Research overview: nocturnality shifts in felids along the urban gradient

Many felids become more strictly nocturnal as human activity increases, a pattern documented from Indian leopards to Californian bobcats and pumas. This overview synthesises camera-trap and telemetry studies quantifying these shifts, the cues that drive them such as human presence, traffic and recreation, and the energetic and ecological costs of squeezing activity into darkness. It examines interactions with prey activity, moonlight and seasonal change, and situates felid nocturnality within the global meta-analytic finding that mammals broadly turn nocturnal near people. The synthesis frames temporal niche shifting as a primary mechanism by which cats partition shared space with humans.