Fierce! The Story of Cats, now at the Natural History Museum through February 18, 2026, brings an immersive, intelligent, and fun view of the fabulous feline to Los Angeles.
Saber-toothed cats had pretty impressive bicuspids!
Along with learning that the La Brea Tar Pits were once home to lions, and that cat friendships and mousing expertise long pre-dated the Egyptian culture’s deification of cats, the exhibit revealed not only cat history, but cat breeds, cat physicality, and cats as art and vestiges of good fortune.
There are clips from cat media (of course including last year’s Academy Award-winning Flow), video of Chinese New Year lion dancers, and even a gigantic sculpture of a Japanese “lucky kitty.”
Flow, above.
What and how cats see, below.
Add your kitty to the carousel of pretties…
In its West Coast debut, the show also features clever cat facts and silhouettes of kitties on the exhibition gallery walls; the ability to enter photos of your own cats as part of a slide show of domestic kitties; and a variety of cultural cat objects.
Seeing the size of various cat claws up close, and cat teeth, and cat fossils, the viewer gets a look at the evolution of cats, the array of feline family cousins and descendents. There are hands-on facts and fun, audio exhibits, and perhaps best of all, a wide ranging display of both taxidermied cats, art depictions of cats, and yes, stuffies of cats, all revealing the beautiful and diverse creatures that make up the feline family tree.
Learn how cats leap, all about their vision, their supple skeletal structure, the differences in fur, the commonalities among feline types. Hear them roar, hear them purr, consider the reason cat claws contract, and the joy of a playful kitten.
From protecting crops to balancing the eco system in the wild, from predatory hunting skills to the healing sound of a purr, this lovely, multi-room exhibition (plus a gift shop with a lot of fun kitty-lover treats) is informative, fun, and packs a potent message about how important it is to protect cats great and small, their habitats and their homes.
The Natural History Museum is located at 900 Exhibition Blvd. in Los Angeles; open hours are 9-5 Monday-Sunday; Fierce tickets are $12 above the regular museum entrance pricing of $18 per adult admission. Go ahead, take a leap.
- Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis