🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Deciding when a chronically ill or aged big cat's welfare no longer justifies continued life is among the most difficult tasks in captive felid care. This overview surveys structured quality-of-life a…

Rabies, an almost invariably fatal lyssavirus infection, occasionally strikes wild felids exposed through bites from infected dogs, jackals or other wildlife reservoirs. This overview surveys document…

Remote drug delivery using dart guns and pole syringes enables chemical immobilization of dangerous or free-ranging felids from a safe distance, a foundational technique for field and zoo capture. Suc…

Chronic kidney disease is a common cause of illness and death in aging captive big cats, paralleling its prominence in domestic cats and reflecting the longer lifespans achieved in managed care. Capti…

Rotational exhibit systems allow multiple species or individuals to take turns occupying a series of connected spaces, multiplying the effective territory and novelty available to each animal. This ov…

Many felids scavenge as well as hunt, and feeding on carcasses exposes them to pathogens including anthrax, bovine tuberculosis and parasites concentrated in dead and diseased animals. This overview s…

An overview of how much carrion features in the diets of cats traditionally viewed as pure hunters. While felids are generally more reliant on fresh kills than canids or hyaenids, many will scavenge o…

Infanticide by males is documented or inferred across many felid species, from lions to tigers, leopards, pumas, and others, wherever killing dependent young can hasten a female's next conception. Thi…

A survey of how stable isotope ratios of carbon, nitrogen and other elements in tissues reconstruct the diets and trophic positions of cats. Because isotopic signatures of prey are passed to predators…

An overview of how ambush felids select hunting habitat to minimize the distance over which they must close on prey undetected. Because capture success drops sharply with the length of the final rush,…

The surfaces captive cats stand, walk and rest on affect comfort, health and behaviour, yet substrate is easily overlooked. This overview surveys substrate welfare for felids: the problems of hard, ab…

An overview of documented cases in which cats kill more prey than they can eat, extending Kruuk's classic analysis to felids. Surplus killing in cats typically occurs when normal prey escape responses…

In 1994 a canine distemper epidemic swept the Serengeti, killing roughly a third of its lions and spreading to leopards, hyenas and other carnivores. This overview reconstructs the outbreak timeline:…

The Javan leopard, Panthera pardus melas, is an isolated and threatened population restricted to the island of Java, frequently melanistic. This overview reviews evidence for its status as a distinct…

Familiar keepers occupy a special place in a captive animal's social environment, and the quality of the keeper-animal relationship can influence stress, cooperation and welfare. This overview surveys…

This overview surveys how the presence and behaviour of visitors specifically affect captive cats, a group that frequently responds to crowds with vigilance, hiding or altered activity. It examines st…

As temperatures rise, cats may adjust their activity patterns to avoid heat, shifting toward more nocturnal or crepuscular behavior, with consequences for hunting and human overlap. This overview surv…

The combination of the dissociative anesthetic tiletamine with the benzodiazepine zolazepam, marketed as Telazol or Zoletil, is widely used for chemical restraint and anesthesia of felids ranging from…

Moving cats between institutions for breeding, rescue or management is a recognised acute stressor with welfare implications. This overview surveys the science of felid transport and transfer: the str…

Non-invasive cortisol metabolite monitoring lets keepers test whether husbandry changes actually reduce physiological stress, moving welfare management from intuition to evidence. This overview survey…

Captive big cats are vaccinated against diseases that threaten felids, including panleukopenia, the respiratory viruses, and rabies, with protocols adapted from domestic-cat guidelines but informed by…

Cats are arboreal-capable, climbing predators that value height, and research consistently shows captive felids prefer and benefit from elevated resting platforms, climbing structures and visually com…

Conceptual frameworks structure how we judge captive animal welfare, and they have evolved over time. This overview surveys the progression from the Five Freedoms, freedom from hunger, discomfort, pai…

Feeding captive big cats appropriately requires meeting their obligate-carnivore nutritional needs, with debate and research around whole-prey versus formulated diets, calcium-phosphorus balance, taur…

Controlling rabies in its wildlife and domestic reservoirs indirectly protects wild felids that are spillover victims of the disease. This overview surveys rabies control strategies relevant to felid…

DeVault, Rhodes and Shivik synthesized the neglected ecology of carrion use, arguing that scavenging is far more pervasive and important than traditionally recognized and that most carnivores, includi…

DeVault, T.L., Rhodes, O.E. & Shivik, J.A. · Oikos · 2003

This edited volume brought together early scientific work on environmental enrichment, consolidating it into a coherent field. Chapters covered the history, theory, design and evaluation of enrichment…

Shepherdson DJ, Mellen JD, Hutchins M (eds) · Smithsonian Institution Press · 1998

Wells reviewed how stimulating the senses, through olfactory, auditory, visual and tactile inputs, can enrich captive animals. She summarised evidence that scents such as spices and prey odours, sound…

Wells DL · Applied Animal Behaviour Science · 2009

This comprehensive study screened thousands of samples from many felid species plus hyenas for feline immunodeficiency virus and sequenced isolates to map viral diversity. The authors confirmed that F…

J. L. Troyer, J. Pecon-Slattery, M. E. Roelke, et al. · Journal of Virology · 2005

Morgan and Tromborg comprehensively reviewed the environmental factors that stress captive animals, cataloguing sound, light, odour, temperature, substrate, restraint, human presence, predictability a…

Morgan KN, Tromborg CT · Applied Animal Behaviour Science · 2007