🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Artificial light at night is a pervasive feature of cities that can disrupt the nocturnal felids most reliant on darkness for hunting and movement. This overview synthesises research on how light poll…

Across the felid family, the capacity to flexibly adjust activity timing, space use, diet and risk responses largely determines which species can live near people. This overview synthesises evidence t…

A central question in urban ecology is whether animals cope with cities through flexible behaviour within a generation or through heritable evolutionary change over generations. This overview synthesi…

Pumas living near urban areas adjust where, when and how they move, feed and rest in response to human presence and the built environment. This overview synthesises telemetry and GPS-cluster research,…

Leopard cats occur not only in deep farmland but at the fringes of towns and suburbs across parts of Asia, suggesting considerable tolerance of human activity. This overview synthesises camera-trap an…

Bobcats remain largely carnivorous specialists on small mammals even in human-dominated landscapes, but their diet and foraging shift along the urban gradient. This overview synthesises scat and stabl…

Bobcats are among the most adaptable felids at the urban edge, persisting in suburbs and exurban developments across North America by exploiting greenbelts, washes, golf courses and remnant natural pa…

Camera traps, often paired with individual identification by coat patterns and spatial capture-recapture models, are a cornerstone method for studying secretive felids in human-dominated landscapes. T…

Engineered canals with steep concrete sides, common in urbanised wetlands, can trap and drown fishing cats and impede their movement, an underappreciated hazard distinct from road mortality. This over…

Beyond the city edge, caracals occupy farmland and vineyards where predation on small livestock and game generates conflict and retaliatory killing across South Africa. This overview synthesises resea…

Caracals around Cape Town exploit a broad diet that shifts along the gradient from natural fynbos to vineyards and suburbs, taking native birds and mammals as well as human-associated prey such as int…

Containing pet cats indoors or within enclosures is increasingly promoted to reduce wildlife predation, roaming-related cat mortality and disease, with some jurisdictions enacting curfews or containme…

Artificial light at night can disrupt the internal circadian clocks that govern activity, hormone cycles and reproduction in animals, with potential consequences for nocturnal carnivores. This overvie…

Citizen science, from sighting and roadkill reporting to camera-trap and tracking projects, has become a powerful tool for monitoring urban felids and engaging the public in coexistence. This overview…

Climate change interacts with urbanisation to reshape the conditions felids face near cities, altering prey availability, water resources, heat exposure, fire regimes and the viability of corridors. T…

Light and noise rarely act alone; in cities they combine with human presence to create a degraded sensory landscape that wildlife must navigate. This overview synthesises research treating sensory pol…

Cities support large populations of commensal rodents fed by human waste, and these rodents form a critical prey subsidy for small and medium urban felids from bobcats to leopard cats and jungle cats.…

From leopards in Mumbai to pumas in Los Angeles, caracals in Cape Town and fishing cats in Colombo, a remarkable diversity of felids inhabits the worlds cities, offering a comparative window on urban…

Long-term coexistence between people and leopards in human-dominated India rests partly on social, cultural and religious dimensions that shape tolerance. This overview surveys social-science research…

As awareness of light pollution grows, planners increasingly consider wildlife-sensitive lighting and the preservation of dark corridors to maintain connectivity for nocturnal animals. This overview s…

Reliable anthropogenic food can boost carnivore survival and reproduction, producing higher densities and altered population dynamics in subsidised urban environments. This overview synthesises resear…

Within Colombo, fishing cats exploit a diet centred on fish but extending to rodents, birds, reptiles and human-associated prey available in city wetlands and gardens. This overview synthesises scat a…

Studies of leopard diet around Mumbai and across rural Maharashtra consistently find heavy reliance on domestic animals, particularly free-ranging dogs, alongside livestock, feral pigs, rodents and sm…

Living alongside domestic cats, dogs and people exposes Cape Town caracals to pathogens and parasites that can affect their health. This overview synthesises serological and disease-ecology research o…

Juvenile cougar dispersal, the long-distance movements by which young animals find new territories and exchange genes, is sharply constrained in landscapes fragmented by roads and development around s…

Unlike most small Neotropical cats, the jaguarundi is frequently active during daylight, a trait that shapes its interactions with people and other felids in shared landscapes. This overview synthesis…

Free-ranging domestic cats prey on a wide range of urban and suburban wildlife, with documented effects on birds, small mammals, reptiles and amphibians. This overview synthesises predation-rate studi…

Where domestic cats overlap with wild felids, interbreeding can erode the genetic distinctiveness of wild species, a documented threat to European wildcats and a concern for other small cats near sett…

Domestic cats occupy the urban carnivore community alongside native mesopredators and larger carnivores, and their abundance is shaped by interactions with these species. This overview synthesises res…

Habitat edges created by urban development alter microclimate, vegetation, prey, disturbance and predator interactions, shaping how felids use the boundary between natural and built land. This overvie…