🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Sinclair, Mduma and Brashares tested why some Serengeti ungulate species are regulated by predation while others are limited by food, using long-term data across the migratory and resident herbivore c…

Sinclair, A.R.E., Mduma, S. & Brashares, J.S. · Nature · 2003

Marker, Dickman, and Macdonald evaluated the Cheetah Conservation Fund's program placing Anatolian shepherd and Kangal guarding dogs with Namibian farmers to reduce cheetah and other predator losses.…

Laurie L. Marker, Amy J. Dickman, David W. Macdonald · Rangeland Ecology & Management · 2005

Cheetahs breed poorly in captivity, and this study asked whether temperament was part of the problem. Keepers rated individual cheetahs on behavioural traits, yielding dimensions such as tense-fearful…

Nadja Wielebnowski · Zoo Biology · 1999

This study examined genetic variation across the cheetah's range and delineated the relationships among African and Asiatic populations, supporting recognition of several subspecies. The authors estim…

Charruau P, Fernandes C, Orozco-terWengel P, et al. · Molecular Ecology · 2011

Owen-Smith and Mills assembled a detailed predation web for Kruger National Park, quantifying which predators kill which prey and in what proportions across the size spectrum. They mapped how lion, le…

Owen-Smith, N. & Mills, M.G.L. · Journal of Animal Ecology · 2008

This study investigated feline coronavirus infection in cheetahs after a devastating outbreak of feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) struck a captive cheetah facility with unusually high mortality. By…

J. L. Heeney, A. J. Evermann, A. J. McKeirnan, et al. · Journal of Virology · 1990

This synthesis pulled together the individual prey-preference analyses for lion, leopard, cheetah, spotted hyena and wild dog to quantify dietary overlap across the African large-carnivore guild. By c…

Hayward, M.W. & Kerley, G.I.H. · South African Journal of Wildlife Research · 2008

This installment of the Hayward series quantified prey selection by African wild dogs, a key competitor of cheetahs and a frequent victim of intraguild predation by lions and hyenas. Using kill record…

Hayward, M.W., O'Brien, J., Hofmeyr, M. & Kerley, G.I.H. · Journal of Zoology · 2006

Part of Hayward's comparative prey-preference series, this study quantified cheetah prey selection across study sites by relating kill records to prey availability. Cheetahs preferentially took medium…

Hayward, M.W., Hofmeyr, M., O'Brien, J. & Kerley, G.I.H. · Journal of Zoology · 2006

Though not a felid, the spotted hyena is the dominant competitor and kleptoparasite of African big cats, so its prey preferences are central to felid dynamics. Hayward compiled kill and diet records a…

Hayward, M.W. · Journal of Zoology · 2006

Captive cheetahs suffer unusually high rates of chronic gastritis associated with Helicobacter infection, a condition far more severe than in most other felids and a significant cause of morbidity in…

The extinct American cheetah of the genus Miracinonyx superficially resembled the living cheetah, with adaptations for fast pursuit of swift prey such as the pronghorn. This overview surveys genetic a…

Popular accounts fixate on the cheetah maximum speed, but field data suggest acceleration and deceleration matter more for catching prey. This overview weighs the relative importance of burst accelera…

A cheetah sprint is brief and metabolically violent. This overview compiles what is known about the energetic cost of the chase, the reliance on anaerobic pathways during the seconds of peak effort, a…

A survey of the two principal felid hunting strategies, stalk-and-ambush used by most cats and the high-speed pursuit of the cheetah, and their ecological consequences. Ambush predators rely on cover…

Artificial insemination offers a way to move cheetah genetics between institutions and to breed animals that will not pair naturally, but it remains technically challenging in this species. This overv…

African carnivores, including lions, leopards and cheetahs, host a rich diversity of blood-borne parasites that molecular surveys continue to uncover. This overview surveys the diversity of hemoparasi…

Monitoring the Asiatic cheetah depends on camera trapping across the remote arid reserves of central Iran, where the animals occur at extremely low density over enormous areas. This overview surveys r…

Given the critically small wild population, captive breeding has been considered and attempted as a potential safeguard for the Asiatic cheetah, though with significant difficulty. This overview surve…

An overview of the quantitative tools used to predict how many large predators a reserve can sustain from its prey base, building on the prey-preference and prey-biomass approaches. These models estim…

Cheetahs carry distinctive spot patterns that allow individual identification, but their low densities, wide ranging, and preference for open habitats pose particular challenges for camera trapping. T…

Cheetah social and spatial organization is unusual among cats: males often form lifelong coalitions, frequently of brothers, while females range solitarily over large areas, and this overview examines…

This overview synthesises human-cheetah conflict across East African rangelands, where cheetahs overlap with pastoralist livestock outside protected areas. It reviews patterns of depredation, mostly o…

Cheetah cubs suffer extremely high mortality in the wild, and understanding its causes has been central to assessing the species' resilience. This overview surveys research, much of it from long-term…

Cheetah cubs suffer extremely high mortality, much of it inflicted by lions and spotted hyenas. This overview synthesizes research documenting that on the open plains the majority of cheetah cubs die…

A survey of the heavy toll that lions and spotted hyenas take on cheetah cubs, a key demographic constraint on cheetah populations. Studies in the Serengeti and elsewhere have recorded that a large fr…

The illegal trade in live cheetah cubs for the exotic pet market follows established routes from the Horn of Africa across to the Arabian Peninsula, and this overview surveys research mapping and quan…

An overview of the extreme anatomical and physiological specializations that make the cheetah the fastest land predator and how they shape its predation ecology. Adaptations including a flexible spine…

The cheetah's celebrated speed is the centerpiece of a hunting strategy built on daytime pursuit of fleet prey. This overview synthesizes research on how cheetahs stalk to within range before launchin…

Cheetahs are notoriously difficult to keep and breed well in captivity, and their welfare has been intensively studied. This overview surveys the cheetah's particular vulnerabilities: evidence of chro…