Research overview: monitoring effective population size in fragmented felids

Effective population size, the genetically relevant number of breeders, is a key indicator of a fragmented population's resilience. This overview surveys how researchers estimate it for cats from noninvasive genetic samples, why it often falls far below the census count, and how declining effective size signals erosion of adaptive potential under isolation. It reviews thresholds used in conservation genetics and how repeated estimates track trajectories over time. The synthesis frames effective population size as an early-warning metric for fragmented felids, explaining why genetic monitoring complements counting animals: a population may look stable in numbers while its genetic foundation, and its capacity to adapt to climate and other change, quietly weakens.