🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Managing the size and genetics of captive felid populations sometimes requires preventing reproduction in animals that are genetically overrepresented or surplus to program needs. This overview survey…

This overview examines the evolutionary relationships of Miracinonyx and the now well-supported conclusion that its cheetah-like form arose through convergence rather than common ancestry with the tru…

Across the cat family, similar coat phenotypes such as melanism, pale or white morphs, and spotted-to-striped pattern shifts have arisen repeatedly in different lineages. This overview surveys the evi…

The cheetah and the extinct American cheetah independently evolved a slender, long-limbed body built for high-speed pursuit, a striking case of convergence given their separate ancestries within the p…

The sabertooth body plan evolved repeatedly in unrelated lineages, and this overview reviews this striking convergence and what it reveals. True cats produced sabertooths such as Smilodon and Homother…

Cooperation is rare among felids, concentrated in the social lion and in cheetah and feral-cat male coalitions, making the family a useful contrast for theories of cooperation. This overview surveys r…

Cooperative care trains animals through positive reinforcement to participate voluntarily in medical procedures, replacing the stress and risk of immobilisation. This overview surveys how big cats are…

An overview of how social and grouping behavior in cats functions partly to defend kills against kleptoparasites and scavengers. In lions, larger groups retain carcasses against mobbing spotted hyenas…

Lions are the most cooperative felid hunters, and research on Etosha and Serengeti prides has examined whether they coordinate roles during group hunts. This overview surveys evidence that some liones…

Captive tigers are managed cooperatively across institutions to maintain genetically healthy, self-sustaining populations as insurance against wild declines. This overview surveys how tiger breeding p…

In induced-ovulating felids the chance that mating triggers ovulation rises with the number and spacing of copulations, suggesting a threshold of cumulative stimulation that the female's neuroendocrin…

Vaccination guidelines from bodies such as the AAFP and WSAVA classify feline vaccines as core, recommended for all cats, including panleukopenia, herpesvirus, calicivirus, and rabies, and non-core, r…

With limited resources, conservationists must decide which corridors to protect first, and whether continuous corridors or chains of habitat stepping stones best serve wide-ranging cats. This overview…

This overview synthesises how habitat corridors and connectivity shape big-cat conflict, focusing on the tension between maintaining predator movement and the conflict that arises where corridors pass…

Wildlife crossings and fencing are expensive, and this overview examines how their costs are weighed against benefits in road-mitigation planning. Benefits include reduced wildlife-vehicle collisions,…

An overview of cases where puma predation, though ecologically natural, poses risks to endangered or reintroduced prey populations. Examples include predation on woodland caribou, bighorn sheep, and r…

A survey of evidence that cougars can indirectly shape streamside plant communities by limiting and frightening deer. Where cougars are abundant, reduced and more wary deer browse cottonwoods, willows…

Measuring whether a conservation intervention actually helped requires comparing outcomes against a credible counterfactual of what would have happened otherwise. This overview surveys quasi-experimen…

Before springing, a cat crouches and gathers itself, and this overview reviews the role of this countermovement in jump performance. The preparatory crouch loads the hindlimb muscles and tendons and a…

The most realistic forecasts of cat futures combine climate change with land-use change, since for many forest cats habitat conversion is the faster, larger threat. This overview surveys how integrate…

Clouded leopards have remarkable skulls and the longest canine teeth relative to body size of any living cat, and cranial characters contributed to recognizing two species. This overview discusses how…

The kitten visual cortex has a critical period during which experience strongly shapes its wiring, a concept established largely through feline research. This overview surveys the idea of the critical…

This overview examines how agricultural practices raise human exposure to lion predation, building on findings that attacks in Tanzania concentrated where farmers slept in fields to protect crops from…

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed a web of animal infections, with cats among the susceptible species alongside mink, ferrets and others. This overview surveys cross-species SARS-CoV-2 dynamics relevant…

Wildlife crossings are often designed with large mammals in mind, but smaller felids such as bobcats have distinct preferences, and this overview examines how they use such structures. Monitoring show…

Small managed felid populations gradually lose genetic diversity through drift and the death of founders, and cryopreservation offers a way to slow this erosion. This overview surveys how banking game…

The small spotted cats of the ocelot lineage in South America, including the ocelot, margay, oncilla or tigrina, and pampas cat, present a tangle of cryptic species, hybrid zones, and unresolved bound…

The small spotted cats of South and Central America, including the margay and the oncilla or little spotted cat, harbor cryptic genetic diversity that has reshaped their taxonomy. This overview survey…

Genetic research has revealed that the oncilla comprises more than one species, and this overview reviews this taxonomic complexity. Molecular studies showed that populations long treated as a single…

Tracking how lion cubs gain mass and size over time provides growth curves that inform age estimation, nutritional assessment, and survival analysis. This overview surveys data on lion cub growth from…