🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

This study uncovered a general relationship between the population density of carnivores and the availability of their prey, showing that across species roughly the same amount of prey biomass support…

Carbone, C., Gittleman, J. L. · Science · 2002

This study in Nagarahole, southern India, examined how three large predators, the tiger, leopard, and dhole, partition a shared prey community. By analyzing kills and prey availability, the authors sh…

Karanth, K. U., Sunquist, M. E. · Journal of Animal Ecology · 2000

This methodological breakthrough applied camera trapping and capture-recapture statistics to estimate tiger density from the unique stripe patterns that identify individuals. By treating photographs a…

Karanth, K. U., Nichols, J. D. · Ecology · 1998

Amur tigers inhabit the cold temperate forests of the Russian Far East, where low prey density forces them to range over enormous areas. This overview reviews radio-telemetry and GPS studies showing t…

Tigers are largely crepuscular and nocturnal, though their activity shifts with prey, temperature, and human presence. This overview synthesizes camera-trap and telemetry studies showing peaks of move…

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…

Camera trapping has revolutionized how tiger populations are counted and studied. This overview synthesizes the methods built on individual stripe identification and capture-recapture statistics, incl…

How young tigers leave their natal areas and establish their own territories determines the structure and persistence of populations. This overview synthesizes studies showing that subadult females of…

Tigers occupy an extraordinary range of environments, from tropical mangroves and rainforests to temperate snow forests, and their ecology varies accordingly. This overview synthesizes how body size,…

Conserving big cats in a human-dominated world depends on applying their ecology to the challenge of coexistence. This overview synthesizes how understanding prey requirements, ranging, dispersal, and…

In the mountains of Asia, common leopards, snow leopards, and tigers can occur along elevational gradients, partitioning the landscape by altitude and habitat. This overview synthesizes research on ho…

Several reserves have demonstrated that tigers can recover when prey is restored and protection is rigorous. This overview synthesizes case studies in which intensified anti-poaching, recovery of ungu…

Tigress reproduction is shaped by the energetic challenge of raising cubs alone over nearly two years. This overview synthesizes studies on litter size, cub survival, the long period of maternal depen…

Not every adult tiger holds a territory; some live as floaters, occupying the gaps between residents and waiting for a vacancy. This overview synthesizes research on how these non-territorial individu…

Genetic studies have become central to understanding how tiger populations are linked across fragmented landscapes. This overview synthesizes work using DNA from scats, hair, and tissue to measure gen…

Big cats select habitat at multiple scales, balancing the need for prey, cover for stalking, water, and shelter against the risks posed by competitors and humans. This overview synthesizes research sh…

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…

As in lions, the takeover of a tigress's range by a new male can lead to the killing of her dependent cubs, after which she returns to breeding condition. This overview synthesizes field evidence for…

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…

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…

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…

Many structurally intact Asian forests now hold few or no tigers because their prey has been hunted out, a phenomenon known as the empty forest syndrome. This overview synthesizes evidence that unsust…

Solitary tigers coordinate spacing and reproduction largely through scent. This overview synthesizes research on how tigers spray scent on trees, scrape the ground, rub cheeks, and deposit feces and u…

Tiger persistence across Asia increasingly depends on networks of reserves connected by corridors. This overview synthesizes the source-sink framework, in which well-protected core reserves with abund…

Unlike most cats, tigers are strong swimmers and readily enter water, a trait with ecological significance in wet habitats. This overview synthesizes observations of tigers swimming between islands in…

Attacks on humans by tigers, though rare relative to encounters, have a long and consequential history. This overview synthesizes what ecological research suggests about the circumstances that lead a…

Tigers are solitary and territorial, and their spacing follows a land-tenure system in which residents hold and defend areas against same-sex rivals. This overview synthesizes how female territories a…

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…

Across much of Asia tigers and leopards occur together, and their coexistence is mediated by differences in prey size and behavior. This overview synthesizes research showing that leopards shift towar…