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Mesopredator release and bird extinctions in a fragmented urban landscape
In this widely cited study from San Diego habitat fragments, the authors showed that where bobcats and coyotes disappeared from small, isolated canyons, populations of smaller predators such as domestic cats and foxes increased, driving declines and local extinctions of scrub-breeding birds. This mesopredator-release dynamic demonstrated that losing larger carnivores from urban fragments cascades through the food web with concrete consequences for biodiversity. The work established habitat fragments and their carnivore occupancy as determinants of bird persistence, and it became a foundational reference for understanding why retaining bobcats and other top mesopredators matters for urban ecosystem function.
urban-wildcat-ecology · Read the summary →3,000 summaries
A 9,500-year-old human-cat burial at Shillourokambos, Cyprus
PaperExcavating the Neolithic village of Shillourokambos on Cyprus, Vigne and colleagues uncovered a complete cat skeleton deliberately buried within centimetres of a human grave, the two interred together…
Jean-Denis Vigne, Jean Guilaine, Karyne Debue, Laurent Haye, Patrice Gerard · Science · 2004
A Canine Distemper Virus Epidemic in Serengeti Lions
PaperThis study documented a devastating outbreak of canine distemper virus that killed a large fraction of the lions in the Serengeti ecosystem, demonstrating that infectious disease can cause sudden mass…
Roelke-Parker ME, Munson L, Packer C, et al. · Nature · 1996
A Global Assessment of Protected Areas Resisting Anthropogenic Pressures
PaperThis large-scale study evaluated whether protected areas around the world actually reduce human pressures by comparing changes in indicators such as cropland conversion and human footprint inside prot…
Geldmann J, Manica A, Burgess ND, Coad L, Balmford A · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2019
A MYBPC3 mutation in the Maine Coon cat with familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
PaperMeurs and colleagues identified the genetic basis of inherited hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in Maine Coon cats, a common and sometimes fatal heart disease. Studying a colony of affected cats, they mapp…
Kathryn M. Meurs, Xiaobo Sanchez, Rebecca M. David, et al. · Human Molecular Genetics · 2005
A Range-Wide Model of Landscape Connectivity for the Jaguar
PaperThis study built a continental model of connectivity for the jaguar, mapping potential movement corridors linking jaguar populations from Mexico to Argentina. The authors used expert knowledge and lan…
Rabinowitz A, Zeller KA · Biological Conservation · 2010
A Revised Taxonomy of the Felidae (Cat Classification Task Force)
ReviewThe IUCN Cat Specialist Group convened a Cat Classification Task Force to reconcile decades of conflicting felid taxonomy with modern genetic and morphological evidence. The resulting consensus recogn…
Andrew C. Kitchener, Christiane Breitenmoser-Wursten, Eduardo Eizirik, et al. (Cat Classification Task Force) · Cat News Special Issue · 2017
A canine distemper virus epidemic in Serengeti lions (Panthera leo)
PaperThis landmark study documented the catastrophic 1994 canine distemper virus (CDV) outbreak that killed roughly a third of the Serengeti lion population, an estimated 1,000 lions, along with leopards,…
M. Roelke-Parker, L. Munson, C. Packer, et al. · Nature · 1996
A cat among the dogs: leopard diet in a human-dominated landscape in western Maharashtra
PaperAthreya and colleagues analysed leopard scats from a farmland landscape in western Maharashtra to quantify diet where leopards live amid dense human settlement. They found domestic animals, especially…
Vidya Athreya, Morten Odden, John D. C. Linnell, Jagdish Krishnaswamy, K. Ullas Karanth · Oryx · 2016
A common rule for the scaling of carnivore density
PaperThis study uncovered a general relationship between the population density of carnivores and the availability of their prey, showing that across species roughly the same amount of prey biomass support…
Carbone, C., Gittleman, J. L. · Science · 2002
A common rule for the scaling of carnivore density
PaperCarbone and Gittleman derived a simple, general rule linking carnivore population density to the productivity of the prey base, showing across species that roughly the same amount of prey biomass supp…
Carbone, C. & Gittleman, J.L. · Science · 2002
A community-based approach to mitigating livestock depredation by snow leopards
PaperJackson and Wangchuk described a community-driven model for reducing snow leopard depredation and building tolerance, drawing on work in Ladakh and Nepal. They detailed participatory methods in which…
Rodney Jackson, Rinchen Wangchuk · Human Dimensions of Wildlife · 2004
A complete phylogeny of the extant Carnivora by combining phylogenetic information
PaperThis landmark supertree assembled disparate published phylogenies into the first complete species-level tree of the carnivores, including all then-recognized cats. It pioneered the supertree method fo…
Bininda-Emonds ORP, Gittleman JL, Purvis A · Biological Reviews · 1999
A critique of density estimation from camera-trap data
ReviewFoster and Harmsen critically reviewed the assumptions and pitfalls of estimating animal density from camera traps, focusing on how researchers define the effective sampling area and handle heterogene…
Rebecca J. Foster, Bart J. Harmsen · Journal of Wildlife Management · 2012
A deep active learning system for species identification and counting in camera trap images
PaperNorouzzadeh and colleagues built an end-to-end active-learning system that combines automated detection, classification, and counting with strategic human input, asking experts to label only the most…
Mohammad Sadegh Norouzzadeh, Dan Morris, Sara Beery, Neel Joshi, Nebojsa Jojic, Jeff Clune · Methods in Ecology and Evolution · 2021
