🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Pallass cat is among the most distinctive felids, and this overview reviews the adaptations behind its stocky, flat-faced appearance. The species carries the densest and longest fur of any cat, insula…

Dietary studies portray Pallass cat as a specialist on small mammals, with pikas forming a major share of the diet across much of the range alongside gerbils, voles, and other rodents, supplemented by…

This overview surveys Panthera gombaszoegensis, an extinct big cat of the Pleistocene of Europe and western Asia often nicknamed the European jaguar because of similarities to the living jaguar. Known…

This overview surveys Panthera palaeosinensis, an early pantherine from the Pliocene of China that has figured prominently in debates about the origins of big cats. Known from cranial and dental mater…

This overview surveys the taxonomy of the Eurasian cave lion and its immediate ancestors. The classic Late Pleistocene cave lion is usually called Panthera spelaea, while larger, earlier Middle Pleist…

This overview surveys the early machairodonts Paramachairodus and the closely related Promegantereon, small to mid-sized dirk-toothed cats known from the late Miocene of Spain. Exceptional material fr…

This overview describes Pit 91, one of the most carefully excavated deposits at Rancho La Brea, and its contribution to sabertooth science. Unlike the rapid early salvage digs of the twentieth century…

This overview examines Proailurus, widely regarded as the earliest true cat, known principally from the late Oligocene and early Miocene of Europe, including the famous Quercy fissure fillings of Fran…

Zooarchaeological finds of cat bones at Roman and medieval European sites document the steady establishment of cats as urban and rural commensals north of the Mediterranean. This overview surveys evid…

Following the Bronx Zoo tigers, SARS-CoV-2 infections were confirmed in big cats at zoos and sanctuaries across multiple countries, including additional tigers, lions, snow leopards, pumas and others.…

Symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA) emerged as a blood biomarker of kidney function that rises earlier in the course of feline CKD than creatinine and is less influenced by muscle mass, an advantage in…

Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, oral drugs that lower blood glucose by promoting urinary glucose excretion, gained approval for treating feline diabetes, offering the first effectiv…

This overview describes the integrated collar architecture that combined GPS with an inertial measurement unit of accelerometers and magnetometers to study puma movement and energetics at fine resolut…

The Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool, known as SMART, is widely deployed in tiger reserves to make ranger patrols data-driven. This overview surveys research evaluating how recording patrol route…

Sarcocystis parasites cycle between predator definitive hosts and prey intermediate hosts, with felids shedding infective stages after eating cysts in muscle. This overview surveys the role of wild ca…

The folded ears that define the Scottish Fold breed result from a cartilage mutation that also causes a painful skeletal disorder, and this overview surveys the resulting welfare controversy. It exami…

This overview examines attempts to track changes in Smilodon fatalis populations across the tens of thousands of years recorded by the Rancho La Brea pits. Because different pits accumulated at differ…

This overview examines Smilodon populator, the largest known sabertooth cat, which roamed the plains and woodlands of Pleistocene South America after felids crossed the Panamanian land bridge. Body-ma…

Snapshot Safari and Snapshot USA are large collaborative camera-trap networks that aggregate standardized surveys across many sites, in African reserves and across the United States respectively, to s…

This overview surveys the fossil record of Smilodon across South America, including the tar seeps of Talara in Peru, which offer a southern counterpart to Rancho La Brea. The continent preserves both…

Tiger range across Southeast Asia has collapsed dramatically, with several countries losing breeding populations to deforestation, infrastructure, and hunting. This overview surveys the regional patte…

Spirometra tapeworms use felids and other carnivores as definitive hosts, while their larval stages, known as spargana, infect a wide range of intermediate and paratenic hosts, including amphibians, r…

This overview surveys Styriofelis and related small Miocene cats, sometimes also referred to under names such as Miopanthera, that are placed near the base of the Felinae following the breakup of the…

The mangrove forests of the Sundarbans, shared by India and Bangladesh, support a unique tiger population adapted to a tidal, saline, swimming-intensive environment. This overview surveys research on…

This overview examines Thylacosmilus, a South American sparassodont metatherian that convergently evolved a striking sabertooth form despite being only distantly related to placental cats. It bore eve…

Toxocara cati and related ascarid roundworms are among the most common parasites of cats, with wild felids shedding eggs that contribute to environmental contamination and pose a zoonotic risk to peop…

Research into how Toxoplasma alters host behavior has implicated changes in neurotransmitter and hormone systems, particularly dopamine and testosterone. This overview surveys findings that the parasi…

Serosurveys consistently reveal high Toxoplasma exposure in wild felids, reflecting their role as both definitive hosts and predators of infected prey. This overview synthesizes prevalence patterns ac…

African lions and other wild felids can be infected with Trypanosoma, tsetse-transmitted protozoan parasites better known for causing sleeping sickness in humans and nagana in livestock. This overview…

Even in the GPS era, VHF remains indispensable for one task: signaling death. This overview describes mortality-mode beacons that change pulse rate when a collar stops moving for a set interval, alert…