🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

This overview describes how field teams located collared cats before satellite positioning existed, relying on VHF beacons and directional antennas. Ground observers took compass bearings from multipl…

Cats travelled with Norse traders and raiders, and their remains at Viking-age sites have informed studies of dispersal and body size. This overview surveys genetic and osteological evidence showing t…

This overview surveys Xenosmilus, an unusual North American machairodont that combined features of scimitar- and dirk-toothed cats, with relatively short, broad, serrated canines set in a massive, hea…

Complementing maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA, Y-chromosome markers trace paternal lineages and reveal male-specific patterns of dispersal and mating in cats. This overview surveys how feline Y…

Sylvatic plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, circulates among rodents in the American West, and mountain lions become exposed by preying on infected rodents and lagomorphs. This overview…

Zooniverse hosts citizen-science projects, such as Snapshot Serengeti and its successors, where volunteers worldwide classify camera-trap images, collectively processing millions of photos that would…

Decades of feline genetics have assembled a catalog of genes controlling color, pattern, and hair properties in cats, including agouti, melanocortin-1 receptor, the brown locus, dilution, dominant whi…

While pacing dominates discussion of felid stereotypy, captive cats display a range of other abnormal repetitive behaviours that signal welfare problems. This overview surveys these: route-tracing and…

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…

This overview surveys how tri-axial acceleration data from collars are translated into behavioral states for cats, enabling activity budgets and the detection of key events like kills. Researchers typ…

Genuine sanctuaries provide lifetime care for rescued big cats without breeding, commercial public contact or trade, distinguishing themselves from roadside attractions through formal standards. This…

Distress and high-arousal calls, such as the kitten separation cry and adult yowls, carry information about a cat's state and have been analyzed acoustically. This overview surveys research on the str…

The purr has a characteristic low fundamental frequency, and this overview reviews its acoustic structure and the claims made about specific frequencies. Measured purrs typically centre on low frequen…

Because labeling camera-trap images is costly and pretrained models falter on new projects, active-learning and human-in-the-loop workflows aim to maximize model improvement per unit of human effort.…

Tigers are largely crepuscular and nocturnal, though their activity shifts with prey, temperature, and human presence. This overview synthesizes camera-trap and telemetry studies showing peaks of move…

Cats are often described as crepuscular, most active at dawn and dusk, and this overview surveys research on how activity and hunting are scheduled in domestic and feral cats. Tracking studies show fl…

Beyond confounding phylogenies, introgression can transfer beneficial alleles between species, a process termed adaptive introgression. This overview surveys evidence in cats that gene flow during the…

This overview reviews the application of adaptive management, structured learning through iterative intervention, monitoring, and adjustment, to human-big cat conflict. It synthesises arguments that b…

Concerns about injection-site sarcomas and inflammation spurred development of non-adjuvanted recombinant feline vaccines, such as canarypox-vectored products, intended to provoke less local inflammat…

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 how cats do not take prey at random but select particular age and sex classes, with consequences for prey populations. Felids frequently kill disproportionately young, old or otherwise vul…

Tiger cubs remain with their mother for an extended period, learning to hunt before dispersing to establish their own ranges. This overview surveys data on the age at which young tigers become indepen…

As cats age, their reproductive output typically declines through reduced fertility, smaller litters, and lower offspring survival. This overview surveys patterns of age-related fertility decline acro…

As cats age, many experience a decline in hearing, a feline counterpart to the presbycusis seen in aging humans. This overview surveys age-related hearing loss in senior cats, which can reduce sensiti…

A growing body of welfare thinking holds that giving animals control over their environment, the ability to make choices and influence outcomes, is itself a key contributor to good welfare. This overv…

Movement models can be turned around to simulate animals, generating virtual trajectories from estimated movement rules to predict population-level patterns. This overview describes agent-based and in…

Unlike many viruses spread by casual contact, feline immunodeficiency virus is transmitted chiefly through biting during fights, tying its epidemiology to felid social behavior. This overview surveys…

When threatened, cats deploy a graded set of agonistic signals including growls, hisses, spits, and yowls, paired with visual displays such as piloerection, arched back, and ear and pupil changes. Thi…

Expanding agricultural frontiers, soy and cattle in South America, oil palm in Southeast Asia, smallholder farming in Africa and Asia, are among the largest drivers of habitat loss for wild cats. This…

When hunting by ear, a cat actively orients its pinnae toward a sound source to maximize gain and sharpen localization before striking. This overview surveys how pinna aiming integrates with the broad…