🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

The domestic cat genome carries endogenous retroviral sequences related to FeLV, remnants of ancient germline infections that are inherited rather than transmitted. These endogenous elements can recom…

Beyond the well-known feline immunodeficiency and leukemia viruses, felid genomes carry endogenous retroviruses and other retroelements that record ancient infections. This overview surveys the spectr…

Feline genomes carry endogenous retroviruses, the genomic remnants of ancient viral infections, and the related infectious feline leukemia virus, which together offer insights into host-virus coevolut…

Infectious disease can cause sudden, severe declines in lion populations, as shown by canine distemper outbreaks. This overview reviews how a 1990s distemper epidemic killed a large fraction of Sereng…

Anecdotes describe cats approaching distressed owners, and researchers have begun testing whether cats respond differentially to human emotional signals such as crying. This overview surveys explorato…

Whether companion animals understand human communicative gestures bears on how domestication reshapes cognition. This overview surveys research on cats' ability to use human pointing to locate hidden…

This overview synthesises emerging frameworks for managing leopards in urban and peri-urban India, integrating ecology, public health, communications, and governance. It reviews recommendations distil…

This overview synthesises evidence that abundant free-ranging and feral dogs constitute a major prey subsidy enabling leopards, and some other big cats, to persist in human-dominated landscapes across…

Following another's gaze can indicate sensitivity to where attention is directed, and researchers have asked whether cats follow human gaze. This overview surveys the comparatively sparse evidence in…

This overview reviews the use of guardian animals other than dogs, notably donkeys and llamas, to deter big cats and other predators from livestock herds. It synthesises evidence that aggressive donke…

Cats need more dietary protein than many mammals, and this overview reviews the metabolic basis. Feline liver enzymes that break down amino acids for energy operate at a relatively high, less adjustab…

Cats are hosts to feline immunodeficiency virus, feline leukemia virus, and other pathogens whose long association has left marks on both host and viral genomes. This overview surveys how these viruse…

This overview reviews leopard conflict in the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh, where leopards inhabit forest-farmland mosaics and prey on goats, dogs, and occasionally attack people. It synthesise…

A survey of the lethal interactions between cats and dogs that share prey and space, a major structuring force in carnivore communities. Lions and hyenas kill wild dogs and cheetahs; pumas and coyotes…

A survey of the pervasive theft of kills within the African large-carnivore guild, where lions, spotted hyenas, leopards, cheetahs and wild dogs constantly contest carcasses. The direction and outcome…

The last wild Asiatic lions, confined to the Gir Forest of India, form a small, genetically depleted population whose disease exposure draws particular concern. This overview surveys what is known and…

This overview examines persistent leopard predation on humans in the Pauri Garhwal hills of Uttarakhand, India, a region with a long history of so-called man-eating leopards. It synthesises work on th…

The leopard cat is notably tolerant of agricultural landscapes, and this overview reviews research on these populations. Camera-trap and telemetry studies document the species using plantations, rice…

This overview examines human-leopard conflict in Sri Lanka, home to an endemic leopard subspecies that ranges across tea estates, scrub, and forest mosaics. It synthesises evidence on the leading thre…

This overview synthesises camera-trap and telemetry studies estimating leopard abundance, density, and movement within Sanjay Gandhi National Park, a forested island surrounded by metropolitan Mumbai.…

Sanjay Gandhi National Park is a roughly hundred-square-kilometre forest island embedded within metropolitan Mumbai, hosting one of the highest known leopard densities recorded near a megacity. This o…

A survey of how the depletion of wild prey drives leopards to kill domestic livestock, fueling conflict that is a leading threat to the species. Across Africa and Asia, leopards persisting near people…

This overview synthesises studies of leopard predation on livestock across South and Central Asia, examining which species and age classes are most vulnerable, where and when attacks occur, and how hu…

Leopards are remarkable among big cats for persisting in close proximity to dense human populations, including the edges of major cities. This overview synthesizes research, notably from India, on how…

Livestock guarding dogs, such as Anatolian shepherds placed with herds, are a widely promoted nonlethal tool for reducing predation and the retaliatory killing of cats like cheetahs and leopards. This…

This overview surveys the global evidence on livestock-guarding dogs (LGDs), breeds such as Anatolian shepherds, Kangals, and Maremmas, bonded to herds to deter predators through presence, barking, an…

Cats are famously indifferent to sweetness, and genetics revealed why: they carry a pseudogenized sweet-taste receptor gene that no longer produces a functional receptor. This overview surveys the dis…

Securing the attractants that draw felids toward people, including garbage, pet food, accessible livestock and the rodent and dog populations these support, is a frontline coexistence measure. This ov…

Mitochondrial DNA, with its maternal inheritance, high copy number, and relatively fast evolution, was central to the first molecular phylogenies and phylogeographic studies of cats. This overview sur…

Canine distemper in the Serengeti circulates not in a single species but across a community of carnivores including domestic dogs, jackals, hyenas and big cats. This overview examines research untangl…