🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Free-ranging domestic cats are reservoirs and vectors for pathogens affecting wildlife, other cats and humans, including the protozoan that causes toxoplasmosis and various feline viruses. This overvi…

This overview synthesises evidence that abundant free-ranging and feral dogs constitute a major prey subsidy enabling leopards, and some other big cats, to persist in human-dominated landscapes across…

The risk that domestic-cat pathogens reach wild felids and other wildlife scales with the density and distribution of free-roaming cats, especially near protected areas. This overview surveys research…

The puma population of the Santa Monica Mountains is hemmed in by freeways and the Pacific Ocean, producing one of the most acute cases of urban carnivore genetic isolation on record. This overview sy…

Beyond detecting sounds, cats can discriminate between tones of different pitch, a capacity studied through behavioral and physiological methods. This overview surveys feline frequency discrimination,…

Whether semen is used fresh or after cryopreservation strongly affects the success of artificial insemination in cats, since freezing damages a fraction of sperm. This overview surveys comparisons of…

The reassignment of the African golden cat from the genus Profelis to Caracal is a clear example of molecular phylogenetics overriding morphology-based generic classification. This overview traces the…

Attaching a transmitter to a wild cat raises hard design questions, and this overview surveys how hardware evolved to balance data return against animal welfare. Early ear-mounted and implanted tags g…

Genome resource banks, sometimes called frozen zoos, store gametes, embryos, and cells from felids to preserve genetic diversity for future use. This overview surveys the concept and practice of bioba…

Fructosamine, a measure of glycated serum protein reflecting average blood glucose over the preceding weeks, provides a monitoring tool less affected by the stress hyperglycemia that commonly inflates…

This overview surveys the bony chin flanges, or mandibular flanges, found in many sabertooth carnivores, including barbourofelids and the marsupial-relative Thylacosmilus, and in reduced form in some…

A survey of how Holling's functional-response framework is applied to cats to describe how their per-capita kill rate changes with prey density. Most felids are thought to show a saturating Type II re…

Conservation science distinguishes structural connectivity, the physical continuity of habitat, from functional connectivity, whether animals actually move through it. This overview surveys research o…

Connectivity has two distinct meanings often conflated in conservation, and this overview clarifies them. Structural connectivity describes the physical arrangement of habitat, whether patches are clo…

The lion's roar carries for kilometres and serves multiple social functions, from advertising territory ownership to locating and coordinating with pride mates. This overview surveys research on roari…

A cat keeps its coat functional through maintenance, and this overview reviews waterproofing and coat care. Sebaceous glands coat the hairs with oils that help repel water and keep the fur in conditio…

This overview synthesises emerging priorities and frontiers in human-big cat conflict and coexistence research. It reviews calls for more rigorous impact evaluation, greater integration of social scie…

Sabertoothed cats needed extraordinary jaw gapes to bring their long canines to bear, and this overview reviews how their jaw mechanics achieved this. Estimates place maximum gape far beyond that of a…

Existing protected-area networks were largely designed around present-day distributions and may not cover where species will need to be as the climate changes. This overview surveys gap analyses that…

Surveys of the gut parasites of wild cats, typically based on fecal examination, provide a window into felid health, diet and environmental exposure. This overview surveys the common gastrointestinal…

Following another's gaze can indicate sensitivity to where attention is directed, and researchers have asked whether cats follow human gaze. This overview surveys the comparatively sparse evidence in…

This overview synthesises emerging research on how gender shapes exposure, perception, and response to big-cat conflict. It reviews evidence that women and men often experience conflict differently, o…

Genetic data provide a direct way to measure whether animals are successfully moving and breeding between populations, making gene flow a key metric of functional connectivity. This overview surveys h…

Cats have lost the ability to make several nutrients that other mammals synthesize, forcing strict dietary dependence on animal tissue. This overview surveys the genetic basis of these requirements, i…

Accurate tiger numbers are central to conservation, and genetic capture-recapture using noninvasive samples complements camera trapping to estimate abundance and density. This overview surveys how DNA…

Genetic studies have become central to understanding how tiger populations are linked across fragmented landscapes. This overview synthesizes work using DNA from scats, hair, and tissue to measure gen…

Fragmentation of lowland habitat by roads, settlement and intensive agriculture can erode genetic connectivity in leopard cat populations even where the species remains present. This overview synthesi…

Snow leopard populations are distributed across a network of mountain ranges separated by valleys and basins, and genetic studies probe how connected they remain. This overview synthesizes work using…

Movement and gene flow are related but not identical, and this overview examines how the two lines of evidence complement each other in assessing felid connectivity. Telemetry captures the movements o…

Genetic studies have shown that the Asiatic cheetah is distinct from African cheetah populations, having diverged long enough ago to represent a separate evolutionary lineage worth conserving in its o…