Does cat think she’s a tiger? Exhibit shows she has point

CHICAGO — The Field Museum’s lakefront building isn’t original to the “White City” constructed for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, but its collection began as a permanent home for many of the items exhibited at that famous fair. One of these 19th century specimens, a taxidermy tiger, is now prominently displayed in an array of all 45 known species of living felines in a new exhibit, “Cats: Predators to Pets.”

Created by the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris, the exhibit opened at the Field in November with some customization for local audiences. The current version highlights the Field’s conservation efforts and integrates specimens from its own collection, as well as some on loan from other U.S. museums, including the Burpee Museum of Natural History in Rockford.

As visitors follow a winding path through several rooms, they can trace the evolutionary timeline of cats, learn about their unique physiological and behavioral traits, and explore the relationships between humans and cats throughout history. With signage in English and Spanish, the exhibit also includes informational videos, hands-on activities and a photo opportunity with a human-sized cat tree.

A cartoon drawing of a black-and-white domestic cat peeks out from many of the displays, mirroring the behaviors of its wild siblings such as stalking prey (or a toy mouse) and recharging after the hunt with a well-earned nap. “We want people to be surprised by how similar big cats are to small cats,” said Anastasia Tesfaye DeMaio, one of the Field’s exhibitions developers. “At the core, it’s a conservation message. It’s about relating your domestic cats at home with these larger endangered cats that need attention and help from us.”

One display highlights the work of Anderson Feijó, assistant curator of mammals at the Field, whose research found that there are five different species of South American pampas cats, rather than only one — a discovery that has prompted several conservation initiatives. Under a header that reads, “We must study cats to save cats,” this section also tells the story of the Florida panther, a species with a shrinking-population trend that was successfully reversed by introducing Texas pumas to their area to widen the genetic pool.

In a series of displays about cats’ senses, visitors can test their hearing against that of a cat, look into light boxes that imitate feline vision, search for camouflaged cats in photos and touch a tactile model of a scratchy tongue. Several skeletons — some real, some replicas — demonstrate how cheetahs run faster than any other land animal, margays can climb down a tree headfirst and domestic cats almost always land on their feet.

After this primer on the anatomy and behavior of cats, the exhibit turns to history, anthropology and popular culture to explore humans’ fascination with these animals through the ages. Cultural representations of cats from Egypt, Kenya, Peru, China and Japan make way for modern items such as a Lego tuxedo cat, a Hello Kitty camera and a plush toy of Pusheen, a popular cartoon by Chicago illustrator Claire Belton. Two gaming stations allow visitors to sample cat-themed video games, and a bulletin board honors a range of famous felines, fictional and real: the Cheshire Cat, Garfield, the Pink Panther, Larry (chief mouser to the British Prime Minister) and the cat from the original “I can has cheezburger?” meme.