🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

The concept of pathogen pollution describes the human-mediated introduction of pathogens into new host populations, a recurring driver of disease in wild felids. This overview surveys how activities s…

The lynx lineage comprises four species: the Eurasian lynx, the Iberian lynx, the Canada lynx, and the bobcat. This overview surveys the molecular phylogeny of the group, the timing of their divergenc…

The Eurasian lynx is the most widespread lynx, ranging across the forests of Europe and Asia, and has been the subject of both phylogeographic study and reintroduction efforts. This overview surveys t…

Range expansions often begin with a handful of pioneering individuals making improbable journeys into vacant habitat, and this overview examines how movement science documents these events for cats. W…

The Canada lynx is tightly linked to boreal forests and the cyclical abundance of snowshoe hares, and its genetics reflect both high mobility and sensitivity to habitat at its southern range edge. Thi…

Population viability analysis estimates extinction risk by simulating a population's demography forward in time, and it is increasingly run under climate scenarios for threatened cats. This overview s…

A survey of how felids exploit the seasonal pulse of newborn ungulates, a period of high vulnerability that can dominate annual recruitment losses. During calving and fawning seasons, abundant, hidden…

An overview of how the scent of felid predators alone can suppress prey foraging, movement and reproduction, demonstrating nonconsumptive effects without any direct attack. Prey detect chemical cues o…

How flexibly a cat can switch prey when its preferred species declines shapes its resilience to drought and habitat change. This overview surveys evidence on dietary breadth across felids, from specia…

An overview of how Canada lynx broaden their diet when snowshoe hares crash, a key feature of the boreal predator-prey cycle. Although lynx are hare specialists, during the hare decline and low they i…

Feline leukemia virus infections range from progressive, with persistent viremia and high mortality, to regressive, where the host contains the virus and may clear detectable antigen. This overview su…

The Iberian lynx is a rabbit specialist, and the collapse of European rabbit populations from the viral diseases myxomatosis and rabbit hemorrhagic disease was a central driver of the lynx's near-exti…

The Iberian lynx is a hyperspecialist on European rabbit, so rabbit population crashes from rabbit hemorrhagic disease (RHDV, including the RHDV2 variant) and myxomatosis directly threaten the cat. Th…

Releasing captive-bred cats into the wild aims to restore or reinforce populations but requires that animals possess the skills and health to survive and reproduce. This overview surveys reintroductio…

Roads fragment habitat, kill animals, and act as barriers to movement, making road ecology an important field for carnivore conservation. This overview surveys research on how roads affect big cats an…

As Iberian lynx populations expanded into landscapes crossed by roads, vehicle collisions became a leading cause of death, threatening to offset gains from breeding and reintroduction. This overview s…

Vehicle collisions are a leading cause of Iberian lynx death and a major barrier to the connectivity that climate-adaptive recovery depends on. This overview surveys how road networks fragment lynx ha…

Whole-genome sequencing reveals long stretches where an individual inherited identical segments from both parents, called runs of homozygosity, which accumulate with inbreeding and small population si…

Several boreal mammals, notably snowshoe hare, molt between brown summer and white winter coats on a fixed photoperiod schedule, and shrinking snow duration creates a camouflage mismatch when white an…

An overview of how the prey cats select shifts through the year with prey vulnerability, migration, birth pulses and weather. Many felids exploit seasonal ungulate calving and fawning peaks, when abun…

A survey of how the Canada lynx's large, well-furred feet give it an advantage hunting snowshoe hares in deep, soft snow, and how snow conditions structure its competition with other predators. The ly…

A central theme in northern felid climate research is that the dividing line between Canada lynx and bobcat tracks snow conditions. This overview surveys the morphological and ecological basis for tha…

Canada lynx populations track the famous boom-bust cycle of snowshoe hare, so anything that alters hare dynamics propagates to the predator. This overview surveys how climate change may affect the har…

The Eurasian lynx, Lynx lynx, ranges across an enormous swath of Europe and Asia, and this breadth has produced several named subspecies. This overview surveys the taxonomy, including northern Europea…

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…

Detecting whether bobcats are advancing into lynx range requires repeated, detection-corrected surveys across the contact zone. This overview surveys the field and analytical methods, snow-track surve…

Reflecting its recovery, the Iberian lynx was downlisted on the IUCN Red List from Critically Endangered to Endangered, and later assessments recognized further improvement as populations and range co…

The Iberian lynx, Lynx pardinus, is a critically endangered Mediterranean felid recognized as a full species distinct from the Eurasian lynx. This overview reviews the evidence for its species status,…

A coordinated captive breeding program was a cornerstone of Iberian lynx recovery, producing animals for reintroduction while safeguarding genetic diversity. This overview surveys research underpinnin…

The Iberian lynx captive breeding program is widely cited as a conservation success that helped reverse the species' decline toward extinction. This overview surveys the program's establishment, its g…