🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Activity-budget research using camera traps and accelerometer collars characterizes the ocelot as predominantly nocturnal and crepuscular, with peaks near dusk and dawn that overlap the activity of it…

The ocelot holds one of the broadest ranges of any Neotropical cat, reaching from the thornscrub of southern Texas through Mexico and Central America into the Amazon basin and northern Argentina. This…

Reproductive studies from captive colonies and field monitoring describe ocelots as slow-reproducing for a small cat, typically raising a single kitten, occasionally two, after roughly seventy to eigh…

The ocelot population in south Texas is one of the most endangered cat populations in the United States, and vehicle collisions are a primary threat, making road ecology central to its survival. This…

Behavioral observations and field sign surveys describe how ocelots advertise territory and reproductive state through scent. This overview draws together accounts of urine spraying, fecal deposition…

The remnant ocelot population of south Texas, numbering only a few dozen animals, persists in dense thornscrub fragments amid expanding agriculture, ranchettes and highways. This overview synthesises…

Stimulating the ovaries with exogenous gonadotropins to produce multiple follicles is a key step in collecting eggs or preparing females for insemination in cats. This overview surveys ovarian stimula…

The ocelot and margay are widespread Neotropical cats whose phylogeography reveals how rainforest history structured small felid populations. This overview surveys studies showing pronounced genetic s…

Rivers, streams, and the vegetated strips along them often serve as natural movement corridors for cats, offering cover, water, prey, and continuous habitat threading through otherwise open or develop…

Across the range, and acutely in Texas, vehicle collisions are a leading documented cause of ocelot death. This overview gathers studies linking roads to direct mortality and to the subtler barrier ef…

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…

Agroforestry systems such as shade coffee and cacao, along with tree plantations and pasture-forest mosaics, can provide partial habitat for ocelots, margays, oncillas and jaguarundis across Latin Ame…

As agriculture and settlement advance into Neotropical forests, small cats face habitat loss, road mortality, retaliatory killing over poultry depredation, and competition with free-ranging dogs. This…

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…

The small cats of the ocelot lineage are unusual within the otherwise karyotypically conservative cat family for having a reduced chromosome number, the result of an ancestral chromosome fusion. This…

At the northern edge of the range, fewer than a hundred ocelots persist in two small populations in deep south Texas, making them among the most endangered cats in the United States. This overview com…

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,…

Cats are arboreal-capable, climbing predators that value height, and research consistently shows captive felids prefer and benefit from elevated resting platforms, climbing structures and visually com…

Small wild cats, servals, ocelots, fishing cats, sand cats, margays and others, are widely held yet receive less welfare research attention than big cats. This overview surveys their husbandry needs:…

Wildlife crossings, from large vegetated overpasses to underpasses and culverts, are a primary engineering response to the roads that fragment felid populations near cities. This overview synthesises…

Road mortality is a major threat to ocelots and other small cats in developing landscapes, prompting investment in crossing structures, fencing and culvert modifications. This overview synthesises eva…

This synthesis reviews the conservation standing of the ocelot, globally assessed as a species of relatively low extinction risk yet under steady pressure from deforestation, the historical fur trade,…

This landmark genetic study reconstructed the evolutionary history of the cat family, using molecular data across all living felid species to resolve the major lineages and their divergence times. It…

Johnson WE, Eizirik E, Pecon-Slattery J, Murphy WJ, Antunes A, Teeling E, OBrien SJ · Science · 2006