🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

This study advanced earlier sea-level work by combining climate-change projections with sea-level rise to model future Bengal tiger habitat in the Bangladesh Sundarbans. Using species distribution mod…

Mukul, S.A., Alamgir, M., Sohel, M.S.I., Pert, P.L., Herbohn, J., Turton, S.M., Khan, M.S.I., Munim, S.A., Reza, A.H.M.A., Laurance, W.F. · Science of the Total Environment · 2019

Lionesses in a pride synchronise births and raise cubs in a communal creche, and this study examined how milk is shared. Mothers nursed their own cubs preferentially but tolerated suckling by related…

Anne Pusey, Craig Packer · Behavioral Ecology · 1994

This study produced an improved domestic cat genome assembly and compared it with wildcats and other mammals to find molecular footprints of domestication. The authors identified selection signals in…

Michael J. Montague, Wesley C. Warren, Stephen J. O'Brien, et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2014

Montague and colleagues produced a high-quality domestic cat reference genome and compared it with wild felids and other mammals to find the genetic footprint of domestication. They detected selection…

Michael J. Montague, Gang Li, Barbara Gandolfi, et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2014

This study validated and applied fecal steroid hormone assays to track ovarian activity in multiple felid species without restraint or blood sampling. The authors characterized how estrogen and proges…

Brown JL, Wasser SK, Wildt DE, Graham LH · Biology of Reproduction · 1994

This review compiled what was known about reproductive hormone patterns across the cat family, drawing heavily on noninvasive fecal and urinary steroid monitoring developed for zoo animals. The author…

Brown JL · Theriogenology · 2006

Researchers tested whether cats, like dogs, can use a human pointing gesture to locate hidden food. Cats successfully chose the indicated container above chance, showing they can read this human commu…

Adam Miklosi and colleagues · Journal of Comparative Psychology · 2005

This study generated a high-quality genome of the leopard and compared it across the dietary spectrum, contrasting strict carnivores like cats with omnivores and herbivores to identify the genomic bas…

Soonok Kim, Yun Sung Cho, Jong Bhak, et al. · Genome Biology · 2016

Skibiel, Trevino and Naugher systematically compared categories of enrichment, including food-based items, spices and scents, and novel objects, for captive cats to see which most effectively boosted…

Skibiel AL, Trevino HS, Naugher K · Zoo Biology · 2007

Durant tested how subordinate cheetahs persist alongside dominant lions and hyenas in the Serengeti, proposing that they exploit competition refuges, places and times where the risk of encountering do…

Durant, S.M. · Journal of Animal Ecology · 1998

Trinkel and Kastberger quantified the contest over carcasses between lions and spotted hyenas in Namibia's Etosha National Park, where prey is comparatively scarce. They recorded how the outcome of co…

Trinkel, M. & Kastberger, G. · African Journal of Ecology · 2005

Using simulated intrusions, this study examined how lionesses behave when their pride must repel rivals. Individuals differed consistently: some females reliably led the advance toward broadcast roars…

Robert Heinsohn, Craig Packer · Science · 1995

Using playback experiments that simulated intruding roars, this study revealed that female lions vary in how readily they approach a threat, with consistent leaders and laggards within a pride. Some i…

Heinsohn, R., Packer, C. · Science · 1995

Dickman argued that human-wildlife conflict is often misdiagnosed as a simple problem of animal damage when its roots and intensity are deeply social, shaped by attitudes, cultural values, historical…

Amy J. Dickman · Animal Conservation · 2010

This study documented the genetic and physiological crisis of the Florida panther, a puma population isolated and reduced to a few dozen animals in southern Florida. The authors reported very low gene…

Melody E. Roelke, Janice S. Martenson, Stephen J. O'Brien · Current Biology · 1993

This analysis compared the performance and economics of fenced versus unfenced lion reserves across Africa. The authors found that fenced reserves maintained lion populations much closer to their pote…

Packer C, Loveridge A, Canney S, et al. · Ecology Letters · 2013

Male lions hold tenure over prides in coalitions, and this study used genetic and behavioural data to show how coalition size and kinship shape reproductive sharing. Small coalitions were composed of…

Jon Grinnell, Craig Packer, Anne Pusey · Animal Behaviour · 1995

Yeakel and colleagues applied stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis to bone collagen and hair keratin from the two 1898 Tsavo man-eating lions held at the Field Museum. By comparing isotopic sig…

Justin D. Yeakel, Bruce D. Patterson, et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2009

This study examined how male lions in coalitions share access to receptive females and defend their prides. By combining behavioral observation with knowledge of relatedness, the authors found that co…

Grinnell, J., Packer, C., Pusey, A. E. · Animal Behaviour · 1995

Observing lions hunting in Etosha, this study showed that lionesses occupy consistent stalking positions, with some individuals reliably acting as left or right wings that circle prey while others wai…

Stander, P. E. · Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology · 1992

Stander's study in Namibia's Etosha provided rare evidence of role differentiation in lion cooperative hunting. By watching repeated hunts, he showed that individual lionesses consistently occupied pa…

Stander, P.E. · Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology · 1992

Beier compiled and analysed records of cougar (puma) attacks on people across the United States and Canada through the twentieth century, providing the first systematic quantification of a rare but fe…

Paul Beier · Wildlife Society Bulletin · 1991

Knopff and colleagues used GPS location clusters to investigate cougar kills in Alberta, dramatically improving on snow-tracking by detecting small and warm-season prey often missed before. They estim…

Knopff, K.H., Knopff, A.A., Kortello, A. & Boyce, M.S. · Journal of Wildlife Management · 2010

This morphological study measured wildcat skulls to test whether the European, African, and Asian wildcat groups differ consistently in cranial form. Analyzing museum specimens, the authors found that…

Yamaguchi N, Driscoll CA, Kitchener AC, et al. · Biological Journal of the Linnean Society · 2004

Building on emotion research, this study asked whether cats integrate visual and auditory emotional information from both humans and other cats. Cats were presented with facial expressions and vocalis…

Serenella d'Ingeo, Angelo Quaranta and colleagues · Animals · 2020

Building on earlier evidence of cheetah monomorphism, this study used hypervariable minisatellite and other molecular markers to estimate when the cheetah's genetic diversity collapsed. The analysis p…

Marilyn Menotti-Raymond, Stephen J. O'Brien · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 1993

This population-viability analysis integrated demographic data, genetic measures and landscape connectivity for the small puma population isolated in the Santa Monica Mountains within metropolitan Los…

Benson JF, Mahoney PJ, Sikich JA, Serieys LEK, Pollinger JP, Ernest HB, Riley SPD · Proceedings of the Royal Society B · 2016

This study modeled a small puma population in the Santa Monica Mountains near Los Angeles, integrating demography, genetics, and landscape connectivity to estimate extinction risk for cats hemmed in b…

Benson, J.F., Mahoney, P.J., Sikich, J.A., Serieys, L.E.K., Pollinger, J.P., Ernest, H.B., Riley, S.P.D. · Proceedings of the Royal Society B · 2016

In this book chapter, Efford, Borchers, and Byrom consolidated the practical likelihood machinery for spatially explicit capture-recapture, explaining how to fit detection functions, choose detector t…

Murray G. Efford, David L. Borchers, Andrea E. Byrom · Modeling Demographic Processes in Marked Populations (Springer) · 2009

Murray Efford introduced spatially explicit density estimation, addressing the long-standing problem that traditional capture-recapture estimates abundance without a well-defined area, forcing ad hoc…

Murray G. Efford · Oikos · 2004