🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

The marbled cat, Pardofelis marmorata, is a small, arboreal Southeast Asian felid whose clouded-leopard-like coat once suggested a relationship to the big cats. This overview explains how molecular ph…

Leopards once carried more than two dozen named subspecies, but molecular work collapsed this to roughly eight or nine. This overview lists the currently recognized subspecies: the African leopard, pl…

The ocelot lineage comprises the small spotted cats of the Americas, nearly all placed in the genus Leopardus, and represents a relatively recent and rapid radiation. This overview surveys the group,…

This overview surveys evidence on where and when the Panthera lineage, the genus that includes lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, and snow leopards, first arose. Molecular phylogenies place the diverge…

The snow leopard's relationships within the big cats were long uncertain, with some classifications isolating it in its own genus, Uncia. This overview explains how molecular phylogenetics resolved it…

Clouded leopards occupy a pivotal position as the sister group to the other big cats within the subfamily Pantherinae. This overview explains how molecular phylogenies consistently place the genus Neo…

The rusty-spotted cat, one of the smallest of all cats, is found in India and Sri Lanka and belongs to the leopard cat lineage. This overview reviews its placement within the genus Prionailurus, where…

This overview explains the reasoning the Cat Classification Task Force used to justify a major revision rather than incremental edits. It describes the decision rules adopted: recognize taxa only when…

The Iriomote cat is a celebrated example of taxonomic demotion in cats. This overview traces how a felid first hailed as a unique living fossil in its own genus was, through molecular evidence, shown…

The snow leopard belongs to the roaring lineage yet does not roar, and this overview reviews this exception and what it reveals. Although a member of Panthera, the snow leopard lacks the fully develop…

This overview surveys the evolutionary placement of the snow leopard within the big-cat genus Panthera and its relevance to fossil studies. Once isolated in its own genus, the snow leopard is now firm…

Sequencing the snow leopard genome alongside those of the tiger and lion advanced both big cat phylogenetics and the study of high-altitude adaptation. This overview surveys how the snow leopard genom…

In 2017 the snow leopard was reclassified on the IUCN Red List from Endangered to Vulnerable, a decision based on revised population estimates and the difficulty of demonstrating that numbers had fall…

The recognition of the southern tigrina, Leopardus guttulus, as a species distinct from the northern tigrina, Leopardus tigrinus, is a notable recent split among Neotropical cats. This overview review…

Genetic and morphological research established that clouded leopards comprise two species, the mainland clouded leopard and the Sunda clouded leopard of Borneo and Sumatra, separated for over a millio…

One of the clearest recent felid species splits separated the clouded leopard into two species. This overview explains how parallel molecular and morphological studies in 2006 revealed that clouded le…

Genetic research has divided the leopard cat into two species, the mainland leopard cat and the Sunda leopard cat of the islands of Southeast Asia, and this overview reviews the evidence and its conse…

Molecular phylogeography revealed that leopard cats on the Sunda islands of Southeast Asia diverge deeply from mainland leopard cats, leading to recognition of a separate species, the Sunda leopard ca…

Subspecies inflation, the naming of many weakly supported geographic forms, has long plagued large carnivore taxonomy and complicates conservation. This overview explains how cats accumulated dozens o…

Modern classifications divide living cats into two subfamilies: Pantherinae (the roaring and big cats plus clouded leopards) and Felinae (most small and medium cats). This overview explains how that s…

Felid species span tropical jungles, deserts and high mountains, so meeting their thermal needs in captivity, often in non-native climates, is a real welfare challenge. This overview surveys thermal w…

Standard home ranges flatten an animal's world onto a two-dimensional map, but cats in mountainous terrain move through strongly three-dimensional space, and their ranges shift across seasons. This ov…

Across much of Asia tigers and leopards occur together, and their coexistence is mediated by differences in prey size and behavior. This overview synthesizes research showing that leopards shift towar…

This overview reviews human-tiger and human-leopard conflict in Nepal's Terai Arc, where recovering tiger populations in and around Chitwan and Bardia overlap with dense rural settlement and buffer-zo…

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…

In many Asian forests tigers share the landscape with leopards and packs of dholes, the Asiatic wild dog, forming a guild that partitions prey and space. This overview synthesizes research on how thes…

Rugged terrain creates a mosaic of microclimates, with cool, shaded, or moist pockets that can buffer species against regional warming, a key idea for montane cats. This overview surveys how topograph…

This overview synthesises research on whether wildlife-tourism revenue increases local tolerance for big cats by offsetting conflict costs. It reviews cases from jaguar tourism in the Pantanal, lion t…

Wildlife tourism, much of it built around charismatic big cats, generates revenue that can fund conservation and provide community benefits, but the distribution of those benefits strongly affects con…

Demand for big cat parts in traditional medicine, particularly bones believed to treat ailments, is a primary driver of poaching and trade affecting tigers, leopards, lions, and others. This overview…