🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

The Amur leopard of the Russian Far East and northeast China is one of the rarest cats on Earth and a clearly recognized subspecies, Panthera pardus orientalis. This overview reviews the genetic and m…

The Amur leopard, a cold-adapted subspecies of the temperate forests of the Russian Far East and northeast China, became one of the rarest cats on Earth, falling to only a few dozen wild individuals.…

This overview synthesises the long-running program, pioneered by the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia, that places Anatolian shepherd and Kangal guarding dogs with farmers to reduce cheetah and le…

The Andean mountain cat, Leopardus jacobita, is a rare, high-altitude felid of the Andes and one of the least known cats in the Americas. This overview examines its taxonomic placement within the ocel…

The critically endangered Arabian leopard, Panthera pardus nimr, is the smallest leopard subspecies and survives in tiny, fragmented populations on the Arabian Peninsula. This overview examines its ta…

This overview revisits the historical record of man-eating tigers in the Himalayan foothills, centred on the Champawat tigress reputed to have killed hundreds before being shot by Jim Corbett in the e…

The Javan leopard, Panthera pardus melas, is an isolated and threatened population restricted to the island of Java, frequently melanistic. This overview reviews evidence for its status as a distinct…

This overview reviews the well-documented spike in leopard attacks on people in the Junnar region of Maharashtra in the early 2000s, which followed intensive capture-and-translocation of leopards into…

The pampas cat, Leopardus colocola, shows dramatic variation in coat color and pattern across its wide South American range, fueling long debate over whether it is one variable species or several. Thi…

The Persian or Caucasian leopard, the largest leopard subspecies, ranges across the Caucasus, Iran, and Central Asia and is recognized as Panthera pardus tulliana following nomenclatural review. This…

The Population Assessment of the World's Snow Leopards, known as PAWS, is a coordinated international effort to produce the first robust, range-wide estimate of snow leopard numbers using standardized…

This overview examines the hypothesis that the Tibetan Plateau and surrounding high-altitude Central Asia served as a cradle for the evolution of big cats and other cold-adapted carnivores. The discov…

The Tsushima cat, restricted to Tsushima Island between Japan and Korea, is a critically endangered population of the leopard cat. This overview examines its taxonomic status, established by molecular…

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…

Snow leopards are among the hardest big cats to count, and their global population remains poorly known. This overview synthesizes the methodological challenges of surveying a cryptic, low-density cat…

Most cats share a conserved chromosome number, but the ocelot lineage is distinguished by a reduced karyotype resulting from a chromosomal fusion. This overview explains how Leopardus species carry 36…

This overview synthesises the contested evidence on translocating conflict big cats, capturing and releasing them elsewhere, as a management response. It reviews studies, prominently from Indian leopa…

Molecular phylogenetics partitions all living cats into eight monophyletic lineages, a framework that now organizes felid taxonomy. This overview names and characterizes them: the Panthera lineage (bi…

Modern cats are divided into eight monophyletic lineages: the Panthera lineage (lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, snow leopards, clouded leopards), the bay cat lineage, the caracal lineage, the ocelot…

The ability to roar distinguishes the genus Panthera and is tied to specialized anatomy of the larynx and a flexible hyoid apparatus, while smaller cats purr instead. This overview surveys the anatomi…

The genus Prionailurus includes not only leopard cats but also the fishing cat and flat-headed cat, specialized wetland felids. This overview examines their placement within the leopard cat lineage an…

This overview surveys the fossil history of the leopard, Panthera pardus, one of the most widely distributed living big cats. Fossils document the leopard's presence across Africa and Eurasia through…

Black jaguars, often called black panthers, occur naturally within jaguar populations and result from a dominant mutation in the melanocortin-1 receptor gene, distinct from the recessive melanism of t…

The jaguar, the only Panthera species in the Americas, occupies an informative position in big cat phylogeny. This overview explains how molecular data place the jaguar within the genus Panthera, clos…

Beyond killing prey, big cats shape ecosystems through the fear they inspire, altering where and how prey forage. This overview synthesizes research on the landscape of fear, in which the risk of pred…

The leopard has the widest distribution of any wild cat, occupying habitats from rainforest and savanna to desert, mountains, and the edges of cities. This overview synthesizes the ecological traits b…

The leopard cat is the most widespread small cat in Asia, occupying habitats from Siberian forests to tropical islands, and its broad range produces extensive geographic variation. This overview surve…

The leopard cat lineage of Asia includes the widespread leopard cat, the fishing cat, the flat-headed cat, and the rusty-spotted cat, along with the related Pallas's cat. This overview surveys the gen…

Leopards are traded for their skins, bones, claws, and teeth across both Asia and Africa, driven by demand for fashion, status, traditional medicine, and ceremonial use. This overview surveys research…

The perennial tension between lumpers, who favor fewer broad taxa, and splitters, who recognize many fine ones, is sharply visible in cat classification. This overview examines how the debate plays ou…