What are the Felidae (سنوريات)? The cat family explained
Felidae is the biological family every cat belongs to — from the lion to the cat asleep on your sofa. What the family contains, which of its species live in Saudi Arabia, and why we took its Arabic name.
The word, and what it names
«سنوريات» is the Arabic name of the biological family Felidae — also written السِّنَّوْريَّات and known as الهِرِّيَّات or القططيات. Its singular, سِنَّوْر, is a classical Arabic word for a cat, and it is the family that contains every true cat alive: roughly forty-odd species, from the lion to the housecat. It is a family name, not a breed and not a species.
Two branches: the cats that roar, and the cats that purr
The family splits into two subfamilies. Pantherinae holds the big cats — lion, tiger, leopard, jaguar and snow leopard — whose throat structure lets them roar. Felinae holds everyone else — cheetah, caracal, lynx, sand cat, wildcat and the domestic cat — which cannot roar but can purr continuously. That single anatomical difference is the cleanest line through the whole family.
The Felidae of Saudi Arabia
Four wild felids belong to this land. The Arabian leopard (النمر العربي, Panthera pardus nimr) is the rarest — critically endangered, with a national breeding and reintroduction effort behind it. The caracal (الوشق / عناق الأرض) is known for the black tufts on its ears. The sand cat (قط الرمال) is a true desert specialist, small enough to be mistaken for a kitten, with fur on its footpads against the hot sand. And the African wildcat (القط البري) is the ancestor of every domestic cat on earth — including the ones in Saudi homes today.
Where your own cat sits in it
Your Persian, your British Shorthair, your Scottish Fold — all one species, Felis catus, inside the Felinae branch. A breed is not a species: every breed on earth is the same animal, shaped by human selection over a few thousand years from that wildcat ancestor. This is why coat colour follows the same genetic rules in a Persian as in a street cat, and why a colour calculator can speak to every breed at once.
Why we took the name
We wanted the widest, oldest and most correct Arabic word for cats — not a coined brand, not a transliteration. «سنوريات» carries the whole family, and that is the ambition: an identity that lasts a cat's whole life, a documented pedigree, and a market where a breeder's papers are actually reviewed. The word already belonged to the cats; we only put it on a platform built for them.
Common questions
Are Felidae mammals?
Yes. Felidae is a family of mammals within the order Carnivora — warm-blooded, giving birth to live young and nursing them. Every member, from the lion to the housecat, is a mammal.
Is the fox a felid?
No. The fox belongs to Canidae, the dog family, not to Felidae. It is a common mix-up because a fox is cat-sized with a long tail and vertical pupils, but its closest relatives are wolves and dogs — not cats.
Is the hyena a felid?
No — the hyena has its own family, Hyaenidae. But it is genuinely closer to cats than to dogs: hyenas, cats, mongooses and civets all sit in the cat-like branch of Carnivora (Feliformia), while dogs and foxes sit in the dog-like branch.
What is «سنوريات» in English?
Felidae is the scientific family name; a single member is a felid, and «feline» is the everyday adjective. The singular سِنَّوْر simply means a cat.
How many species are in the family?
Roughly forty-odd living species — the exact count shifts as taxonomists split or merge populations. Only one of them, Felis catus, is the domestic cat that every breed belongs to.
Is SANORIYAT the platform related to the animal family?
We took the name from it. SANORIYAT (sanoriyat.com) is a Saudi platform that gives every cat a lifelong digital identity — a passport with its documented pedigree — alongside a marketplace whose breeders' registration documents are reviewed.
Your cat deserves an identity
A free digital passport that keeps its lineage, health and photos for life — one link you can share with anyone.
Create your cat's passport, free