🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Detecting how cats respond to climate and habitat change requires monitoring at scales that camera-trap networks increasingly provide. This overview surveys how coordinated camera-trap arrays generate…

Two dominant modeling frameworks translate landscape resistance into predicted movement corridors, and this overview compares them. Least-cost path analysis finds the single cheapest route between hab…

Combinations of the alpha-2 agonist medetomidine (or dexmedetomidine) with the dissociative ketamine are a mainstay for immobilizing large felids, valued because the alpha-2 component provides sedatio…

Black jaguars, often called black panthers, are melanistic individuals of the same species, and their occurrence carries ecological interest. This overview synthesizes research on the genetics of mela…

Black, or melanistic, coats appear repeatedly in wild cats, and this overview reviews this phenomenon and its causes. Melanism, seen famously in black leopards and jaguars, results from genetic varian…

Estimating how many big cats occupy an area is a central and challenging task in their ecology and conservation. This overview reviews the main methods, from individual-identification camera-trap capt…

This overview synthesises evidence linking the depletion of natural prey, peccaries, deer, capybara, guanaco, to increased jaguar and puma depredation on livestock across the Americas. It reviews stud…

Where pumas and jaguars overlap in the Neotropics, the puma often shifts its niche in response to the larger cat. This overview synthesizes research showing that in sympatry pumas tend to take smaller…

The Panthera lineage contains the roaring cats and their relatives and represents the earliest branch of the modern felid radiation. This overview surveys genetic and fossil evidence for an Asian orig…

This overview reviews how payments-for-ecosystem-services (PES) frameworks have been adapted to compensate communities for hosting large carnivores, treating predator presence as a service worth rewar…

This overview synthesises studies across Latin America comparing ranchers' perceived livestock losses to jaguars and pumas with verified depredation, a recurring theme in big-cat conflict. It reviews…

The jaguar, the largest cat of the Americas, ranges from the southwestern United States to Argentina, and genetic studies have examined how this vast distribution is structured. This overview surveys…

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…

This overview reviews the use of statistical and machine-learning models to build predictive risk maps that forecast where big-cat conflict is likely, rather than only describing past incidents. It sy…

Even where forest remains standing, jaguars can decline if their prey is hunted out, a phenomenon known as empty forest or defaunation that interacts with habitat and climate change. This overview sur…

Protected areas are the cornerstone of felid conservation, but their effectiveness at stopping habitat loss varies and is tested by mounting land-use and climate pressure. This overview surveys method…

Individual reserves are rarely large enough to sustain wide-ranging cats on their own, so conservation increasingly relies on networks of protected areas linked by corridors, and this overview examine…

The jaguar's continuous historical range once stretched from the southwestern United States to Argentina, and maintaining connectivity across this expanse is a central conservation goal. This overview…

Although jaguars are best treated as a single species, they do show some geographic genetic structure relevant to conservation. This overview surveys studies documenting differentiation across the jag…

Satellite remote sensing is the backbone of measuring habitat change across the vast ranges of wild cats. This overview surveys the data and methods, optical imagery for land-cover classification, rad…

This overview examines the pervasive problem of biased and incomplete data in human-big cat conflict research, which can distort understanding and management. It synthesises evidence that incidents ar…

Despite decades of study, major gaps remain in understanding disease in wild felids, particularly for less-studied species and regions. This overview surveys the priorities and unanswered questions in…

Rivers, streams, and the vegetated strips along them often serve as natural movement corridors for cats, offering cover, water, prey, and continuous habitat threading through otherwise open or develop…

This overview examines the persistent gap between perceived and actual risk in human-big cat conflict, a theme cutting across lion, tiger, leopard, puma, and jaguar systems. It synthesises research sh…

Wildlife occurrence data for cats are often opportunistically collected, biased toward roads, reserves, and accessible terrain, which can distort distribution models if uncorrected. This overview surv…

The grain and extent at which a habitat model is built strongly influence its conclusions, a key consideration for wide-ranging cats. This overview surveys how the choice of spatial resolution, from c…

Identifying where to concentrate conservation under climate change requires mapping vulnerability, combining exposure to change with the value and irreplaceability of habitat. This overview surveys ho…

This overview reviews how spatial zoning, separating core predator habitat, buffer zones, and human-use areas, and broader land-use planning can structure coexistence with big cats. It synthesises app…

Where continuous corridors are impossible, smaller patches of habitat can act as stepping stones that let animals move across otherwise inhospitable terrain. This overview surveys the role of stepping…

Systematic conservation planning uses optimization to select areas that efficiently meet biodiversity targets, and it is being adapted to account for climate change. This overview surveys how planning…