🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

The advent of GPS collars and biologging sensors has revolutionized the study of big-cat movement, hunting, and energetics. This overview synthesizes how high-resolution location data revealed kill si…

Adoption is the welfare endpoint for most shelter cats, and research has examined what makes adopters choose a particular cat and how housing and behaviour shape those choices. This overview surveys s…

Purring is a distinctive feline vocalisation produced continuously through inhalation and exhalation, and this overview reviews how it is generated. The leading view holds that rapid, rhythmic contrac…

For much of the twentieth century, cat classification rested on coat patterns, skull morphology, and geography, producing many poorly supported species and subspecies. This overview surveys how molecu…

Leopards coexist with larger, dominant carnivores by avoiding them in space, time, and behavior. This overview synthesizes research showing how leopards select denser cover, shift activity to avoid pe…

Tiger taxonomy has long been contested, with traditional schemes recognizing up to nine subspecies, several now extinct, while some genetic analyses and the Cat Classification Task Force proposed coll…

An overview of the ecological mechanism by which warming pushes the alpine treeline upslope and squeezes the open, rocky terrain snow leopards use. As shrubs and forest advance into former alpine mead…

The long, blade-like canines of sabertoothed cats were powerful weapons but also potentially fragile, and this overview reviews how they may have been protected from fracture. The favoured solution is…

Reflecting light back through the retina improves sensitivity but also scatters photons, slightly degrading the sharpness of the image. This overview surveys discussion of that tradeoff in cats, where…

Just as people differ in attachment styles toward other humans, those styles may shape how they relate to companion animals. This overview surveys research linking owners' adult attachment orientation…

Camera traps inevitably photograph people, hikers, hunters, herders, poachers, and local residents, creating a sensitive byproduct that raises privacy, legal, and ethical questions. This overview surv…

Human chorionic gonadotropin mimics luteinizing hormone and is widely used to trigger ovulation in felids after follicular development has been stimulated. This overview surveys how the hormone is adm…

Successful coexistence with urban felids depends as much on human attitudes, institutions and behaviour as on animal ecology. This overview synthesises social-science research on tolerance, risk perce…

How people interpret cat purrs is itself a subject of study, given the role of purring in cat-human communication. This overview surveys research on human listeners' responses to different purrs, incl…

Reducing conflict between people and big cats is essential for coexistence, and a wide range of interventions has been developed and tested. This overview surveys research evaluating these measures, w…

This overview reviews leopard conflict in the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh, where leopards inhabit forest-farmland mosaics and prey on goats, dogs, and occasionally attack people. It synthesise…

Living near people may force cats to expend energy differently, and this overview synthesizes research linking human-modified landscapes to the energetics of felid movement. Building on biologging stu…

As tiger populations recover and human settlements press against reserves, conflict over livestock depredation and human casualties becomes a central conservation challenge. This overview surveys rese…

Hung carcasses and bungee-suspended food are used to encourage captive cats to pull, leap and feed in physically demanding, naturalistic ways. This overview surveys studies that pair such feeding enri…

Predatory behaviour and predatory play in cats are only loosely coupled to hunger, a feature that has intrigued researchers. This overview surveys studies manipulating feeding state and prey-like stim…

This overview examines efforts to apply accelerometer and GPS-cluster methods to snow leopards, whose remote, high-altitude haunts make direct observation nearly impossible. By combining collars with…

Cats frequently locate and strike at prey they cannot see, relying on hearing to guide the attack. This overview surveys how acute sound localization and broad, high-reaching hearing enable cats to hu…

A survey of how cooperative group hunting affects capture success in lions, one of the few social felids. Evidence shows that hunting success often increases with group size for large or difficult pre…

Hybridization between cat species, both in captivity and occasionally in the wild, has played a larger role in felid evolution than once appreciated. This overview surveys the spectrum from ancient in…

The European wildcat faces a dual threat from domestic cats: genetic swamping through hybridization and the exchange of pathogens that accompanies close contact. This overview surveys how interbreedin…

For several wildcat populations, the greatest threat is not habitat loss or persecution but genetic assimilation through hybridization with domestic cats. This overview examines how introgression enda…

Geoffroys cat hybridizes naturally with the southern oncilla in zones where their ranges overlap, and this overview reviews the genetic evidence and its implications. Molecular studies have detected g…

Where small wild felids overlap with free-ranging domestic cats around settlements, hybridisation and disease transmission can threaten the genetic integrity and health of wild populations. This overv…

The European wildcat faces a genetic threat from interbreeding with free-ranging domestic cats, which can erode the wild population's distinct genome through introgression. This overview surveys genet…

A striking feature of the Leopardus radiation is extensive hybridization where species ranges meet, complicating taxonomy. This overview surveys documented hybrid zones, such as between the southern t…