🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

In and around many South Asian cities, free-ranging and stray dogs constitute a major prey base that sustains leopards at densities unattainable on wild prey alone. This overview synthesises diet and…

Suburban bobcats commonly adjust their activity timing to avoid peak human presence, becoming more nocturnal or crepuscular in developed areas while remaining more diurnal in wildland. This overview s…

With leopards long gone from the Cape Peninsula, the caracal is the last remaining wild felid predator around Cape Town, and the Urban Caracal Project has made it a flagship for urban wildlife researc…

The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing is among the largest wildlife overpasses in the world, built to span a major multi-lane freeway northwest of Los Angeles and reconnect puma and other wildlife po…

Charismatic and wetland-dependent, the fishing cat has become a flagship species mobilising protection for the marshes and waterways of cities such as Colombo. This overview synthesises conservation-s…

The landscape-of-fear concept holds that perceived predation risk, including risk from humans acting as super-predators, reshapes where and how animals move, feed and rest. This overview synthesises e…

Mesopredator release, in which the decline of top predators allows smaller predators to increase and overexploit prey, is a foundational concept linking urban fragmentation to biodiversity loss. This…

Cities create urban heat islands and altered microclimates that can impose thermal stress on felids, influencing their use of shade, water and cool refuges, especially as climate warming intensifies.…

Tigers occasionally range to the edges of villages, towns and agricultural land bordering reserves such as the Sundarbans and central Indian parks, creating acute conflict in densely populated South A…

Trap-neuter-return, in which free-ranging cats are sterilised and returned to colonies, is among the most contentious topics at the intersection of animal welfare and conservation. This overview synth…

When anthropogenic food subsidises predators, the effects ripple through food webs, altering predation pressure on native prey and interactions among carnivores. This overview synthesises research on…

The draining, filling and pollution of wetlands for urban development is the foremost threat to fishing cats across their range, nowhere more starkly than in rapidly growing South Asian cities. This o…

For pumas living in and around Los Angeles, collisions with vehicles on freeways and surface roads are among the most frequent documented causes of death. This overview synthesises telemetry-based mor…

Wild felids living near cities are exposed to pathogens including feline immunodeficiency virus, feline leukemia virus and others, sometimes shared with domestic cats, raising conservation and One Hea…

Because garbage and organic waste feed both carnivores directly and the rodent and dog populations they prey upon, waste management is a powerful indirect lever on urban carnivore abundance and confli…

Water sources and riparian corridors are disproportionately important to felids in human-dominated landscapes, providing drinking water, prey, cover and movement routes through otherwise hostile devel…

Fishing cats are tightly bound to wetlands, with partially webbed feet and fish-catching behaviour that make them among the most habitat-specialised felids and therefore acutely vulnerable to wetland…

Wildlife crossings, from large vegetated overpasses to underpasses and culverts, are a primary engineering response to the roads that fragment felid populations near cities. This overview synthesises…

Road mortality is a major threat to ocelots and other small cats in developing landscapes, prompting investment in crossing structures, fencing and culvert modifications. This overview synthesises eva…

Because leopard cats depend on farmland outside reserves, conservation increasingly relies on incentivising landholders to farm in ways compatible with the species. This overview synthesises evaluatio…

This study used fine-scale GPS and accelerometer data from pumas in the Santa Cruz Mountains to show that cougars respond to human development at multiple spatial scales, avoiding developed areas in w…

Wilmers CC, Wang Y, Nickel B, Houghtaling P, Shakeri Y, Allen ML, Kermish-Wells J, Yovovich V, Williams T · PLoS ONE · 2013

Drawing on GPS-tracking of hundreds of pet cats across several countries, this study found that owned cats typically stayed close to home with small home ranges, yet concentrated their hunting in thos…

Kays R, Dunn RR, Parsons AW, Mcdonald B, et al · Animal Conservation · 2020

Drawing on years of telemetry across southern California, this study quantified survival rates and causes of death for pumas living in landscapes increasingly fragmented by roads and development. Vehi…

Vickers TW, Sanchez JN, Johnson CK, Morrison SA, Botta R, Smith T, Cohen BS, Huber PR, Ernest HB, Boyce WM · PLoS ONE · 2015

This landmark quantitative synthesis estimated that free-ranging domestic cats kill billions of birds and many billions of mammals annually in the United States, identifying them as among the largest…

Loss SR, Will T, Marra PP · Nature Communications · 2013

This landmark global meta-analysis showed that mammals across the world, including many carnivores, increase their nocturnal activity in response to human disturbance, becoming more active at night ev…

Gaynor KM, Hojnowski CE, Carter NH, Brashares JS · Science · 2018

Studying pumas around human development in California, this research found that cougars exposed to greater human presence killed more prey, apparently to compensate for abandoning kills and spending l…

Smith JA, Wang Y, Wilmers CC · Proceedings of the Royal Society B · 2015

Analyzing records of leopards captured and released far from capture sites across India, this study challenged translocation as a standard response to conflict. Translocated leopards frequently attemp…

Athreya V, Odden M, Linnell JDC, Karanth KU · Conservation Biology · 2011

This edited volume assembled the foundational synthesis of urban carnivore biology, bringing together chapters on species from coyotes and foxes to felids, and on cross-cutting themes of disease, conf…

Gehrt SD, Riley SPD, Cypher BL · Johns Hopkins University Press · 2010

This study combined toxicology, gene-expression and immune profiling to show that bobcats exposed to anticoagulant rodenticides in urban southern California exhibited altered immune function, providin…

Serieys LEK, Lea AJ, Epeldegui M, Armenta TC, Moriarty J, VandeWoude S, Carver S, Foley J, Wayne RK, Riley SPD, Uittenbogaart CH · Proceedings of the Royal Society B · 2018

This study from the Urban Caracal Project documented extensive exposure to anticoagulant rodenticides among caracals and other predators in and around Cape Town, South Africa. Screening showed that mo…

Serieys LEK, Bishop J, Okes N, Broadfield J, Winterton DJ, Poppenga RH, Viljoen S, Wayne RK, ORiain MJ · Science of the Total Environment · 2019