A diagnosis for the Scottish wildcat: a tool for conservation
PaperFaced with rampant hybridization between Scottish wildcats and domestic cats, this study developed a pelage-based scoring system to distinguish genuine wildcats from hybrids and feral domestic cats. T…
Kitchener AC, Yamaguchi N, Ward JM, Macdonald DW · Animal Conservation · 2005
A gentle introduction to camera-trap data analysis
ReviewSollmann wrote an accessible tutorial-style review aimed at newcomers, walking through the main questions camera-trap data can answer and the analytical tools suited to each. She covered relative-abun…
Rahel Sollmann · African Journal of Ecology · 2018
A global review of the impacts of invasive cats on island vertebrates
PaperMedina and colleagues reviewed the worldwide evidence for the effects of feral cats on island vertebrates, where naive and often endemic faunas are especially vulnerable. Compiling records across many…
Felix M. Medina, Elsa Bonnaud, Eric Vidal, et al. · Global Change Biology · 2011
A hierarchical model for spatial capture-recapture data
PaperRoyle and Young formulated a hierarchical Bayesian model for spatial capture-recapture in which individual animal locations are treated as latent variables drawn from a spatial point process, and dete…
J. Andrew Royle, Kevin V. Young · Ecology · 2008
A lion lentivirus related to feline immunodeficiency virus: epidemiologic and phylogenetic aspects
PaperThis study characterized the lentivirus circulating in free-ranging African lions and confirmed it as a distinct feline immunodeficiency virus lineage (FIV-Ple) related to but divergent from the domes…
E. W. Brown, N. Yuhki, C. Packer, S. J. O’Brien · Journal of Virology · 1994
A molecular genetic analysis of kinship and cooperation in African lions
PaperThis study used DNA markers to measure relatedness within and between lion coalitions and prides, testing whether cooperation tracks genetic kinship. It confirmed that companion females within a pride…
Packer, C., Gilbert, D. A., Pusey, A. E., O'Brien, S. J. · Nature · 1991
A movement ecology paradigm for unifying organismal movement research
PaperNathan and colleagues proposed a unifying framework that organizes the study of all organismal movement around four components: the internal state that motivates movement, the navigation capacity that…
Ran Nathan, Wayne M. Getz, Eloy Revilla, Marcel Holyoak, Ronen Kadmon, David Saltz, Peter E. Smouse · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2008
A preliminary model of human-animal relationships in the zoo
ReviewHosey proposed a conceptual model of how relationships form between zoo animals and the humans around them, distinguishing the effects of unfamiliar visitors from those of familiar keepers. He argued…
Hosey GR · Applied Animal Behaviour Science · 2008
A radio-tracking system for wild animals
PaperCochran and Lord described one of the first practical VHF radio-tracking systems built for free-ranging wildlife, pairing miniaturized transmitters with directional receiving antennas to fix animal po…
William W. Cochran, Rexford D. Lord Jr. · The Journal of Wildlife Management · 1963
A range-wide model of landscape connectivity and conservation for the jaguar
PaperThis foundational study built a continental-scale model of jaguar habitat and connectivity from northern Mexico to Argentina, identifying core populations and the corridors linking them. Using expert…
Rabinowitz, A., Zeller, K.A. · Biological Conservation · 2010
A range-wide model of landscape connectivity and conservation for the jaguar, Panthera onca
PaperRabinowitz and Zeller built a continental model of jaguar connectivity spanning from Mexico to Argentina, identifying the corridors linking known jaguar populations across the species' entire range. U…
Alan Rabinowitz, Kathy A. Zeller · Biological Conservation · 2010
A review of camera trapping for conservation behaviour research
ReviewCaravaggi and colleagues reviewed how camera traps can be used to study animal behavior, not just presence and abundance, for conservation purposes. They catalogued behavioral metrics extractable from…
Anthony Caravaggi, Peter B. Banks, A. Cole Burton, Caroline M. V. Finlay, Peter M. Haswell, et al. · Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation · 2017
A review of feline infectious peritonitis virus infection: 1963-2008
ReviewThis comprehensive review synthesized four and a half decades of research on feline infectious peritonitis, covering the biology of feline coronavirus, the internal-mutation hypothesis by which a beni…
Pedersen NC · Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery · 2009
A revised taxonomy of the Felidae
PaperThis comprehensive revision, produced by the Cat Classification Task Force of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group, synthesized morphological, molecular, and biogeographic evidence to propose a consistent, e…
Kitchener AC, Breitenmoser-Wursten C, Eizirik E, Gentry A, Werdelin L, Wilting A, et al. · Cat News Special Issue · 2017
A revised taxonomy of the Felidae: the Cat Classification Task Force final report
ReviewThe landmark synthesis that re-anchored modern felid taxonomy. A 16-member IUCN Cat Specialist Group task force reviewed morphological, molecular, biogeographic, and behavioral evidence across all liv…
Kitchener AC, Breitenmoser-Wursten C, Eizirik E, et al. · Cat News Special Issue 11 · 2017
A simple method for estimating the effective detection distance of camera traps
PaperHofmeester and colleagues addressed a key parameter for density methods like the Random Encounter Model and distance sampling: how far in front of a camera animals are actually detected. Because the p…
Tim R. Hofmeester, J. Marcus Rowcliffe, Patrick A. Jansen · Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation · 2019
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