Are Sabertooth Cats Still Alive?

Let's take a look at sabertooth sightings.

Sources:







Smilodon eating:
Water Cats:
Lion charity:
Homotherium Plantigrade/digigrade:

South American saber tooth

Jaguar Skulls

[wildworld]

Footage at 1:30 from the film 'Quest for fire'

[silverstuff]

One of the coolest things I ever saw was a cat in Egypt that had round ears. I was in Luxor, walking along the Nile north to Karnak temple. There were, at the time, homes along the river made of corrugated metal, plastic, car doors and even hieroglyphic stone. Kids were playing around a fire near one and they had a pet cat, normal size, a gray tabby with perfectly round ears.

[nirotanaxamandbear]

I found a sabertooth cat of some kind depicted in a Roman mosaic. It had long fangs, short tail, and a pattern unlike any other cat species. I also found depictions of the pygmy straight tusked elephants that were once found on Mediterranean islands, but supposedly at least 10k years before Rome.

[mugwugthemagnificful]

The saber-tooth trait seems to have worked, not just for felids; maybe we are witnessing convergent evolution. The niche is still open. The clouded leopard is trying to fill one.

[Loyal.Laika.Dog]

I'm in Kentucky and we regularly have sightings of black panthers across the state. I saw one walking along the interstate in Pikeville in 1998 at about 3:00am.

[Texan]

I recall an old episode of Rescue 911 where a boy was attacked by an animal, they said the wounds and description of the animal matched a saber toothed cat. This was late 80's, early 90's.

[Sharauni]

I would love for saber cats to still be around, hiding and staying as far away from humans as they can. I remember reading years ago a study on some lions that were growing longer canines, the scientists speculated that saber teeth might be re-evolving. So some of these sightings, I think, might just be aberrant forms of known big cats that have just grown immensely longer canines for some reason. Which would also be cool since it would be evolution in action, something we can see in living creatures instead of just in the fossil record.

[hstjames]

As always, this was impeccably researched and produced. Thank you for your brilliantly balanced approach. Your videos are far more journalistic and credible than most big budget productions I see these days - certainly better than 99% of anything I see on Netflix etc. You rock <3 PS LOVE the idea to donate some of your money from the channel!

[juliusfucik]

Catlike animals with very long incisors are in one of those niches that develop over and over again in evolution.

[MrT]

My family had a cat whose teeth overlapped his bottom jaw. They were huge, but no sabertooth of course. It was pretty cool though. He was a big boy, but lean and his muscles also showed through his coat. He was also a great hunter, but a real softy with the family. Didn't ever use his claws on us, not once. We loved Pedro. He's the pet that I miss the most.

[messiahmatrix]

A saber tooth cat had powerful forearms to grapple down the prey, they went for the throat, they had a very muscular neck that help thrust the saber teeth like daggers, the bite must be very precise so not to break the long canines. Once the bite is placed the teeth sever the windpipe or jugular and the prey dies. They saber tooth cat is muscular almost like a bear, so he is good at grappling but the bite has to wait for the throat, it simply isn’t designed to nip, tug or “fight”, it is a throat cutter!

[Truthisscarierthanfiction]

Sabertooths are one of the most oddly widespread cryptids across the world, people must really like them. Great video and overview of the cryptids! I always liked the explanation that they evolved independently to fill niches (or possibly one-off mutations) and weren't surviving smilodons

[jessafasel]

I came across this video randomly. I grew up in AZ. I'm 67 years old. In 1979 I was in college and an avid hiker and photographer. One weekend in winter I went out to the Chirachowa Mountains for a long day hike. I followed a dry ravine deep into the mountains until it turned into a small stream. I stopped there to eat and just enjoy the beauty. There was a rock ourcrop across the creek from me. I had that errie feeling of not being alone. I gazed around and saw what I took to be a young cougar up on that ridge. But it was subtly stripex, like a tabby car. The fur wSas brown and tan. It had huge paws and when it saw me watching it, it opened its mouth with long teeth. It was terrifying. I stiid up and grabed a long dried paloverde branch on the ground and waved it. The cat backed up and sprang away. I had pepper spray with me and nothing else. I started walking back beating the brush around me. All was well but Ive always wondered what I saw. I still think it was young. After seeing your video I had to share.

[toomanyopinions]

I doubt they are actual sabertooth cats, but like you suggested, I think that there being (officially!) undiscovered cats isn't unlikely. I think it's more likely to be a reappearance of the long tooth trait rather than sabertooths.

[gianmarcozampella]

I'm a big fan of the cryptid topic, yet I don't recall ever hearing of saber-toothed cats falling into this category, in fact, I was very surprised when I read the title of this video.
Never heard of those accounts, and I hear you, felines are sneaky, and some small subspecies could have survived hidden around the world, but, I gotta say, in this case, I'm extremely skeptical

[leekestner]

There is a rare cat in S America, slightly smaller than the jaguar, that has teeth longer than the jaguar. I saw it in a YouTube just this last week and my brain won't remember its name but they showed one in captivity. If you took a ocelots skull and made it bigger and the large spots were "dragged" into big ovals. A very long and graceful cat. They said it had separated from other cats at least a million years ago.
I live in TN and for years Wildlife officers have told us that the big cats that have been sighted in rural areas are our imaginations making bobcats look like cougars. My friend saw one jump out of her barn loft. She was at one entrance of the barn and the cat jumped down silhouetted in the other door at 50 feet at dusk. She had been loosing a chicken a night. The cat ran off and she ceased to lose chickens. The cat was cougar sized. Last year a radio collared cougar left the Rocky Mountains and traveled to New York. So yes I believe people when they tell me they saw a cougar in the Eastern US.

[Azurialls]

I just discovered your channel recently and am amazed with the effort of research put into the video. I like how you also include visual references and dont jump to conclusions when discussing a topic like this. I think donating some money to charity would be a great idea, especially fitting if it relates to the video. I look forward to your new videos! 😊

[jointcerulean]

Super awesome video and greatly researched on possible surviving sabertoothed big cats or mutations and ecomorphologies. It’s fascinating how many accounts there are, even semi aquatic ones, very peculiar and very intriguing.

[gpaulso]

It’s been said that Northern Africa and the Middle East were largely unaffected by the Younger Dryas mass extinction event that caused the Pleistocene megafauna to disappear at the end of the last ice age. So who knows?

[chrisken]

"Cats are sneaky as heck !" 🐅 (best quote)