🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

This pioneering study in the Idaho Primitive Area provided the first rigorous picture of mountain lion predation on wild ungulates, based on years of tracking pumas in snow and examining kills. It doc…

Hornocker, M. G. · Wildlife Monographs · 1970

This study compared a canyon in Zion National Park, where heavy human visitation had driven cougars away, with a less-visited canyon where cougars remained. Where cougars were scarce, mule deer were f…

Ripple, W. J., Beschta, R. L. · Biological Conservation · 2006

Building on long-term tracking of marked mountain lions, this study described how pumas organize their use of space through a land-tenure system maintained largely by mutual avoidance. Resident adults…

Seidensticker, J. C., Hornocker, M. G., Wiles, W. V., Messick, J. P. · Wildlife Monographs · 1973

As apex predators, big cats can exert top-down control that ripples through ecosystems via trophic cascades. This overview synthesizes evidence that lions, tigers, leopards, pumas, and jaguars influen…

Long-term study of pumas in the deserts of the American Southwest illuminated how these cats persist in arid mountains and how their populations function as sources and sinks. This overview synthesize…

Dispersal is central to puma ecology, with young males traveling long distances to establish ranges while females often settle nearer their natal areas. This overview synthesizes telemetry and genetic…

The Florida panther, a population of puma isolated in the southeastern United States, became a landmark case of inbreeding and genetic rescue. This overview synthesizes how the small, isolated populat…

Most big cats organize their use of space through a land-tenure system in which residents hold home ranges advertised by scent and maintained partly through avoidance. This overview synthesizes the ge…

The advent of GPS collars and biologging sensors has revolutionized the study of big-cat movement, hunting, and energetics. This overview synthesizes how high-resolution location data revealed kill si…

Across much of Latin America jaguars and pumas occur together, and their coexistence is mediated by differences in prey, habitat, and behavior. This overview synthesizes research showing that jaguars…

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…

Pumas are mainly crepuscular and nocturnal, and they intensify their avoidance of humans in space and time where people are present. This overview synthesizes research showing that cougars concentrate…

Puma home ranges vary widely with prey density, terrain, and sex, among the largest of any solitary cat in prey-poor environments. This overview synthesizes telemetry studies showing that male pumas o…

Pumas typically kill prey larger than they can eat at once and cache carcasses to feed over several days. This overview synthesizes GPS-cluster and field studies showing how cougars drag and cover the…

Pumas are major predators of deer across the Americas, and their effect on prey populations has been long studied and debated. This overview synthesizes research on how cougars select vulnerable indiv…

At the southern end of their range, pumas in Patagonia prey heavily on guanacos, the region's native wild camelid, in open steppe and mountain landscapes. This overview synthesizes research on how Pat…

By killing large prey and leaving partly eaten carcasses, pumas subsidize a wide community of scavengers and influence nutrient cycling. This overview synthesizes research showing that puma kills supp…

Pumas increasingly live near cities in parts of their range, navigating fragmented habitat threaded with roads and development. This overview synthesizes research, notably from California, on how coug…

As apex or near-apex predators, pumas can influence ecosystems through cascading effects on prey and smaller predators. This overview synthesizes research suggesting that the loss or decline of pumas…

Beyond killing prey, big cats shape ecosystems through the fear they inspire, altering where and how prey forage. This overview synthesizes research on the landscape of fear, in which the risk of pred…

The puma has the largest latitudinal range of any wild land mammal in the Western Hemisphere, occupying habitats from boreal forest and western mountains to deserts, grasslands, swamps, and tropical j…

This influential synthesis argued that the loss of large apex consumers, including big cats and other top predators, is among humanity's most pervasive impacts on nature. Drawing on examples across ec…

Estes, J. A., Terborgh, J., Brashares, J. S., et al. · Science · 2011