🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Rotational exhibit systems allow multiple species or individuals to take turns occupying a series of connected spaces, multiplying the effective territory and novelty available to each animal. This ov…

This overview examines how environmental stressors, rising salinity, sea-level rise, cyclones, and freshwater scarcity, may influence tiger behaviour and human-tiger conflict in the Sundarbans. It syn…

Sarcoptic mange, caused by the burrowing mite Sarcoptes scabiei, affects a wide range of carnivores and occasionally strikes large felids, producing hair loss, crusting, intense itching and debilitati…

An overview comparing the two principal ways of determining what cats eat, analysis of prey remains in scats and investigation of kill sites, and their complementary strengths and biases. Scat analysi…

Wild cats spend much of their active time searching for, stalking and processing prey, whereas captive cats are often fed a single quick meal. This overview surveys husbandry research on scatter feedi…

This overview examines the hypothesis that scavenging human corpses can initiate man-eating in big cats, drawing on historical episodes such as the Tsavo railway era and famine, epidemic, and conflict…

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…

Cats communicate and organise their world through scent, marking with urine spray, facial rubbing, scratching and other signals, and the ability to perform and perceive these behaviours matters for we…

Solitary cats rely heavily on chemical signals to advertise reproductive status and locate mates across large ranges. This overview surveys how felids use urine spraying, scrapes, cheek rubbing, and g…

Felids scratch trees and other surfaces and create ground scrapes that combine visual marks with scent from glands in the paws. This overview surveys research on the marking function of scratching acr…

This overview reviews research on when big-cat conflict peaks, examining seasonal and diel patterns in depredation and attacks across systems. It synthesises findings that conflict often rises during…

Infanticide by males is documented or inferred across many felid species, from lions to tigers, leopards, pumas, and others, wherever killing dependent young can hasten a female's next conception. Thi…

Before and alongside molecular work, tiger subspecies were assessed by measuring skulls and body proportions. This overview explains how craniometric analyses, comparing dimensions across museum speci…

Cats naturally rest and sleep for much of the day, which complicates welfare interpretation because inactivity can reflect either healthy, contented rest or boredom, depression and learned helplessnes…

This overview reviews how wire snaring set for bushmeat indirectly drives big-cat conflict and mortality, a growing threat across Africa and Asia. It synthesises evidence that snares intended for ante…

Across Sumatra, widespread snaring depletes both tigers and their prey, hollowing out forests that still appear intact on satellite imagery. This overview surveys how indiscriminate wire snares set fo…

Felid sociality varies from the solitary tiger and most small cats to the group-living lion, and captive social management must respect these differences. This overview surveys research on housing cat…

This overview synthesises research showing that much apparent human-carnivore conflict is in fact conflict between human groups, communities versus conservation authorities, locals versus outsiders, e…

The tiger is a powerful solitary ambush predator capable of taking prey far larger than itself. This overview surveys research on tiger hunting, including the reliance on dense cover for close approac…

Banking living somatic cells, such as skin fibroblasts, preserves an individual's full genome for potential future use in cloning or stem cell technologies. This overview surveys the collection, cultu…

This overview surveys research treating tiger populations as networks of sources, where reproduction exceeds mortality, and sinks, where animals die faster than they breed but persist through immigrat…

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…

Identifying where to concentrate conservation under climate change requires mapping vulnerability, combining exposure to change with the value and irreplaceability of habitat. This overview surveys ho…

This overview reviews how spatial zoning, separating core predator habitat, buffer zones, and human-use areas, and broader land-use planning can structure coexistence with big cats. It synthesises app…

Freezing and storing sperm is the most established form of felid biobanking, enabling the preservation and transport of male genetics. This overview surveys methods for cryopreserving cat sperm, inclu…

An overview of how ambush felids select hunting habitat to minimize the distance over which they must close on prey undetected. Because capture success drops sharply with the length of the final rush,…

In India and Southeast Asia, tigers move between protected areas through a matrix of forest fragments, plantations, and human settlements, and this overview examines the role of stepping-stone habitat…

Deciding which individuals, tissues, and species to bank, and how to use stored material, requires strategy to maximize conservation value. This overview surveys the principles guiding genome resource…

Studbooks record the pedigree and demographic history of every individual in a managed population, providing the data needed to plan breeding for genetic and demographic health. This overview surveys…

The surfaces captive cats stand, walk and rest on affect comfort, health and behaviour, yet substrate is easily overlooked. This overview surveys substrate welfare for felids: the problems of hard, ab…