El Gato or La Gata?

Question

Why is una gata? I thought this is male noun un or el gato.

Inma Sánchez · Accepted Answer

Hola Darko,
In Spanish we have a word for a female animal and a male animal (in most cases) unlike in English where you need to add the word male or female to specify most of the time; so we have for example:

un gato / una gata (a male cat / a female cat)
un perro / una perra (a male dog / a female dog)
un conejo / una coneja (a male rabbit / a female rabbit)

Some of them as you can see have an ending -o for male and an ending -a for female.  Other animals have a specific noun for a male an a female, for example:
un caballo (a horse) / una yegua (a mare)
And some have just one form for both, in which case we add the words macho or hembra:
una tortuga macho (a male turtle ) / una tortuga hembra (a female turtle)
This lesson talks about living creatures and their gender. Have a look here.
At the end of the lesson you will also find a useful list of animals in Spanish.
I hope this helps.
Saludos
Inma