🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

The active ingredients behind the silver vine and catnip response belong to a class of plant compounds called iridoids, with nepetalactol identified as a particularly potent driver of the reaction in…

The response to catnip and related iridoids is not unique to domestic cats; various wild felids also react. This overview surveys reports that some big cats, such as lions and others, show interest in…

With age, the iris of a cat's eye can thin and degenerate, a condition called iris atrophy that may affect how the pupil responds to light. This overview surveys age-related iris atrophy in cats, in w…

The vertical-slit pupil is produced by a specific arrangement of iris muscles that constrict and dilate the aperture into a line rather than a shrinking circle. This overview surveys the anatomy of th…

The Chinese mountain cat, a sandy-colored felid of the eastern Tibetan Plateau, has been classified both as a full species, Felis bieti, and as a subspecies of the wildcat, Felis silvestris bieti. Thi…

Historically the jaguar was divided into many subspecies, but molecular evidence supports treating it as essentially one continuous species. This overview reviews the debate, explaining that phylogeog…

The leopard cat lineage offers a natural laboratory for studying how island isolation shapes felid taxonomy. This overview surveys how leopard cats colonized numerous islands across Asia, from Japan t…

Deposition of islet amyloid polypeptide (amylin) within pancreatic islets is a characteristic pathologic feature of feline diabetes, paralleling human type 2 diabetes and contributing to progressive b…

Lynx populations in the contiguous United States, in the Rockies, Cascades, Great Lakes region, and New England, sit at the warm, dry edge of the species' range and are unusually exposed to climate-dr…

This overview surveys what stable isotope and dental studies reveal about the diet of Panthera atrox. By analysing carbon and nitrogen values in the bone collagen of American lions alongside contempor…

This overview surveys stable isotope studies of cave lion diet, which use carbon and nitrogen values in bone collagen to identify the prey of Panthera spelaea across Ice Age Eurasia and Beringia. Seve…

This overview surveys how isotopic and contextual evidence has been used to test the long-standing idea that the scimitar-toothed cat Homotherium specialized in hunting young proboscideans. At sites s…

This overview examines how stable isotope studies reveal the way coexisting Ice Age predators divided up prey and habitat. By comparing carbon and nitrogen values in the bone collagen of species such…

This overview surveys how stable isotope studies have been used to identify the prey of Smilodon at sites such as Rancho La Brea. By comparing carbon and nitrogen values in sabertooth bone collagen wi…

This overview synthesizes the striking pattern by which a sabertooth body plan evolved repeatedly and independently across unrelated lineages of predatory mammals. True cats (machairodonts), nimravids…

Across much of Latin America jaguars and pumas occur together, and their coexistence is mediated by differences in prey, habitat, and behavior. This overview synthesizes research showing that jaguars…

This overview reviews human-felid conflict involving both jaguars and pumas across smallholder and indigenous landscapes of Central America, where the two cats overlap and complicate attribution of li…

The jaguar has the most powerful bite relative to size among big cats, and this overview synthesizes research linking its robust skull and jaw musculature to a distinctive killing style. Unlike most l…

This overview examines coexistence dynamics in the Pantanal, where high jaguar densities, extensive cattle ranching, and a booming jaguar-tourism industry intersect. It synthesises research on depreda…

This overview examines human-jaguar conflict around the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve and the broader Selva Maya of southern Mexico, a critical node in the jaguar's northern range and the Mesoamerican co…

This overview reviews human-jaguar conflict across Brazil's Cerrado savanna, a rapidly converting agricultural frontier where soy, cattle, and croplands fragment jaguar habitat. It synthesises studies…

Jaguars are monitored across the Americas through camera-trap capture-recapture, and coordinated initiatives increasingly link local surveys into range-wide networks producing comparable density estim…

This overview reviews human-jaguar conflict in Belize, home to important jaguar populations and the Cockscomb Basin reserve, where small-scale ranchers and farmers experience cattle and occasionally o…

The Amazon basin holds the largest remaining expanse of jaguar habitat, and the cat's ecology there differs from open wetlands. This overview synthesizes research on jaguars in continuous rainforest,…

Jaguar populations historically formed a largely connected continental network, but deforestation and barriers are increasingly structuring their genetics. This overview surveys what molecular studies…

Jaguar home ranges vary widely with habitat productivity and prey availability, from compact territories in rich wetlands to vast ranges in drier or less productive forests. This overview synthesizes…

This overview synthesizes telemetry research on jaguars across the contrasting landscapes of the Brazilian Pantanal wetlands and the Amazon forest, where GPS collars have revealed how home-range size,…

At the northern edge of its range in Mexico and the southwestern United States, the jaguar occupies arid borderlands where climate, water availability, and human infrastructure shape persistence. This…

This overview examines the plight of jaguars in Brazil's highly fragmented Atlantic Forest, where tiny, isolated populations face acute conflict pressure. It synthesises studies of depredation on live…

An overview of the jaguar's distinctive predation on aquatic and semi-aquatic prey, especially caiman and capybara in wetland systems like the Pantanal and Llanos. The jaguar's powerful bite, capable…