see https://depositphotos.com/47955729/stock-photo-baby-puma.html and https://depositphotos.com/10876132/stock-photo-puma-cub-puma-concolor-35.html and https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photos-cougar-image6864943 and https://fw.ky.gov/Wildlife/Pages/Mountain-Lions.aspx).
This is because these species, across the Americas until about ten thousand years ago, were vulnerable to carnivores larger than not only themselves but also the extant lion in Africa and India. I refer to Smilodon populator, Panthera atrox and several particularly large, short-faced bears (Arctodus and Arctotherium).
The cheetah, perhaps surprisingly, shows little potential for any barred pattern on the inner foreleg: at best a slight alignment of the spots in some individuals.
In summary:
Lion https://www.bigstockphoto.com/image-389833417/stock-photo-lion-cub-walking-at-the-edge-of-water-in-morning-sunshine-in-savuti-in-botswana and https://www.shutterstock.com/nb/image-photo/young-lion-cub-panthera-leo-kalahari-8493058?irclickid=xABUceQmnxyOWXNwUx0Mo3kTUkBRujXttyGw3I0&irgwc=1&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=Stockfresh%20by%20Stockphotos.com%20GmbH&utm_source=2691128&utm_term=stockfresh&c3ch=Affiliate&c3nid=IR-2691128 and https://www.123rf.com/photo_8509916_young-lion-cub-walking-on-a-fallen-tree-limb.html
Tiger https://www.barewalls.com/art-print-poster/cute-tiger-cub-walking-in-the_bwc23873012.html and https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/women-walking-with-a-two-months-old-tiger-cub-gm173580977-8152004 and https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/photo/tiger-cub-walking-side-view-royalty-free-image/200502294-001 and https://www.shutterstock.com/nb/image-photo/side-view-tiger-walking-away-isolated-1764186116 and https://www.alamy.com/side-view-of-a-walking-tiger-big-cat-isolated-on-white-image349541790.html and https://www.shutterstock.com/nb/image-photo/side-view-tiger-walking-looking-agressive-1764184448
Leopard https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-leopard-cub-walking-towards-an-ostrich-killed-by-her-mother-kgalagadi-12248181.html and https://stock.adobe.com/uk/images/young-leopard-cub-walking-with-mother-african-wildlife/211928891 and https://www.123rf.com/photo_143333689_baby-leopard-leopard-cub-in-the-wilderness-of-africa.html and https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/leopard-walking-kalahari-desert-gm908241490-250211674 and https://pixers.hk/stickers/leopard-walking-37173471#configurator and https://www.agefotostock.com/age/en/details-photo/leopard-walking-greater-kruger-national-park-south-africa/TET-ti1200143
Jaguar https://www.flickr.com/photos/tambako/30178692722 and https://fineartamerica.com/featured/2-jaguar-walking-on-a-river-bank-aivar-mikko.html and https://www.123rf.com/photo_134643659_close-up-of-a-jaguar-walking-on-a-riverbank-pantanal-brazil-.html and https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/jaguar-panthera-onca-female-cuiaba-river-1291824154 and https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-jaguar-walking-on-a-sandbar-on-the-cuiaba-river-the-pantanal-region-135631790.html
Snow leopard https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-snow-leopard-cub-walking-uncia-uncia-39615091.html and https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-snow-leopard-walking-forest-summer-season-side-view-panthera-uncia-feline-also-known-as-ounce-large-image83143414 and https://www.deviantart.com/sub98765/art/SnowLeopard-Walking-in-the-in-a-Zoo-318950957
Cheetah normal morph https://www.agefotostock.com/age/en/details-photo/cheetah-acinonyx-jubatus-six-week-old-cheetah-cub-exploring-its-surroundings-maasai-mara-national-reserve-narok-county-kenya/IBR-4242215/1 and https://www.flickr.com/photos/tambako/15998161363 and https://www.masterfile.com/image/en/841-09194651/cheetah-acinonyx-jubatus-cub-kgalagadi-transfrontier and https://www.alamy.com/cheetah-walking-on-meadow-acinonyx-jubatus-image282830550.html and https://www.shutterstock.com/nb/video/clip-32753101-cheetah-walking-plains-maasai-mara-national-reserve and https://www.masterfile.com/image/en/841-07523900/cheetah-acinonyx-jubatus-kgalagadi-transfrontier and https://www.masterfile.com/image/en/682-03188123/cheetah-acinonyx-jubatus-walking-and-looking-at-camera-namibia and https://www.masterfile.com/image/en/600-03814894/cheetah-masai-mara-national-reserve-kenya
Cheetah 'king' morph https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/King_cheetah%2C_De_Wildt_Cheetah_Research_Centre_in_South_Africa.jpghttps://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-is-the-king-cheetah.html and https://www.cheetahspot.com/king.php and https://www.flickr.com/photos/bfra07/4641824990 and https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-image-king-cheetah-cheetah-south-africa-female-male-acinonyx-jubatus-image34585431
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