Winged cat

These sometimes also feature a winged cat's body with a bird's head (e.g., the gryphon) or human face (e.g. the lamassu and sphinx).

It is hardly a unique, biologically impossible, artistic conceit in works of Classical Antiquity; Greco-Roman, Egyptian, and other works also often depicted winged horses (Pterippus) such as Pegasus, animal-headed human figures (the Minotaur, and many Egyptian deities like the cat-headed Bastet and Sekhmet), half-human and half-horse figures (the centaur), and other mythological part-cat beasts, such as the Chimera.

Art of this sort featuring felids dates back to the Upper Paleolithic era, to 40,000 BCE, though it is uncertain when winged felines in particular were first represented.

Aq Bars is a legendary winged snow leopard, a symbol of ancient Turkic and Bulgar origin, and going back to an uncertain period in pre-literate history.

Emblematic use of snow leopards with wings continues in the modern coat of arms of Tatarstan, Russian Federation; Samarqand, Uzbekistan; and Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.

For example, an Athanasius Kircher engraving from 1667 depicted a demonic creature with a cat's head, bat's wings and human torso.

There are more than 138 reported sightings of animals claimed to be winged cats, though most of these are clearly nothing more than individuals with clumps of matted fur, some cases of cutaneous asthenia or supernumerary limbs, and others taxidermy frauds (freakshow "grifts"), or just sensationalist tabloid journalism.