🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

The black-footed cat depends heavily on existing burrows and hollow termite mounds for shelter and breeding, and this overview compiles observations of that reliance. The species uses abandoned spring…

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…

This overview examines bobcat activity, which research generally describes as crepuscular with substantial nocturnal and some diurnal movement, flexibly tuned to prey activity, season, and human distu…

Bobcats and Canada lynx are widespread North American felids studied extensively with camera traps, though their relatively subtle coat patterns complicate reliable individual identification. This ove…

The bobcat is a versatile predator, and this overview synthesizes diet studies showing rabbits and hares as the dietary mainstay across much of the range, supplemented by rodents, birds, reptiles, and…

Bobcats remain largely carnivorous specialists on small mammals even in human-dominated landscapes, but their diet and foraging shift along the urban gradient. This overview synthesises scat and stabl…

A survey of the broad, adaptable diet of the bobcat, which lets this mid-sized felid thrive across diverse North American habitats. Bobcats specialize on lagomorphs such as cottontails and jackrabbits…

The bobcat is the most widespread wild cat in North America, ranging from southern Canada through the United States into Mexico across an extraordinary variety of habitats. This overview compiles reco…

Bobcats living in fragmented urban edges, such as those around Los Angeles, illustrate how roads and development structure carnivore populations even for adaptable mesopredators. This overview surveys…

The bobcat is harvested for fur across much of its range, and this overview reviews the science underpinning its management. Wildlife agencies use harvest records, age and reproductive data, and popul…

Bobcats are among the most adaptable felids at the urban edge, persisting in suburbs and exurban developments across North America by exploiting greenbelts, washes, golf courses and remnant natural pa…

This overview examines bobcat spatial ecology, drawn from extensive telemetry research. Bobcats maintain home ranges that vary widely with prey density, habitat, and sex, with males ranging more widel…

Research in human-influenced landscapes has revealed a troubling link between anticoagulant rodenticides and severe mange in bobcats, and this overview reviews it. Bobcats accumulate rodenticides by e…

Bobcats are the most widespread wild cat in North America and thrive in landscapes ranging from wilderness to suburban edges, and this overview synthesizes telemetry research on their movement through…

Bobcats are a generalist felid whose northern range limit appears constrained by deep snow and severe winters, conditions that warming is relaxing. This overview surveys evidence and projections for b…

Bobcats in fire-prone chaparral and shrubland of the western United States face landscapes shaped by both wildfire and urban development. This overview surveys how bobcats respond to fire through move…

Bobcats increasingly occupy urban and suburban environments, and this overview reviews research on these populations. GPS-tracking studies in metropolitan areas document bobcats using remnant natural…

Sedentary captive cats fed energy-dense diets are prone to obesity, which carries serious welfare and health consequences. This overview surveys body-condition management in felids: the prevalence and…

Estimating how large sabertoothed cats were and what they hunted is fundamental to understanding them, and this overview reviews the methods and conclusions. Body-mass estimates from limb-bone dimensi…

This overview examines how body size influenced which carnivores survived the end-Pleistocene extinctions and which, like the great cats, did not. Large predators tend to have smaller populations, low…

This overview surveys what skeletal evidence reveals about the body size of the cave lion and the degree of size difference between the sexes. Panthera spelaea was a large cat, generally exceeding the…

This overview examines the body size of Panthera atrox, frequently cited as one of the largest cats ever to have lived. Reconstructions based on its robust skeleton suggest it exceeded the modern Afri…

This overview reviews how body size changed over the long history of the machairodont sabertooths. From relatively modest early forms in the Miocene, several lineages trended toward large or giant siz…

Captive cats fed soft, processed diets commonly develop dental disease such as gingivitis, calculus and tooth fractures, whereas chewing on bone, hide and connective tissue provides natural abrasion a…

Canada lynx depend on boreal and montane conifer forest, a biome projected to shift northward and upslope as climate warms. This overview surveys how vegetation models and downscaled climate projectio…

Barren or unpredictable indoor environments can leave cats understimulated and chronically stressed, with effects on behaviour and health. This overview surveys research on indicators of boredom and s…

Bovine tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium bovis, established itself in some African lion populations, notably in Kruger National Park, after spreading through prey species such as buffalo, raising…

Selective breeding for a flat, shortened face in Persians and related breeds produces brachycephaly, and this overview surveys its welfare consequences. It examines how extreme facial conformation is…

This overview reviews what natural and digital endocasts reveal about the brain of Smilodon. By examining the internal cavity of well-preserved La Brea skulls and using CT scanning to generate virtual…

Modern cat breeds emerged recently from broadly distributed random-bred populations, and this overview surveys research reconstructing their ancestry and relationships. It examines genetic studies tra…