Research overview: noninvasive genetic sampling of wild cats

Because most wild cats are elusive and difficult to capture, conservation geneticists increasingly rely on noninvasive samples such as scat, hair, and shed cells to obtain DNA without handling the animals. This overview surveys how noninvasive genetics enables individual identification, population size estimation, sex determination, diet analysis, and assessment of genetic diversity in species ranging from snow leopards and tigers to pumas and small cats. It discusses the technical challenges of low-quality and contaminated field DNA, the statistical methods for genotyping error and capture-recapture, and how these approaches have transformed the monitoring of cryptic felids across their often remote ranges.