Research overview: phenological shifts and breeding timing in wild cats

Climate change is shifting the timing of biological events, and while phenology is best studied in plants and birds, it bears on cats through their prey and reproductive timing. This overview surveys how altered seasonality may affect prey breeding pulses, food availability for raising cubs, and the synchrony between predator reproduction and prey abundance. It reviews the limited direct evidence for felids and the inferences drawn from prey systems. The synthesis frames phenological mismatch as a subtle, under-studied pathway of climate impact for cats, explaining why shifts in the timing of seasons, rather than their average conditions, could affect reproductive success if predators and the prey their young depend on fall out of step.