🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Sinclair, Mduma and Brashares tested why some Serengeti ungulate species are regulated by predation while others are limited by food, using long-term data across the migratory and resident herbivore c…

Sinclair, A.R.E., Mduma, S. & Brashares, J.S. · Nature · 2003

Stenseth and colleagues applied nonlinear time-series analysis to the long lynx fur-return records and hare data to ask what structures the famous cycle. They found that the lynx series is best descri…

Stenseth, N.C., Falck, W., Bjornstad, O.N. & Krebs, C.J. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 1997

Ritchie and Johnson reviewed the mechanisms by which top predators suppress mesopredators and the conditions under which that suppression breaks down. They emphasized that apex carnivores limit smalle…

Ritchie, E.G. & Johnson, C.N. · Ecology Letters · 2009

Owen-Smith and Mills assembled a detailed predation web for Kruger National Park, quantifying which predators kill which prey and in what proportions across the size spectrum. They mapped how lion, le…

Owen-Smith, N. & Mills, M.G.L. · Journal of Animal Ecology · 2008

This synthesis pulled together the individual prey-preference analyses for lion, leopard, cheetah, spotted hyena and wild dog to quantify dietary overlap across the African large-carnivore guild. By c…

Hayward, M.W. & Kerley, G.I.H. · South African Journal of Wildlife Research · 2008

This installment of the Hayward series quantified prey selection by African wild dogs, a key competitor of cheetahs and a frequent victim of intraguild predation by lions and hyenas. Using kill record…

Hayward, M.W., O'Brien, J., Hofmeyr, M. & Kerley, G.I.H. · Journal of Zoology · 2006

Part of Hayward's comparative prey-preference series, this study quantified cheetah prey selection across study sites by relating kill records to prey availability. Cheetahs preferentially took medium…

Hayward, M.W., Hofmeyr, M., O'Brien, J. & Kerley, G.I.H. · Journal of Zoology · 2006

This contribution to the Hayward prey-preference series quantified leopard diet selectivity across Africa and Asia using kill records weighted by prey abundance. Leopards showed a preferred prey weigh…

Hayward, M.W., Henschel, P., O'Brien, J., Hofmeyr, M., Balme, G. & Kerley, G.I.H. · Journal of Zoology · 2006

A foundational quantitative analysis of what lions actually select to kill versus what is merely available. Hayward and Kerley compiled prey records from across Africa and weighted them against prey a…

Hayward, M.W. & Kerley, G.I.H. · Journal of Zoology · 2005

Applying the prey-preference framework to high-mountain Asia, Lyngdoh and colleagues compiled snow leopard diet records across the species' range and weighted them by prey availability. They found sno…

Lyngdoh, S. et al. · PLOS ONE · 2014

Though not a felid, the spotted hyena is the dominant competitor and kleptoparasite of African big cats, so its prey preferences are central to felid dynamics. Hayward compiled kill and diet records a…

Hayward, M.W. · Journal of Zoology · 2006

Extending the prey-preference framework to Asia's largest cat, Hayward and colleagues compiled tiger kill records across the species' range and weighted them against prey availability. Tigers showed a…

Hayward, M.W., Jedrzejewski, W. & Jedrzejewska, B. · Journal of Zoology · 2012

A landmark study of intraguild prey partitioning in India's Nagarahole reserve, combining prey censuses with predator kill records to test how three sympatric large carnivores divide a shared ungulate…

Karanth, K.U. & Sunquist, M.E. · Journal of Animal Ecology · 1995

Elbroch and colleagues documented how pumas function as ecosystem engineers by provisioning rich, dependable carrion. Monitoring puma kills with cameras, they recorded a large diversity of vertebrate…

Elbroch, L.M. et al. · Biological Conservation · 2017

A survey of how the distribution and southern range limit of Canada lynx are governed by the availability and dynamics of snowshoe hares. Lynx are tightly tied to boreal forests where hares are abunda…

An overview of how molecular analysis of prey DNA in faeces is transforming the study of cat diets. By sequencing prey genetic material recovered from scats, researchers can identify prey to species w…

An overview of the predator-prey relationship between Eurasian lynx and roe deer, the lynx's principal prey across much of temperate Europe. Lynx are efficient solitary ambush hunters of small ungulat…

An overview of how the advent of GPS telemetry transformed estimation of kill rates for solitary cats such as pumas, leopards and lynx. The approach identifies spatial clusters of frequent locations,…

An overview of how the Iberian lynx, the world's most specialized felid predator, depends almost entirely on European rabbits, and how rabbit declines drive lynx conservation crises. Rabbits typically…

A survey of how cats do not take prey at random but select particular age and sex classes, with consequences for prey populations. Felids frequently kill disproportionately young, old or otherwise vul…

A survey of the role that secondary prey such as red squirrels, grouse and microtine rodents play in the dynamics of the snowshoe hare cycle and its lynx predators. When hares are abundant, predators…

A survey of the two principal felid hunting strategies, stalk-and-ambush used by most cats and the high-speed pursuit of the cheetah, and their ecological consequences. Ambush predators rely on cover…

A survey of how restoring large cats to systems where they were lost can rekindle anti-predator behavior in prey and reinstate top-down effects. Where prey have lived without predators, they may becom…

A survey of the broad, adaptable diet of the bobcat, which lets this mid-sized felid thrive across diverse North American habitats. Bobcats specialize on lagomorphs such as cottontails and jackrabbits…

An overview of how solitary cats protect and prolong access to their kills by caching them. Pumas cover carcasses with vegetation and soil and revisit them over several days, while leopards famously h…

An overview of how camera-trap arrays and occupancy modeling are used to study the spatial and temporal relationships between pumas and their prey. By recording where and when cats and prey are detect…

An overview of how the kills of large felids redistribute energy and nutrients through ecosystems. Carcasses and the cats' partly eaten remains create nutrient hotspots that fertilize soils and vegeta…

A survey of the diverse communities of vertebrates and invertebrates that exploit carcasses produced by cats, and how those carcasses structure scavenger interactions. Felid kills attract a succession…

An overview of the quantitative tools used to predict how many large predators a reserve can sustain from its prey base, building on the prey-preference and prey-biomass approaches. These models estim…

A survey of the heavy toll that lions and spotted hyenas take on cheetah cubs, a key demographic constraint on cheetah populations. Studies in the Serengeti and elsewhere have recorded that a large fr…