Research overview: pedigree and studbook management in captive felids

Zoos and breeding programs maintain studbooks to manage the genetics of captive cat populations, aiming to retain diversity and avoid inbreeding across generations. This overview surveys how pedigree analysis and mean kinship calculations guide breeding recommendations for species such as tigers, snow leopards, clouded leopards, and Amur leopards, and how molecular markers verify ancestry and detect hybridization that pedigrees miss. It discusses the role of captive insurance populations for critically endangered cats, the challenges of limited founders and surplus animals, and how integrating genomic data with traditional studbook management improves the long-term genetic sustainability of captive felid populations.