🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Captive cats fed soft, processed diets commonly develop dental disease such as gingivitis, calculus and tooth fractures, whereas chewing on bone, hide and connective tissue provides natural abrasion a…

Bovine tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium bovis, established itself in some African lion populations, notably in Kruger National Park, after spreading through prey species such as buffalo, raising…

In ecosystems like Kruger, African buffalo serve as the maintenance host for bovine tuberculosis, and lions acquire infection chiefly by feeding on diseased buffalo. This overview surveys the transmis…

Canine distemper virus (CDV) is a morbillivirus closely related to measles and rinderpest that has expanded its host range far beyond dogs to infect lions, tigers, leopards, hyenas, seals and many oth…

A canine distemper virus outbreak caused substantial mortality in the lions of the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem in the mid-1990s, a landmark event in wildlife disease ecology that demonstrated how a virus…

Intensive captive lion breeding, associated in some regions with cub petting, walking-with-lions tourism, canned or captive hunting and the bone trade, has drawn extensive welfare and ethical scrutiny…

Capture myopathy, a potentially fatal syndrome of muscle damage arising from the stress, exertion, and physiologic derangement of capture and restraint, is a recognized risk when immobilizing wild fel…

An overview of how the kills of large felids redistribute energy and nutrients through ecosystems. Carcasses and the cats' partly eaten remains create nutrient hotspots that fertilize soils and vegeta…

An overview of the quantitative tools used to predict how many large predators a reserve can sustain from its prey base, building on the prey-preference and prey-biomass approaches. These models estim…

The catnip response, a heritable reaction to nepetalactone causing sniffing, rubbing, rolling and a euphoric-seeming state, occurs in many domestic cats and some non-domestic felids. This overview sur…

Long-term studies that radio-collar wild felids provide rare opportunities to determine causes of death, including disease, with precision. This overview surveys how telemetry-based monitoring quantif…

Cheetah cubs suffer extremely high mortality, much of it inflicted by lions and spotted hyenas. This overview synthesizes research documenting that on the open plains the majority of cheetah cubs die…

A survey of the heavy toll that lions and spotted hyenas take on cheetah cubs, a key demographic constraint on cheetah populations. Studies in the Serengeti and elsewhere have recorded that a large fr…

This overview examines one of the central operational challenges of compensation schemes: verifying that claimed livestock deaths were genuinely caused by the target predator. It synthesises methods,…

Climate change is reshaping the distribution and intensity of wildlife disease, with implications for felids through effects on vectors, reservoirs and host stress. This overview surveys how warming a…

Climate change can expand the range of pathogens, parasites, and disease vectors, with potential consequences for wild cat health. This overview surveys how warming may alter the distribution of tick-…

This overview synthesises evidence that fortified, predator-proof livestock enclosures deliver benefits beyond stopping depredation, including improved livestock health, reduced theft, and easier mana…

Wild lions infected with feline immunodeficiency virus often carry additional pathogens, raising the possibility that FIV-related immune changes interact with co-infections. This overview surveys rese…

Wild felids rarely carry a single pathogen, and interactions among co-infecting agents can determine whether infection is benign or deadly. This overview surveys the concept of co-infection synergy in…

Cognitive enrichment challenges animals to solve problems for rewards, engaging mental faculties and providing a sense of control. This overview surveys the emerging use of cognitive enrichment for ca…

Lionesses that give birth around the same time pool their cubs into a communal creche, nursing and defending young cooperatively. This overview surveys how creches form following synchronized births,…

This overview examines community-run insurance schemes in which herders pay premiums into a locally managed fund that pays out for verified predator kills, an alternative to state or NGO compensation.…

This overview synthesises comparative studies that contrast successful and unsuccessful big-cat coexistence efforts to distil transferable lessons. It reviews analyses spanning lion, snow leopard, tig…

Cognition has been studied far less in cats than in primates, birds, or dogs, but a coherent picture is emerging across the felid family. This overview synthesises research on object permanence, spati…

Understanding why some felids tolerate pathogens that sicken others requires comparing immune function across wild and domestic cats. This overview surveys comparative felid immunology, examining diff…

Feline immunodeficiency virus causes an AIDS-like syndrome in domestic cats yet has long been assumed benign in its wild hosts. This overview examines the evidence for and against that assumption, com…

Felid species differ in their vocal repertoires, and comparative bioacoustics has sought to map these differences onto phylogeny and ecology. This overview surveys work cataloguing call types across s…

This overview synthesises comparisons between conventional compensation (post-hoc payment for verified losses, often state- or NGO-funded) and insurance models (premium-based funds, frequently communi…

As lion numbers decline and ranges fragment, conservation genomics has become central to managing the species across protected areas and fenced reserves. This overview surveys how genome-wide data are…

This overview synthesises research on lion attacks on humans in rural southeastern Africa, particularly Tanzania and Mozambique, where some of the highest modern rates of fatal lion predation have bee…