Research overview: telemetry-based functional connectivity for cats

Functional connectivity, whether animals actually move between habitat patches, is best assessed with movement data from collared cats. This overview surveys how GPS telemetry, step-selection functions, and dispersal tracking reveal the routes, barriers, and behaviors that determine real connectivity, refining models built only from habitat maps. It reviews how individual variation, sex, and age shape dispersal, and how telemetry validates or overturns assumed corridors. The synthesis frames movement data as the ground truth for connectivity science, explaining why combining telemetry with genetics gives the most reliable picture of whether fragmented felid populations remain linked, and whether they can shift their ranges as climate redraws the map of suitable habitat.