🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

This overview synthesises evidence that fortified, predator-proof livestock enclosures deliver benefits beyond stopping depredation, including improved livestock health, reduced theft, and easier mana…

Cognitive enrichment challenges animals to solve problems for rewards, engaging mental faculties and providing a sense of control. This overview surveys the emerging use of cognitive enrichment for ca…

This overview synthesises comparative studies that contrast successful and unsuccessful big-cat coexistence efforts to distil transferable lessons. It reviews analyses spanning lion, snow leopard, tig…

From leopards in Mumbai to pumas in Los Angeles, caracals in Cape Town and fishing cats in Colombo, a remarkable diversity of felids inhabits the worlds cities, offering a comparative window on urban…

The Amur leopard, surviving in the Russian Far East and adjacent China, is one of the rarest cats, having dropped to a few dozen individuals. This overview surveys genetic studies documenting its very…

Controlling reproduction is essential for managing captive cat populations within space and genetic limits, but contraceptive methods carry welfare and health considerations. This overview surveys opt…

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…

Long-term coexistence between people and leopards in human-dominated India rests partly on social, cultural and religious dimensions that shape tolerance. This overview surveys social-science research…

Cats rarely face climate change in isolation; it interacts with habitat loss, fragmentation, hunting, disease, and conflict to produce cumulative impacts greater than any single threat. This overview…

While remote darting is essential for immobilizing dangerous felids, the dart itself can cause injury, including muscle trauma, infection at the injection site, bone impact, or, rarely, penetration of…

This overview synthesises scholarship that seeks to define coexistence as a positive conservation goal distinct from the mere absence of conflict. It reviews frameworks conceptualising coexistence as…

Female cats select sheltered den sites to give birth and protect altricial young during their most vulnerable weeks. This overview surveys how felid mothers choose dens that provide concealment and th…

A survey of the three-way interactions among tigers, leopards and dholes, the dominant predators of South and Southeast Asian forests. These species partition a shared ungulate community by prey size…

Studies of leopard diet around Mumbai and across rural Maharashtra consistently find heavy reliance on domestic animals, particularly free-ranging dogs, alongside livestock, feral pigs, rodents and sm…

Leopards have perhaps the broadest diet of any large cat, recorded eating a vast array of species from large antelope to rodents, birds, reptiles, and invertebrates. This overview synthesizes scat and…

Captive big cats have become subjects of cognitive testing that reveals their learning abilities and informs enrichment. This overview surveys research using touchscreen and apparatus-based discrimina…

Leopards are remarkably adaptable, often living close to people and domestic animals, which exposes them to pathogens at the human-wildlife interface. This overview surveys disease in leopards, includ…

This overview examines zoonotic and cross-species disease risks where leopards prey on free-ranging dogs near people, including canine distemper, rabies, and parasites. It synthesises research on path…

The dispersal phase is among the most dangerous periods in a young cat's life, as subadults move through unfamiliar and often occupied or human-dominated terrain. This overview surveys evidence that d…

This overview synthesises the widely replicated finding that proximity to forest or natural cover strongly predicts big-cat depredation on livestock, with attacks declining as distance from the forest…

The Indian subcontinent hosts two recognized leopard subspecies, the Indian leopard of the mainland and the Sri Lankan leopard isolated on its island. This overview examines the evidence distinguishin…

Drought intensifies competition between people and predators for scarce water, forage, and livestock, often heightening human-wildlife conflict. This overview surveys how dry periods push cats toward…

This overview reviews technological and community early-warning systems designed to alert people to the presence of big cats before conflict occurs. It synthesises approaches including GPS- and geofen…

Conserving big cats in a human-dominated world depends on applying their ecology to the challenge of coexistence. This overview synthesizes how understanding prey requirements, ranging, dispersal, and…

A survey of how the kills of large cats function as a form of ecosystem engineering, structuring scavenger communities, nutrient flow and local biodiversity. Because predators such as pumas, leopards…

Habitat edges created by urban development alter microclimate, vegetation, prey, disturbance and predator interactions, shaping how felids use the boundary between natural and built land. This overvie…

In the mountains of Asia, common leopards, snow leopards, and tigers can occur along elevational gradients, partitioning the landscape by altitude and habitat. This overview synthesizes research on ho…

Comparative and within-institution studies have probed which enclosure features predict pacing in captive cats. This overview surveys evidence relating stereotypic pacing to enclosure size, complexity…

Accurate drug dosing for field immobilization depends on estimating the body weight of an unweighable free-ranging felid, a source of significant error that can lead to underdosing, with dangerous inc…

A recurring pitfall in enrichment research is treating an animal's interaction with an item as proof of benefit, when use and welfare improvement are not the same. This overview surveys the methodolog…