🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Carbone and Gittleman derived a simple, general rule linking carnivore population density to the productivity of the prey base, showing across species that roughly the same amount of prey biomass supp…

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

Building on the prey-preference series, Hayward, O'Brien and Kerley developed regression models that predict the density a reserve can support for each large African predator from the available biomas…

Hayward, M.W., O'Brien, J. & Kerley, G.I.H. · Biological Conservation · 2007

Durant tested how subordinate cheetahs persist alongside dominant lions and hyenas in the Serengeti, proposing that they exploit competition refuges, places and times where the risk of encountering do…

Durant, S.M. · Journal of Animal Ecology · 1998

Trinkel and Kastberger quantified the contest over carcasses between lions and spotted hyenas in Namibia's Etosha National Park, where prey is comparatively scarce. They recorded how the outcome of co…

Trinkel, M. & Kastberger, G. · African Journal of Ecology · 2005

Stander's study in Namibia's Etosha provided rare evidence of role differentiation in lion cooperative hunting. By watching repeated hunts, he showed that individual lionesses consistently occupied pa…

Stander, P.E. · Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology · 1992

Donadio and Buskirk tested what predicts the intensity of interactions among carnivores, including both killing and avoidance. Analyzing a broad dataset, they found that intraguild predation and aggre…

Donadio, E. & Buskirk, S.W. · The American Naturalist · 2006

Van Orsdol provided detailed measurements of lion hunting success in Uganda, relating capture rates to prey species, group size, habitat cover and time of day. He found that success was higher at nigh…

Van Orsdol, K.G. · African Journal of Ecology · 1984

Scheel and Packer analyzed Serengeti lion hunts to test whether group hunting reflects true cooperation or individuals each maximizing their own success. They found that hunting success increased with…

Scheel, D. & Packer, C. · Animal Behaviour · 1991

Funston, Mills and Biggs challenged the stereotype that male lions are merely scavengers reliant on females' kills. Working in Kruger National Park, they showed that male lions hunt effectively, parti…

Funston, P.J., Mills, M.G.L. & Biggs, H.C. · Journal of Zoology · 2001

Palomares and Caro compiled and analyzed the global record of carnivores killing other carnivores, establishing intraguild predation as a widespread structuring force. They showed that interspecific k…

Palomares, F. & Caro, T.M. · The American Naturalist · 1999

Radloff and Du Toit analyzed the southern African large-carnivore guild to show that a predator's body mass sets both the average and the upper limit of the prey sizes it takes. Larger predators such…

Radloff, F.G.T. & Du Toit, J.T. · Journal of Animal Ecology · 2004

Creel and Creel demonstrated that African wild dog populations are limited not by prey scarcity but by competition with lions and spotted hyenas, which kill dogs and steal their kills. Analyzing demog…

Creel, S. & Creel, N.M. · Conservation Biology · 1996

In this follow-up, Durant used experimental playbacks and detailed observation to show that Serengeti cheetahs actively avoid lions and spotted hyenas at fine spatial and temporal scales, moving away…

Durant, S.M. · Behavioral Ecology · 2000

Cooper examined why lions live in groups by testing whether larger groups better retain their kills against kleptoparasitic spotted hyenas. Observations showed that single or paired lions frequently l…

Cooper, S.M. · African Journal of Ecology · 1991

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

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

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

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

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 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…

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…

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…

An overview of how social and grouping behavior in cats functions partly to defend kills against kleptoparasites and scavengers. In lions, larger groups retain carcasses against mobbing spotted hyenas…

A survey of how the kills of large cats function as a form of ecosystem engineering, structuring scavenger communities, nutrient flow and local biodiversity. Because predators such as pumas, leopards…

A survey of the conditions under which big cats switch from hunting to scavenging, and what this means for their ecology. Although large felids lack the scavenging specializations of hyenas and vultur…

A survey of how the teeth, jaws and bite mechanics of cats are adapted for killing prey and how these features scale with prey size. Felids dispatch prey with a precise canine bite to the neck or skul…

An overview of how predation by cats can influence the spread and prevalence of disease in their prey populations. By selectively removing sick, weak or behaviorally abnormal individuals, predators ma…