🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

The Amazon basin holds the largest remaining expanse of jaguar habitat, and the cat's ecology there differs from open wetlands. This overview synthesizes research on jaguars in continuous rainforest,…

Jaguar home ranges vary widely with habitat productivity and prey availability, from compact territories in rich wetlands to vast ranges in drier or less productive forests. This overview synthesizes…

Where jaguars share land with cattle ranching, depredation drives conflict that threatens the cat through retaliatory killing. This overview synthesizes studies on the patterns and drivers of jaguar p…

Jaguars are the most water-associated of the big cats in the Americas, and in wetland strongholds they specialize on aquatic and semi-aquatic prey. This overview synthesizes research showing how jagua…

At the northern limit of their distribution, in northern Mexico and occasionally the southwestern United States, jaguars persist at low density and high conservation sensitivity. This overview synthes…

Cheetahs lose a significant share of their kills to larger carnivores, a major cost of their position in the savanna guild. This overview synthesizes research showing that lions, hyenas, and even leop…

Leopards are flexible in their timing of activity, becoming more strictly nocturnal where humans and dominant competitors are present. This overview synthesizes camera-trap studies showing that leopar…

Leopard home-range size and density vary enormously, reflecting the species' adaptability. This overview synthesizes telemetry and camera-trap studies showing that leopards occupy small territories at…

Leopards often survive in small habitat fragments and human-dominated mosaics where other big cats vanish, but fragmentation still imposes costs. This overview synthesizes research on how leopard popu…

Leopards are remarkable among big cats for persisting in close proximity to dense human populations, including the edges of major cities. This overview synthesizes research, notably from India, on how…

In the rainforests of Central Africa and Southeast Asia, leopards occupy a very different niche from savanna populations. This overview synthesizes research on forest leopards, which hunt primates, du…

In the arid Kalahari, leopards survive with little surface water across vast, sparsely vegetated terrain. This overview synthesizes long-term observations of desert leopards showing how they range ove…

Lion territory size ranges from tens to many hundreds of square kilometers depending on prey density and water availability. This overview reviews radio-telemetry and GPS studies showing that prides i…

Kruger National Park supports one of the most studied savanna lion populations, offering insight into how large protected areas regulate big cat numbers. This overview reviews how prey availability, d…

As the largest African cat, the lion exerts strong intraguild pressure on cheetahs and leopards. This overview synthesizes research on how lions kill cheetah cubs and steal kills, forcing cheetahs int…

In the seasonally flooded Okavango Delta, lions face a landscape that shifts from dry ground to a maze of channels and islands. This overview reviews how delta prides adapt by wading and even swimming…

Male cheetahs frequently form coalitions, most often of littermate brothers, that cooperate to hold territories and compete for mates. This overview synthesizes research showing that coalition males d…

The length of time a male coalition holds a pride is a master variable in lion ecology because it governs how many of their cubs survive to independence. This overview synthesizes research linking coa…

Cheetahs use prominent trees, logs, and termite mounds as communal scent-marking sites that function as information hubs. This overview synthesizes research, especially from Namibian farmland, showing…

Female leopards raise cubs alone, hiding them in dense cover and moving them between lairs to reduce the risk of detection by predators. This overview synthesizes research on leopard reproduction, inc…

Black jaguars, often called black panthers, are melanistic individuals of the same species, and their occurrence carries ecological interest. This overview synthesizes research on the genetics of mela…

Estimating how many big cats occupy an area is a central and challenging task in their ecology and conservation. This overview reviews the main methods, from individual-identification camera-trap capt…

In the rugged mountains of the Middle East and Central Asia, leopards persist as rare, threatened populations adapted to arid, rocky terrain. This overview synthesizes what is known about the Arabian…

Where several large cats share a landscape, they coexist by partitioning resources along axes of prey size, habitat, and activity. This overview synthesizes research across continents showing how tige…

Where pumas and jaguars overlap in the Neotropics, the puma often shifts its niche in response to the larger cat. This overview synthesizes research showing that in sympatry pumas tend to take smaller…

Estimating where tigers occur across vast landscapes requires methods that handle imperfect detection over large areas. This overview synthesizes the use of occupancy modeling, which infers the propor…

Snow leopards are exquisitely adapted to life at high altitude in bitter cold. This overview synthesizes what is known about their dense fur, long thick tail used for balance and warmth, enlarged nasa…

Reducing livestock losses is central to securing snow leopards, and predator-proof corrals are among the most effective tools. This overview synthesizes research and program experience showing that re…

The abundance of big cats is governed largely from the bottom up by the biomass of their prey. This overview synthesizes the strong, repeatedly demonstrated relationship between ungulate prey density…

The number of snow leopards a mountain landscape can hold is set largely by the abundance of wild ungulate prey. This overview synthesizes research linking the density of blue sheep, ibex, and argali…