🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Many large carnivore landscapes span international borders, prompting the creation of transboundary protected areas, sometimes called peace parks, that link reserves across countries into larger conse…

Leopards famously haul their kills into trees, a behavior with clear ecological logic. This overview synthesizes research showing that caching prey in trees protects it from kleptoparasitism by lions,…

A survey of the leopard's distinctive habit of hauling kills, sometimes heavier than itself, into trees, and the ecological drivers behind it. Tree caching is most pronounced where lions and spotted h…

An overview of how large cats can structure ecosystems from the top down, with effects rippling through herbivores to vegetation and beyond. By killing and frightening herbivores, apex felids such as…

Trophy hunting of lions is among the most contentious topics in carnivore conservation, and this overview surveys the science behind the debate. Research has examined how hunting older males can be su…

This overview examines research on pumas persisting in and around the urbanised landscapes of southern California, epitomised by P-22, the mountain lion that lived for years in Los Angeles's Griffith…

Vaccinating endangered wild felids against canine distemper is fraught with trade-offs. This overview surveys the options: modified-live vaccines, which risk vaccine-induced disease in non-target spec…

A lion roar is astonishingly loud and low, and this overview reviews the vocal-fold anatomy behind it. Studies of big cat larynges found unusually large, robust vocal folds with a thick layer of fat a…

Cats vary in how much they depend on free-standing water versus obtaining moisture from prey, a trait that shapes drought resilience in arid landscapes. This overview surveys what is known about water…

Managers of reserves holding lions, tigers, and other cats sometimes provision artificial water to buffer wildlife against drought, a practice with contested ecological consequences. This overview sur…

Pumas, also called cougars or mountain lions, are commonly held in zoos and frequently appear among rescued cats in sanctuaries, often arriving from the pet trade or roadside attractions. This overvie…

Private ownership of tigers, lions and other big cats, historically widespread in some countries, raises acute welfare and public-safety concerns. This overview surveys the issues: inadequate enclosur…

Cub-petting attractions, where the public pays to handle tiger, lion and other big-cat cubs, depend on a continuous supply of young animals within a narrow handleable age window. This overview surveys…

Safari parks house big cats, especially lions, in large drive-through enclosures that visitors traverse by vehicle, a model with distinctive welfare features. This overview surveys the welfare conside…

Lion hunting success varies enormously with prey species, group size, habitat cover, time of day, and moon phase. This overview synthesizes field studies showing that lions exploit darkness and vegeta…

Beyond white tigers, other captive felid colour variants, white lions and the patterned king cheetah, raise similar questions about breeding for appearance. This overview surveys the genetics of these…

Although domestic cats have vertical-slit pupils, large felids such as lions and tigers have round pupils, a contrast that has attracted scientific attention. This overview surveys the explanation tie…

Cheetahs naturally occur at low densities and require large areas, a consequence of competition, prey, and their hunting strategy. This overview synthesizes research showing that suppression by lions…

Cat classification is not merely academic; it directly shapes how cats are protected. This overview explains how taxonomy underlies Red List assessments, CITES appendices, and national legislation, al…

Because cats are relatively susceptible to plague and range widely, wild and domestic felids serve as useful sentinels for detecting Yersinia pestis circulation. This overview surveys how serosurveys…

A survey of how the synchronized mass calving and movement of migratory wildebeest may swamp predators, reducing per-capita predation on any individual. By giving birth in a brief, highly synchronized…

Genetic tools are increasingly used to combat the illegal trade in cats and their parts, from tiger bones and skins to confiscated live animals. This overview surveys how forensic genetics assigns sei…

Controlling rabies in its wildlife and domestic reservoirs indirectly protects wild felids that are spillover victims of the disease. This overview surveys rabies control strategies relevant to felid…

Rising carbon dioxide, altered rainfall, and changed fire and grazing regimes are driving woody plant encroachment into many African savannas, reshaping habitat for cats and their prey. This overview…

This experiment played recordings of one or three roaring strangers to prides and measured how resident females responded. Lionesses were more cautious when outnumbered and more likely to approach whe…

McComb, K., Packer, C., Pusey, A. E. · Animal Behaviour · 1994

Playback experiments on Serengeti lionesses tested whether females could judge the size of an intruding group from its roars. Researchers broadcast recordings of one versus three unfamiliar females an…

Karen McComb, Craig Packer, Anne Pusey · Animal Behaviour · 1994

This study examined the large domestic dog population living around the Serengeti to test whether dogs sustained the canine distemper virus that spilled into lions and other carnivores. Through serosu…

S. Cleaveland, M. G. J. Appel, W. S. K. Chalmers, et al. · Veterinary Microbiology · 2000

This comprehensive study screened thousands of samples from many felid species plus hyenas for feline immunodeficiency virus and sequenced isolates to map viral diversity. The authors confirmed that F…

J. L. Troyer, J. Pecon-Slattery, M. E. Roelke, et al. · Journal of Virology · 2005

Combining field observations with experiments using life-sized dummy lions, researchers tested what information a male's mane signals. Darker manes indicated higher testosterone and better nutrition,…

Peyton West, Craig Packer · Science · 2002

Swanson and colleagues published the Snapshot Serengeti dataset, one of the first large-scale, openly available, expertly verified camera-trap image collections, comprising millions of images from a d…

Alexandra Swanson, Margaret Kosmala, Chris Lintott, Robert Simpson, Arfon Smith, Craig Packer · Scientific Data · 2015