🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

The Iberian lynx genome, among the first sequenced for an endangered cat, revealed the genomic consequences of its extreme population decline. This overview surveys how genomic studies documented exce…

The Iberian lynx, once the world's most endangered cat, fell to roughly a hundred animals in two isolated Spanish populations early this century before an intensive, sustained recovery effort reversed…

Molecular phylogenetics partitions all living cats into eight monophyletic lineages, a framework that now organizes felid taxonomy. This overview names and characterizes them: the Panthera lineage (bi…

Modern cats are divided into eight monophyletic lineages: the Panthera lineage (lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, snow leopards, clouded leopards), the bay cat lineage, the caracal lineage, the ocelot…

The lynx lineage has a rich fossil record that informs the origin of modern species. This overview surveys the paleontological history, including the Issoire lynx, Lynx issiodorensis, an extinct Plioc…

The lynx lineage comprises four species: the Eurasian lynx, the Iberian lynx, the Canada lynx, and the bobcat. This overview surveys their relationships and biogeography, explaining how molecular phyl…

This synthesis reviews the conservation standing of the lynxes as a group, which spans nearly the full range of extinction risk. The bobcat and Eurasian lynx are broadly secure, the latter recovering…

This widely cited review synthesized the theory and practice of species distribution models (SDMs), the statistical tools that relate species occurrence to environmental predictors to map current and…

Elith, J., Leathwick, J.R. · Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics · 2009

Kruuk documented and analyzed cases where carnivores kill far more prey than they can consume, challenging the assumption that predators only take what they need. Drawing on spotted hyena and other ca…

Kruuk, H. · Journal of Zoology · 1972

Holling's classic paper dissected predation into its component processes and introduced the functional response, the relationship between prey density and the number of prey killed per predator. He de…

Holling, C.S. · The Canadian Entomologist · 1959

This influential study reconstructed the molecular phylogeny of all living cat species and dated their diversification, establishing the framework of eight major felid lineages used ever since. Using…

Johnson WE, Eizirik E, Pecon-Slattery J, et al. · Science · 2006

A classic of population ecology, this paper assembled Hudson's Bay Company fur-return records spanning two centuries to document the now-iconic roughly ten-year oscillation in Canada lynx numbers. Elt…

Elton, C. & Nicholson, M. · Journal of Animal Ecology · 1942