Research overview: scaling of jump height with body size across felids

Small cats seem to out-jump big cats relative to their size, and this overview reviews how jumping ability scales across the felid family. Physical principles predict that absolute jump height does not increase in proportion to body size, so smaller cats achieve greater leaps relative to their own dimensions, while large cats are limited by the forces their muscles and bones can manage. Researchers analyse scaling with allometric comparison of muscle, limb proportions, and performance. Why it matters: scaling explains why a small cat can spring many times its height while a lion cannot, framing the spectacular leaps of little cats as a predictable consequence of physics rather than special muscles. It situates feline jumping within the general biology of how athletic performance changes with body size across animals.