🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Karanth and Nichols extended camera-trap capture-recapture into a full density-estimation framework applied across multiple Indian reserves. They combined closed-population abundance estimates from ph…

K. Ullas Karanth, James D. Nichols · Ecology · 1998

This methodological breakthrough applied camera trapping and capture-recapture statistics to estimate tiger density from the unique stripe patterns that identify individuals. By treating photographs a…

Karanth, K. U., Nichols, J. D. · Ecology · 1998

This study documented the first confirmed natural SARS-CoV-2 infections in big cats, occurring in tigers and lions at the Bronx Zoo early in the COVID-19 pandemic. After several cats developed respira…

D. McAloose, M. Laverack, L. Wang, et al. · mBio · 2020

This study sequenced genomes from tigers representing multiple subspecies to reconstruct their demographic history and detect local adaptation. The authors found that tigers share a recent common ance…

Yue-Chen Liu, Shu-Jin Luo, et al. · Current Biology · 2018

This study analyzed genomes across the genus Panthera and found pervasive evidence of ancient gene flow among the big-cat lineages, demonstrating that their evolution was reticulate rather than strict…

Henrique V. Figueiro, Eduardo Eizirik, et al. · Science Advances · 2017

This study sequenced whole genomes from tigers representing the major living populations and found strong genomic support for distinct subspecies despite the tiger's recent origin. The authors detecte…

Liu YC, Sun X, Driscoll C, et al. · Current Biology · 2018

This genomic study sequenced multiple Panthera species and found pervasive evidence that gene flow between lineages, not just simple branching, shaped big cat evolution. The authors detected introgres…

Figueiro HV, Li G, Trindade FJ, et al. · Science Advances · 2017

This study sequenced genomes of Bengal tigers from across India, home to most of the world's wild tigers, to assess genetic diversity, structure, and inbreeding among populations. The authors found th…

Anubhab Khan, Uma Ramakrishnan, et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2021

This landmark study produced the first globally consistent, high-resolution maps of forest loss and gain in the 21st century using satellite imagery, quantifying deforestation at fine scale across the…

Hansen, M.C., Potapov, P.V., Moore, R., Hancher, M., Turubanova, S.A., Tyukavina, A., et al. · Science · 2013

Treves and Karanth reviewed human-carnivore conflict and management approaches across continents, synthesising how societies have responded to large predators from persecution to protection. They exam…

Adrian Treves, K. Ullas Karanth · Conservation Biology · 2003

Inskip and Zimmermann produced a comprehensive global review of conflict between people and wild cats, synthesising the geography, drivers, and severity of conflict across all felid species. They iden…

Chloe Inskip, Alexandra Zimmermann · Oryx · 2009

Inskip and colleagues used household surveys across villages bordering the Bangladesh Sundarbans to document the full burden of human-tiger conflict, encompassing fatal and nonfatal attacks on people,…

Chloe Inskip, et al. · Human Ecology · 2013

Goodrich reviewed the global state of human-tiger conflict, spanning attacks on people, livestock depredation, and the killing of tigers in retaliation or fear across the species' range. The review sy…

John M. Goodrich · Integrative Zoology · 2010

McPhee tested whether feeding whole, intact carcasses rather than processed meat changes the behaviour of large captive cats. Providing carcasses increased feeding-related and active behaviours and al…

McPhee ME · Zoo Biology · 2002

This large-scale study assessed Sumatran tiger occupancy across the island, linking tiger presence to forest cover, elevation, and protection status. By compiling extensive survey data, the authors ma…

Wibisono, H.T., Linkie, M., Guillera-Arroita, G., Smith, J.A., Sunarto, S., Pusparini, W., et al. · PLoS ONE · 2011

This comparative study examined taste-receptor genes across a range of carnivorous mammals and found widespread loss of taste capabilities tied to diet. Building on the earlier discovery that cats lac…

Peihua Jiang, Jesusa Josue, Xia Li, et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2012

Hill and Broom reviewed the conceptual and practical challenges of assessing welfare in zoo animals, applying Broom's coping-based definition to the captive context. They surveyed the range of indicat…

Hill SP, Broom DM · Zoo Biology · 2009

This study extracted DNA from museum specimens of the extinct Caspian tiger and compared it with living subspecies, revealing that the Caspian and Amur tigers were extremely close genetically, essenti…

Driscoll CA, Yamaguchi N, Bar-Gal GK, et al. · PLoS ONE · 2009

An early molecular study of the big cats that used mitochondrial 12S rRNA and cytochrome b sequences to probe relationships within the Panthera group. This work was among the first to apply DNA sequen…

Janczewski DN, Modi WS, Stephens JC, O'Brien SJ · Molecular Biology and Evolution · 1995

Karanth and colleagues applied occupancy modeling to landscape-scale tiger monitoring, using sign and detection surveys across large areas where camera-based density estimation everywhere would be imp…

K. Ullas Karanth, Arjun M. Gopalaswamy, N. Samba Kumar, Srinivas Vaidyanathan, James D. Nichols, Darryl I. MacKenzie · Journal of Applied Ecology · 2011

Building on their Nature note, Clubb and Mason developed a fuller comparative model of which natural traits predict poor captive welfare in carnivores. Across dozens of species they tested whether hom…

Clubb R, Mason GJ · Applied Animal Behaviour Science · 2007

Whitham and Wielebnowski argued that zoo welfare assessment should move beyond minimising negative states toward measuring and promoting positive welfare, and toward individual-level, continuous monit…

Whitham JC, Wielebnowski N · Applied Animal Behaviour Science · 2013

Mellor elaborated the Five Domains Model, which structures welfare assessment around four physical and functional domains, nutrition, environment, health and behaviour, that feed into a fifth, the ani…

Mellor DJ · Animals · 2017

Mellen and MacPhee reflected on how environmental enrichment evolved from ad hoc novelty provision toward a goal-directed, integrated husbandry process. They proposed a framework in which enrichment i…

Mellen J, MacPhee MS · Zoo Biology · 2001

This morphological study reconstructed relationships among the pantherine cats while explicitly incorporating fossil taxa and testing how missing data affect tree inference. Working from cranial and s…

Christiansen P · Cladistics · 2008

This genetic study sampled tigers across their range to clarify how many distinct lineages exist and how they are distributed. By analyzing molecular markers, the authors described population structur…

Luo SJ, Kim JH, Johnson WE, et al. · PLoS Biology · 2004

This study sampled tigers from across their range and used mitochondrial and microsatellite markers to test whether the traditional subspecies are genetically distinct. The authors found support for s…

Shu-Jin Luo, Stephen J. O'Brien, et al. · PLoS Biology · 2004

This study analyzed mitochondrial and microsatellite markers from tigers across their range and provided the first comprehensive molecular framework supporting multiple traditional subspecies. The aut…

Luo SJ, Kim JH, Johnson WE, et al. · PLoS Biology · 2004

This study argued that tigers are best treated as just two subspecies, a continental form and a Sunda-island form, rather than the traditional six or nine. Reanalyzing morphological, ecological, molec…

Wilting A, Courtiol A, Christiansen P, et al. · Science Advances · 2015

This influential review examined the rapidly growing field of species distribution modeling, comparing statistical methods, discussing the ecological theory connecting environment to occurrence, and o…

Guisan, A., Thuiller, W. · Ecology Letters · 2005