🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

This overview surveys efforts to sequence nuclear and mitochondrial genomes from Homotherium and what they reveal about the scimitar cat's place among felids. Ancient DNA recovered from Pleistocene sp…

When feline leukemia virus appears in an endangered wild felid, tracing its origin is crucial for management. This overview surveys how molecular phylogenetics is used to attribute wild FeLV infection…

The snow leopard inhabits the high mountains of Central and South Asia and is the most basal or near-basal member of the genus Panthera in many analyses. This overview surveys genomic studies examinin…

The Iberian lynx became the world's most endangered cat, falling to fewer than one hundred individuals before an intensive recovery effort. This overview surveys genomic studies revealing that the spe…

Beginning in the mid-twentieth century, population geneticists used the visible coat-colour and pattern alleles of free-roaming cats, such as the orange, non-agouti, dilute and white-spotting variants…

This overview surveys the distribution of the American lion across Pleistocene North America, where its fossils are known largely from areas south of the great continental ice sheets, extending into p…

Captive big cats often live well beyond their wild lifespans, so managing ageing animals has become a central welfare task. This overview surveys geriatric felid care: recognising and treating chronic…

Captive big cats now routinely reach advanced ages, and zoos have developed geriatric care programs addressing arthritis, dental disease, kidney and heart disease, cancer, and quality-of-life assessme…

Tigresses carry their young for roughly three to three and a half months and typically give birth to two to four cubs in a sheltered den. This overview surveys data on tiger gestation length, litter s…

Gestation in felids scales broadly with body size, ranging from roughly two months in small cats to around three and a half months in the largest species. This overview compiles comparative data on pr…

A survey of how giving-up density experiments quantify the fear that cats and other predators instill in their prey. By offering prey artificial food patches and measuring how much food they leave bef…

The mountains of High Asia store water as snow and ice, and accelerating glacial retreat reshapes downstream hydrology that supports the meadows and prey of snow leopards. This overview surveys how ch…

Vehicle collisions are a leading direct cause of death for felids in human-dominated landscapes worldwide, from pumas on Los Angeles freeways to leopard cats on Taiwan rural roads and fishing cats in…

Documented first in southern California felids and later in Cape Town caracals, anticoagulant-rodenticide exposure in wild cats has emerged as a global phenomenon wherever predators hunt poisoned rode…

Besides the white tiger, captive tigers occasionally display a golden or strawberry coloration with pale orange fur and faint cinnamon stripes, as well as theoretical combinations such as the snow-whi…

Preserving ovarian and testicular tissue offers a way to bank the gametes of immature or recently deceased felids whose mature sperm or eggs cannot be collected directly. This overview surveys researc…

Parks, greenbelts, riparian corridors, vacant lots and vegetated drainage form a network of green infrastructure that urban felids exploit for shelter, hunting and movement. This overview synthesises…

Rubbing is a conspicuous affiliative behaviour in cats, directed at other cats, people and objects, and this overview surveys its forms and functions. It covers allorubbing between cats, in which anim…

Grooming serves a thermoregulatory function, and this overview reviews how spreading saliva helps cats shed heat. When warm, cats may groom more, depositing saliva on the fur that then evaporates and…

The Jaguar Corridor Initiative proposed a range-wide network of corridors linking jaguar populations from Mexico to Argentina, and this overview examines the ongoing effort to verify and refine those…

How cheetahs are housed, including whether females are kept singly or in groups and their proximity to males, can influence ovarian cyclicity and breeding success. This overview surveys research on th…

A survey of how prey use group living to reduce predation by cats, through the many-eyes effect, dilution, confusion and collective defense. Larger herds detect stalking felids sooner and dilute indiv…

This overview reviews the use of guardian animals other than dogs, notably donkeys and llamas, to deter big cats and other predators from livestock herds. It synthesises evidence that aggressive donke…

Even strict carnivores host gut microbes, and this overview reviews what is known about the feline gut microbiome and its role in a meat diet. The cat intestinal microbial community is adapted to a hi…

An overview of how the spatial scale at which predators and prey use the landscape, their habitat domains, determines the strength and form of fear effects. When an ambush felid has a narrow, predicta…

Habitat fragmentation reshapes felid disease by altering population connectivity, density and contact with domestic animals. This overview surveys how fragmentation influences disease in wild cats, in…

Big cats select habitat at multiple scales, balancing the need for prey, cover for stalking, water, and shelter against the risks posed by competitors and humans. This overview synthesizes research sh…

This overview synthesises evidence on why deterrents, lights, sirens, scent, and visual scarecrows, often lose effectiveness as predators habituate. It examines the behavioural ecology of neophobia an…

Hand-rearing orphaned or maternally rejected big cat cubs requires specialized veterinary and husbandry knowledge covering appropriate milk replacers matched to species composition, prevention of nutr…

Whether felid cubs are raised by their mothers or by humans has lasting effects on behaviour, social competence and welfare. This overview surveys the comparative evidence: hand-reared cats may show a…